Interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon has transformed the Experimental Chalet Val d’Isère hotel in the village of Val d’Isère, France, with interiors informed by skiing and the surrounding mountains and forests.
“We wanted to move away from the usual ski resort decor,” Meilichzon, who is the founder of design brand Chzon, told Dezeen. “The aim was to create something new while ensuring you still feel you are in a ski resort.”
Giant ski bed heads, fox door-knockers, bronze branches and twigs for wardrobe and drawer handles are some of the playful design details in the renovated hotel, now called Experimental Chalet Val d’Isère.
Speaking to Dezeen, Meilichzon said the idea of “the spirit of the forest” was the main design inspiration for everything from the door frames and bathroom furniture to the benches that sit around the large stone fireplace in the main lounge area.
The existing hotel building was constructed of lauze stone, concrete and wood and reminded Meilichzon of an American-style lodge.
She looked to logs, branches, stonework and wood panelling as a starting point for the project, while also “paying tribute to the alps and ski-inspired details”.
Throughout the 113-room Experimental Group hotel, which is situated in the heart of the Alps, the design nods to the forest and mountains outside.
Mirror frames were designed in the shape of skis, snow-white marble was used in the bathrooms and table legs were made from ski poles.
“Most of our inspiration came either from branches, branches crossing each other and assembled with rope, ski spatulas, ski traces, snowboards, ski pole washers, and some of the design details of very specific alpine heritage: cocarde, trunk, wood-braiding,” Meilichzon explained.
The Chzon design team developed a “ski track” plaster, made with lime, which intends to reflect the colours of the wide tracks carved by skiers in the snow on the steep Le Face de Bellevarde nearby.
The furnishings and decor of Experimental Chalet Val d’Isère aim to evoke the local Savoyard traditions of the mountain village.
Examples include wooden chests – which Meilichzon described “like those handed down from father to son” – that feature carvings informed by the markings on bread dough before it goes to the wood-fired oven, marquetry straps, ecru-boucle carpeting and benches upholstered in duvets.
The mix of contemporary, playful details and traditional crafts and materials express Meilichzon’s signature design synthesis.
“We designed 90 per cent of the elements in the hotel and we wanted to have lot of contrast: pine and walnut, red and green, black and white, lacquer and bronze, white marble and matte ceramics”, she said.
Other projects by Meilichzon featured on Dezeen include a London restaurant and a hotel in Biarritz.
The photography is by Mr Tripper.
