Designing Prime: A Conversation with Francesca

When Francesca first visited the villa, what stood out was not a single room or view, but the sense that the home’s true character was already present, just hidden.

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“There were lots of really lovely features that were hidden under the layers of the previous homeowner’s personality,” she explains. “It was about being able to stand there, strip all of that back, and imagine it as a blank space, while keeping the beautiful doors and mouldings.”

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This became the starting point for the transformation. The design team retained the original doors and mouldings where possible, replicating their detailing where new doors were added so the home felt coherent throughout. Original handles were kept on exterior-facing doors, preserving a link to the villa’s past, while internal doors were updated with simpler dark bronze handles that felt more contemporary without losing a sense of tradition.

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This balance between preservation and refinement became central to the project. The home had strong architectural bones, but its layout needed to work harder for the way August homeowners would use it.

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One of the key considerations was that the home’s windows and doors were oriented towards the same side of the property, creating a strong connection to a single outlook and the views beyond. Every room had to be planned carefully around this outlook. “It was about coming up with the right planning,” Francesca explains, “making sure all the bedrooms had the best views, that they were facing windows, but that you could still access everything naturally.”

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That thinking led to some of the home’s most significant spatial changes. The kitchen, previously positioned at the far end of the house, was brought into the heart of the home. What had once felt like a destination became a central gathering point, connected more naturally to the living and dining spaces.

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The former kitchen was then transformed into a new ground-floor master suite, one of Francesca’s favourite rooms in the completed home. “It’s maybe because it was the biggest transformation,” she says. “It had been the kitchen, and once we stripped it back, we were able to extend the ceiling height and create something completely different.”

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The result is now one of the villa’s quietest and most successful spaces. The suite opens directly onto the covered lounge outside, while the windows look out towards the view. In the ensuite, a dappled glass shower, marble detailing and the newly increased ceiling height give the room a sense of openness that would have been difficult to imagine from its original state.

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These transformations reveal the work behind the ease: the old kitchen becoming a master suite, the cluttered entrance becoming calm and layered, and the former dressing room becoming a light-filled bathroom. Each change demonstrates the same principle: keep what gives the home character, and refine what prevents it from being properly lived in.

If the interiors required careful editing, the outdoor spaces demanded an entirely new rhythm.

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Before the renovation, the villa already had generous gardens, terraces and a pool, but much of the outside space felt disconnected. The upper areas were used, while the lower garden levels existed mainly as routes to the pool. For a home in the South of France, and particularly a Prime home, this felt like a missed opportunity.

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“It was one of our biggest outdoor projects,” Francesca says. “On the first site visit, we really studied all the different areas, looked at where the best views were, and pictured how you, as a Homeowner, would best want to use the space.”

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That sentence became the guiding idea. Rather than treating the garden as a single outdoor area, the team designed it as a series of connected moments, each with its own purpose.

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The upper terrace became the formal outdoor dining space, positioned to flow naturally from the house. Just outside the kitchen, a smaller terrace was furnished with two chairs to create a morning coffee spot, intimate rather than overdesigned. The covered outdoor kitchen beside the ground-floor bedroom was reimagined as a shaded lounge, allowing that part of the home to feel softer and more private.

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This was also where one of the more playful Prime details came in. A ping-pong table was chosen that could double as a dining table for ten, allowing the covered lounge to become a flexible space for meals during cooler or wetter months. It is a small decision, but exactly the kind of practical elegance that defines the project: beautiful enough to belong, useful enough to matter.

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The summer kitchen was moved down to the pool level, creating a true lower garden living area. With a fridge, dishwasher, preparation space and herb planting surrounding it, the pool no longer feels separate from the life of the house. It becomes somewhere to spend the entire day, moving between swimming, cooking, lounging and dining without needing to return upstairs.

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The pétanque court at the bottom of the garden was also reinstated, with a new weaving path linking it back to the house and pool above. A metal table and chair set inherited from the previous owner was repurposed here, giving the space another quiet place to sit.

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Lighting was another crucial layer. Rather than illuminating only the upper terrace, the garden was rewired so that the lower levels could be used after dark. In the evening, the olive trees, outdoor lounge and summer kitchen become part of the home’s atmosphere, extending life outdoors long after sunset.

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For Francesca, one of the most successful additions is also one of the smallest. “There’s a little seating nook by the pool,” she says. Originally, this area was simply used for displaying potted plants, but the team saw an opportunity to turn it into somewhere people would actually spend time. Custom cushions were designed specifically for the space, transforming it into a comfortable spot to sit and take in the surroundings. “That is a really lovely place to sit because you get the view across to the hill, and that’s the only place you can see it from, apart from in the pool.”

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It is these small, almost hidden moments that give the home its sense of depth. Not one grand terrace, but many ways to inhabit the landscape.

Once the architectural palette had been established, Francesca and the design team began layering in the more emotional language of the home. This became known as the “Curves of Mougins” concept.

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The inspiration came from several places at once: the winding streets of the village, the concentric lines of the hilltop town, Picasso’s free-flowing forms and the lily pads in the pond just beyond the main living spaces. These references were not translated literally, but softened into the furniture, artwork, lighting and sculptural shapes throughout the villa.

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“The Curves of Mougins vision was almost the layering point on top of the architectural palette,” Francesca explains. “The base is very neutral, and then the freestanding pieces, the artwork, the lighting, everything that turns it from a space into a home, that’s where we took inspiration from the area.”

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The material palette follows the same logic. Mediterranean greens, sages and olive tones appear throughout, balanced by warmer pinks and softer romantic shades. Deep green linen sofas give the living room weight without feeling hard, while darker antique woods sit against lighter oak joinery to create contrast without competition.

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Metals were intentionally mixed, preventing the home from feeling too polished. “It makes it feel more like a collection that has built up over time,” Francesca says, “rather than something overly finished.”

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That collected quality is especially present in the home’s marble details. In the downstairs WC, Francesca found a small offcut in an Italian marble yard, a piece that might otherwise have been discarded. It had just enough material to create a small marble sink, with soft sage-green veining running through it. “It looks amazing in there,” she says. “It’s such a beautiful piece, but in such a small area, we could get away with just that little bit.”

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Another favourite piece was sourced almost a year before installation: a pink-toned marble teardrop table, found through a local antiques dealer and stored until the right moment. It became the anchor for the library area, with surrounding furniture chosen around it.

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Elsewhere, new and bespoke pieces were developed where nothing existing felt quite right. The dining chairs, for example, were designed specifically for the home. As the first thing seen when entering the house, and with ten needed around the table, they had to feel exactly right. The design team worked quickly through sketches and 3D drawings, adjusting the back height, scoop, seams, edging and piping until the proportions felt resolved.

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This is where the Prime distinction becomes most visible. Not through obvious opulence, but through decisions that refine how the home is used and experienced. Dimmable lighting, underfloor heating in bathrooms, wine storage, boiling water taps, and a separate drinks area with a coffee station  all contribute to a home designed for ten people to live comfortably together.

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“It’s about bringing in that lifestyle element,” Francesca explains. “Thinking about how people want to live and making sure there are specific places for them to do that, rather than everything being packed into one high-functioning kitchen.”

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Antiques: Collected, Not Decorated

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Antiques are a familiar part of August homes, but in Mougins the approach had to feel more refined than rustic. The aim was not to create a farmhouse mood, but to give a grand Riviera villa the sense of having been collected over time.

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“We made sure that every room had an antique in it of some sort,” Francesca says. Some pieces were planned early in the furniture process, while others were found only days before installation to ensure there were no compromises on the vision.

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Traditional French upholstered chairs proved particularly difficult to source. They needed to feel fresh enough for a luxury living space, but still carry traditional detailing. The timber colour, fabric, scale and condition all had to be right. After several searches, the final chairs were found just three weeks before installation.

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Once the team was on site, certain areas felt as though they needed the depth only an antique could bring. “It wouldn’t have been right putting a new piece there,” Francesca explains. A last-minute search across markets and dealers in France brought in several additional pieces, including the marble-topped console beneath the Picasso artwork in the dining area.

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The same attention extended to mirrors, objects and books. Bathroom mirrors were sourced during the installation week from markets in Antibes and Nice, while smaller styling pieces were found in antiques markets and second-hand shops. A brass bell and brass animal, details Francesca often looks for in August homes, were discovered at the Nice market.

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These details are small individually, but together they soften the home. They prevent it from feeling installed, giving the villa a sense of life that feels gathered rather than arranged.