This townhouse was built in the middle of the 19th century, on creation of the Mellinet district, in a provincial neo-classical style, characteristic of the period’s architectural codes. The property can be found on one of the large boulevards that had recently been created at the time. The four-storey main building stands among others, with a tree-filled garden to the rear. At the end of the plot, the property’s garage can be reached via an adjacent street. The townhouse’s garden storey is on the basement level. The edifice boasts a symmetrical layout that is typical of its time, giving the property a feeling of balance and rigour. On the façade overlooking the street, the windows are rectangular with straight lintels, or with semi-circular arches on the upper floor. They possess limestone frames with bevelled edges, topped by slightly moulded sills. The façade is crowned by a sober entablature, including a slightly protruding cornice, underlined by an interplay of striking shadows, which elegantly completes the composition. The neutral, off-white cladding highlights the natural colour of the limestone on the window and door frames as well as the sleeper wall. The garden façade is similarly arranged but is also enhanced by several features, such as slate-grey painted wooden shutters, a simply edged cornice underlining the separation between the levels and, particularly, an imposing double-flighted set of stone steps, weathered by time, descending into the garden. It serves as a veritable transition between the house and the surrounding vegetation, in the style of grand holiday homes or country manors. Two ornamental urns on stone and cast-iron pedestals can be found on the stoop to which the steps lead.

The residence

The initially austere-looking street façade reveals the utmost in rigour and subtlety of urban neo-classical design to the watchful eye. The building’s base, made of dressed stone with recessed pointing, provides the edifice with stability and durability. At the top of several steps, the main entrance, framed by a moulded stone plinth line with a straight lintel, houses a deep black, wooden door with a large-paned, glazed upper half, giving a certain solemnity to the doorway.

The ground floor
This storey is the noble level of the edifice. The ceiling height of approximately 3.60 metres provides vast volumes, into which light streams through generously and neatly arranged windows, reflecting the desire for the interior to open out onto the garden. The entrance houses a remarkable stone suspended staircase. After the first several curved steps, the rounded stringer is majestic, topped by an ironwork guard-rail. The light colour of the staircase is echoed in the entrance hall’s geometrically patterned floor tiles, which also include contrasting black motifs. The entire space is adorned by tall wooden wainscotting, door and window frames, as well as custom fittings. Opposite, a door leads into an office, overlooking the garden via a balcony and boasting herringbone wood flooring, as do all the main rooms on this level. In addition to access to the upper floor and basement, the entrance hall also opens into a corridor leading to the other rooms. On the garden side of the house, there is a more than 40-m² living room, with renovated wood panelling and false wainscotting made up of a picture rail and oblong sections. The ceiling is bordered by curved moulding, softening the point where it meets the walls, and is adorned with a central, floral-patterned ceiling rose. Two large French windows open onto the monumental steps leading down from the stoop and make this room a veritable reception lounge. A fireplace stands between two elegantly in-built alcoves framed by moulding. Its mantelpiece is made of veined white marble, flanked by column-shaped jambs with ribbed decoration, topped by stylised Corinthian capitals. The central part of the lintel boasts sculpted floral decoration. The hearth is lined by a brick surround, while a golden-framed mirror occupies the overmantel. Adjoining it, towards the office, a wide passage opens into a dining room, which boasts the same type of flooring, wall decoration and openings onto the garden. There is a black veined marble fireplace with a much more sober and less crafted mantelpiece. On the side overlooking the street, there is a spacious restroom, made up of a first room with a retro-style washbasin topped by an oval-shaped mirror framed by golden edging. This room is followed by a lavatory, with mosaic-style, black and white hexagonal floor tiles. Next, a large Art Deco style glass wall allows light to stream into the corridor and separates it from the kitchen, which is furnished with wooden fittings installed by a renowned kitchen designer and boasts a Carrara marble worktop. After the kitchen, there is a well-concealed and well-arranged scullery.
The first floor
At the top of the majestic staircase, there is a wide landing with white marble floor tiles surrounded by a black edge. On the rest of this level, there is straight wood stripped flooring throughout. The landing leads to a lavatory, a first suite and a corridor leading to a second suite. Though the lavatory is less spacious than the one on the ground floor, it is decorated in the same spirit, with a retro-style washbasin, dark grey hexagonal floor tiles and Paris metro style white wall tiles. The first suite is made up of two connected bedrooms. In each of them, there is a crafted wooden headboard with in-built electricity sockets, which are design details that show how aesthetics are combined with modern comfort in this residence. Opposite, there is a bathroom boasting a floor-mounted bath with retro-style taps, as well as a walk-in shower adorned with small, mosaic style tiling on the floor and walls. Thereafter, the corridor is reminiscent of the ground floor’s decoration, though in more sober fashion, with non-framed wainscotting on the lower parts of the walls and small-framed wood panelling on the upper parts, as well as a simple cornice on the ceiling. Another door opens into the second suite, made up of a comfortable bedroom with a fireplace, two windows through which light pours in, two wardrobes, a bathroom with a bath, two walk-in showers and two column washbasins, framed by two alcoves with shelves.
The second floor
This level has been designed in a warmer and more rustic ambiance than the levels below. The landing boasts wide wood stripped flooring, as does the staircase, and is large enough to be put to use as living space. It leads to a first room opposite, on the garden side, and to a corridor linked to three bedrooms. The first room is currently used as a fitness room but could be transformed into a bedroom. After the lavatory, the bedrooms are set out around an upstairs lounge that could also be used as a games room, music room or library. The rooms have retained the atmosphere of the former loft space, with rustic wide stripped wood flooring, coated with a white resin finish, as well as the exposed roof frame, also painted white. There is a first suite made up of a bedroom, wardrobe space and a shower room, followed by a bedroom on its own and then another suite, comprising a bedroom, a wardrobe, an office and a shower room.
The base level
This level opens directly onto the garden. From the garage, visitors enter into a vestibule where custom-made furnishings have been installed to smartly hide coats and shoes from sight. It is followed by a hallway leading on one side to a staircase to the ground floor and on the other side to a corridor that leads to various rooms: a boiler room, a laundry room fitted with a worktop and with space for a washing machine and a tumble dryer, a workshop, a storeroom and, lastly, a large wine cellar fitted with shelves.