Kitchen Tour: At Home with Designer Gesa Hansen in the French Countryside
Photography by Stephanie Füssenich and Nathalie Mohadjer, courtesy of Flammarion and Gesa Hansen from Coming Home to Nature.
Gesa Hansen and Charles Compagnon live with their young family of five in an idyllic 19th century stone compound an hour south of Paris. Gesa and two creative friends, all former committed Parisians, recently teamed up to produce Coming Home to Nature, a just-published book celebrating “the French art of countryfication.” Today, we’re taking a look at the restaurant-inspired rustic kitchen and its surroundings, designed by Gesa.
The kitchen came with its grès cérame stoneware checked floor; all else is new.
Since Charles is used to restaurant kitchens, he always wants open storage, so that he knows where everything is,” says Gesa.
Dowels under the open shelves provide extra storage for key items, including enamelware mugs—Gesa designed and had these made for the nearby Polo Fédéral Courances.
Gesa and Emiliano made the room feel much more spacious by removing the dropped ceiling and painting it Farrow & Ball’s Strong White.
For pastry making, Gesa inserted a counter section of Rojo Alicante.
Inspired by a wall storage rack she spotted in a Japanese kitchen, Gesa enlisted Emiliano to build something like it out of oak.
The terracotta floor tiles are original. Note the daring indigo ceiling.