1930s colour-driven house, Toulon
Toulon, Var · 1930s house · Full interior + exterior
Full interior and exterior renovation of a 1930s family house in Toulon. A colour-led brief: ochre, terracotta, deep green and bleached oak, anchored in the Provençal palette without nostalgia.
The house was built in 1932 by a Toulonais shipowner, with rounded Art Deco bay windows and an original mosaic floor in the entry. The previous owners had painted everything white in the 1980s.
Our brief from the new family was to bring colour back into the house, but with a contemporary hand. We stripped the white paint and rediscovered the original mosaic, which set the palette for the whole project: ochre, terracotta, deep green, and bleached oak.
Every room was redrawn around a single accent: the living room is wrapped in a deep forest-green lime wash; the kitchen is built around a terracotta-tiled island; the master suite is finished entirely in bleached oak with ochre textile panels.
The exterior facade was repainted in a Provençal ochre pulled from a Cézanne sketch found in a Toulon archive. Shutters were rebuilt in solid oak by a workshop in La Seyne-sur-Mer.
Bringing a 1930s house up to modern standards also lifts its DPE; see what the 2026 DPE rules change for owners and landlords.
