Tidings of Color & Joy

A Christmas Eve invitation from Casa Lopez's Pierre Sauvage offers a journey into radiant hues, warm hospitality, and a regal château brought back from ruin.

- INTERIOR DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE BY FRANZ POTISEK LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE BY LOUIS BENECH PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMBROISE TÉZENAS STYLING BY LAURENCE DOUGIER WRITTEN BY ALISA CARROLL

AS YOU ARRIVE at the Normandy château on Christmas Eve, the wind hurries you across the cobblestoned cour d'honneur. Ahead is the stately stone facade with its turreted tower, an arched pediment elegantly marking the entrance. Yet step from this august tableau into the vestibule, and all is transformed: A confection of ornamental reliefs adorns French green walls, and an antique Directoire bench dressed in burnt-orange velvet sits atop a black-and-white checkerboard floor.

This restored manor belongs to Pierre Sauvage, design director and owner of Casa Lopez. He acquired the exuberant Paris-based home goods brand in 2014 and has since grown it from specialty rug maker into a global lifestyle empire. Sauvage is known for his gracious, vivacious sensibility, which can be traced in part to his 20 years in public relations for haute couture houses Dior and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (he has also authored three books on the art of hosting).