From a 35 sqm empty rental

to our creative studio.

After a whole year of travelling, hopping from one place to the next, we were craving a home. We missed our things: our cooking utensils, carefully curated over the years we spent together in Paris, our collection of little artworks and travel souvenirs. I missed my full wardrobe, from my Santiags to my pearl earrings. But more than anything, we were missing a place to create. For this fresh start, we couldn't wait to transform a space into our studio, a place that would reflect our new resolution to make a living from our art. Natural light, a big desk, a kitchen made for cooking, a cosy living room, vintage touches, a corner to truly rest, and little dopamine boosters scattered all around.

/ APARTMENT HUNT

.Context

AT80 and I had been happily living together in Paris since 2019 when, in 2023, we packed everything up and moved to Sydney. Life was pretty sweet… until burnout hit me at the end of 2024. Losing my job meant losing our visas too, so we had to leave Australia. Back in France, we spent a few months catching up with family, then hit the road for a European tour with friends before boarding yet another plane, this time to New Zealand, convinced van life was going to be our next great adventure. Lol. It wasn't. So in March 2026, we were back in France, ready for a new chapter. No jobs, no home, a lot of boxes, and one plan: settle in Bordeaux. A medieval city, with the famous Médoc vineyards on one side and the Atlantic coast on the other, home to endless surf beaches (a hobby we brought back from Australia).

.The hunt

NO.

Finding an apartment when you have no jobs and don't know the city is... challenging. But not impossible. Looking back, I think we were asking for a lot: at least 50 square metres, under €900 a month, plenty of natural light, no ground floor, right in the city centre, old building... yes, new builds have always given me the ick. How am I supposed to romanticise my life without creaky parquet floors and dramatic ceiling heights? We visited some lovely places that ticked every box, but every single time our application was rejected. After three weeks of rejections, and a month of paying for an Airbnb, we were exhausted. So we made a deal: we'd take the first apartment that accepted our application.

.The blank canvas

And here we are. In a 35-square-metre apartment with ugly grey fake parquet. We hated it at first. But the more time we spent here, the more it grew on us. The morning light pouring through the windows is an absolute blessing. There are actually high ceilings! The green kitchen tiles aren't that bad after all. And somewhere along the way, we completely fell in loooove with our neighbourhood. Let's make it a place to call home.

/ INTERIOR DESIGN INSPIRATION

The overall goal is simple: create a home where life feels easy. A place where the energy flows, where creativity is constantly sparked without feeling overwhelming, and, above all, a place that feels like us.

Living Room

Artsy. Design. Studio. Light. White. Airy.

A little museum. A space to work & relax.

Main pieces: Velvet sofa, Moroccan rug, glass coffee table, candles.

Kitchen

Workshop. Sunny. Open. Dynamic. Alive.

Main pieces: Central island, green tiles, open shelves, wood.

Bedroom

Boudoir. Peaceful. Self-care. Art gallery. Layers of fabrics, textures and patterns.

Main pieces: Open wardrobe, rug, beautiful fabrics.

/ SECOND-HAND FURNITURE FINDS

.The giant Moroccan wool rug

Owning a rug like this had always been a dream. Even second-hand, they can be seriously expensive, so when we came across this one, we knew we had to take it home. It's a little unusual, with its long pile and faded colours, but we fell for it instantly. (We have a weakness for anything orange.)

Origin: Planète Occasion, Nantes

Price: €90

.The metal shoe rack

Chrome has been making a comeback for a while now, and we're fully on board.

Origin: Occa Neuf, Nantes

Price: €15 for two

.The glass coffee table

I love a glass coffee table. It's a solid natural material, and almost disappears in the room, which is exactly the point when you have a beautiful rug underneath. Plus, magazines and candles always look stunning on glass. I found this one for a great price, even if it's on the smaller side.

Origin: Leboncoin

Price: €30

.The "crapaud" armchair*

Every bedroom needs a chair to throw clothes on. But I also genuinely love what an armchair represents. It's not for sleeping or watching TV. It's an invitation to take a little break, call a friend, read a few pages, put cream on your legs... They're tiny portals of peace. (When they're not buried under clothes.)

Origin: Planète Occasion, Nantes

Price: €30

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*named after the French word for "toad" because of its low, rounded shape.

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.The tatami bed

We love sleeping close to the floor, so a tatami bed felt like the obvious choice. We found one second-hand... and quickly realised it smelled really bad. We suspect the tatami mats were mouldy, so it had to go. Our bedroom turned out to be too small for it anyway. We'll try again one day, in a bigger place and a bigger budget to buy a new one.

Origin: Leboncoin

Price: €150

.The extra kitchen cabinet & gaz stove

Not the sexiest purchases in the apartment, but probably the most useful. We wanted a kitchen that actually lets us cook properly.

Origin: Leboncoin

Price: €75 for the cabinet, €100 for the stove

.The dresser

I was looking for a cabinet to store our dishes, but also to display our little collection of figurines, vintage cameras and random treasures. Almost like a tiny museum. Scandinavian cabinets were beautiful, but way out of budget. This one had the same vibe, I loved the colour, and the price was impossible to beat.

Origin: Leboncoin*

Price: €50

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*France's go-to second-hand marketplace

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.The wardrobe

I'm ridiculously proud of this one.

I hate wardrobes. I hate the materials, I hate the doors, and I hate the prices. I've always preferred open wardrobes. It feels like having your own private showroom. These floor-to-ceiling uprights had been on my wishlist for ages. The second a vintage IKEA set from the '90s popped up second-hand, I knew the thrift gods were listening.

Origin: Leboncoin*

Price: €90

Still on the wishlist...

A big, fancy reading lamp for the bedroom.

A modern chandelier (I'm obsessed).

Another chair for the desk.

/ MADE BY US

.The 4-metre-long console / desk

The idea here was to optimise the space and create one long element to make the room feel bigger. A tiny desk and a shelf to display paintings, frames and photos (because the wall above had to stay blank for the projector). We used two 2 metre pine board, tinted it (our first time tinting wood, and we were honestly surprised by how easy and satisfying it was), then attached it to the wall and supported it with three IKEA garden shelves (€15 each).

Total cost: around €100

.The modular shelf

This one started as a very practical need: we needed a shelf for our projector. We searched everywhere, even looking at more expensive options, but nothing felt right. We also had very specific dimensions because the projector needs space to breathe. We wanted something simple, seamless, and we all know that's not always easy to find. So we designed it. We built it. And we love the result. It's modular, with no visible screws or brackets. A little bit '70s, made with nothing but wood, screws, dowels, a jigsaw, sandpaper, love and sweat.

Total cost: around €70

.The central kitchen benchtop

We had a lot of fun with this one too. We had a vision and a giant piece of OSB. We all love a marble benchtop, but marble is expensive and heavy. After spending way too much time looking for inspiration on Pinterest, we realised our favourite style was the liquid marble effect. The problem? There were no tutorials on how to create it. So we went experimental. We bought 10kg of filler, a yellow pigment, and poured it all over the OSB on the floor of our apartment. (Covered in plastic, obviously. We are creative, not completely reckless.) The result looks great for now. We'll see how it survives over time.

We also painted a plywood panel to close the kitchen units on the sofa side. We chose this Yves Saint Laurent-inspired Moroccan garden blue, which turned out to be the perfect complementary colour to the terracotta sofa and butter-yellow "marble".

Total cost: around €150 including OSB, filler, resin varnish, etc.

.The kitchen shelf

Easy one. Pine wood boards cut to size, tinted with the same varnish as the desk, and finished with black brackets.

Total cost: around €30

/ THE EMOTIONAL SIDE OF MOVING

.8/10 hard

Our energy levels were already pretty low when we came back from New Zealand. Then came all the explaining: why we were back, what happened, why it didn't work out. Add to that the pessimistic comments from people telling you how hard it would be to find a place, and all the rejections we got on our apartment applications. After having to leave a country we loved because our visa came to an end, coming back to your own country and feeling like you don't quite belong there either is shit.

Then, finally, we found an apartment. Not our dream apartment, but a place to start. We had to move in, spend a lot of money (without a job, which is scary), unpack everything, and turn four empty walls into somewhere we could actually live.

And that's when I broke down. I felt incredibly lonely. I was somewhere in between three versions of myself, all packed away in different boxes:

• The old version of me, the one I found in the cardboard boxes. The Parisian version. The one who knew how to enjoy life. She had beautiful clothes, nice kitchen utensils, and money.

• The travel version, still living in suitcases. The one with 100 bikinis and 1000 ugly fridge magnets.

• And the current version. The one with the books, notebooks, sticker collection, and all the things I had collected along the way.

.Time

We took our time. A little bit here, a little bit there. We had been waiting for this home for so long that, when we finally got it, we were in a rush. In a rush to feel better. We put so much hope into the idea that having a home would magically make everything fall into place. But it takes time. Time to get to know a place, a city, a neighbourhood. Time to create a sense of belonging. And the thing that really saved us: building a routine. Creating habits that made us feel good. Exercising, eating fresh food, reading, going to cafés. Finding comfort in the little things. Creating rituals. Slowly, we started feeling at home.

.The suitcase trauma

my keys

The day I finished unpacking my last makeup bag and put my last lipstick in the drawer, I felt such a huge relief I almost cried with happiness. Then, a few weeks later, we had planned a weekend by the ocean. Which meant... packing again. Oh god. My throat tightened instantly. But then came the best part: coming home. Having our own keys in my hand. Walking back into a place that was fully ours, in our neighbourhood. I couldn't stop jumping around with joy (and considering it's an old building, I’m pretty sure all the walls were shaking with me). We opened the sofa bed, made ourselves a sushi movie afternoon, and rested after being away from home, adapting, socialising.

WELCOME TO THE STUDIO

Writing this article made me realise how much I care about every single one of these elements. They all have a story. A meaning. They've all been carefully collected, thrifted, built, or carried across countries, and together they create a place that feels like me from the inside out. (It could probably use a little more Renaissance gilding, porcelain, and leopard-print velvet. But I am, after all, sharing the space with a man.)

I hope you'll see lots of content filmed here, read plenty of articles written at that desk.

Welcome to the studio, welcome home. Love u, bisou.