Madeleine Castaing

I have a new hero. Her name was Madeleine Castaing.

She was an interior decorator beginning in the late '30s. In 1941 when the Nazis requisitioned her beautiful country home La Maison de Leves (Which she had painted an unusual shade of pale blue)

she moved with her husband and two sons into Paris and opened an antiques shop. An antiques shop. In the middle of occupied Paris.

She was in my opinion the Audrey Hepburn of interior design. They were both unique, confident women who liked beautiful, unusual styles and confidently used said styles with such taste that they became and have staid hugely popular. The difference was that rather than using the understated rather zen look that Audrey used in her own home and life, Madeleine used a plethora of colors, patterns, textures and eras to achieve a delightful and romantic look that was dubbed le style Castaing.

A few of my favorites are below.

Madeleine Castaing died in 1992 at the age of 98.