‘Shells tend to be kitsch and beige, but not at this address,’ asserts Lucie de Moyencourt, founder of Shellegance. Like her coveted ceramics flecked with paint, the architect-turned-artist has imbued her space with a serene set of candy colours that look good enough to eat. Milky hues of sea green, posy pinks and turquoise blues swirl in her light-filled home. Each corner is a playful mise-en-scène, as though plucked from a Wes Anderson movie. For Lucie, however, her collected items are more than mere aesthetics. Each piece must pack an emotional punch, whether gifted, thrifted or uplifted with her magical touch.
Raised in Camps Bay, a suburb of Cape Town, the modern-day Mary Anning collects seashells most days, creating dinky ‘nests of shells’ for necklaces. As a child, Lucie ‘swerved surfing for natural curiosities,’ foraging the beach for fanned ebbs and flows filled with prizes. Her knack for spotting gems was no accident. Her mother, a South African ballerina, was immersed in performance displays and refined her own stage costumes. On the other hand, her Parisian father is known around town as a ‘fearless treasure hunter’. The artist’s genes have armed her with creativity. Lucie’s father instilled in her from a young age that, in the words of Oscar Wilde, ‘everything popular is wrong’.
Today, her Victorian suburban house is a testament to her father’s anarchical motto. The house honours the old and new while paying homage to Lucie’s two heritages. Deploying her vocational degree, the artist partnered with fellow architect Rohan Young to craft her home. The 1813 structure gained several contemporary additions. French Modernist windows were ‘a must to create the style of forgotten Parisian ateliers of the 1920s’. Gaining a new floor, formulaic corrugated-iron slats were constructed to match the monumental roof. And, of course, even the architectural accents reflect Lucie’s colourful manner, with each exterior border painted pistachio green.
The interior begins with an immersive tunnel entrance that entices viewers towards the sloping mountains and vegetation seen beyond. Skirting boards and archways are coated in peppermint, and twin green Art Deco chandeliers collected from the ‘cool junk shop’ of Lucie’s father, Gilles de Moyencourt, take pride of place. The ‘serene green theme’ continues, forming the blueprint for Lucie’s ever-evolving kitchen – a space kitted out for dinner parties and gallery walls showcasing local friends’ artworks. Here, subway tiles and whitewash cupboards glow. Stacks, piles and rows of American Jadeite exude a minty halo. The cheery palette of the 1930s plastic – represented here by ‘hard-to-get lotus bowls’ as well as cups, saucers and scallop glasses – helped to lift moods during the Great Depression. In a deeper bottle-green sits a set of 13 glass canisters, which harmonise with Shellegance vases in oceanic palettes. A French desk light in a leafy tone spotlights the sink, while the practical cupboards, brushed in a vivacious lime, ‘are a little bit much’.
With its sweeping doorways, the sitting room welcomes nature’s seasonal surprises. Rather than a television, swooning birds and sunsets over Table Mountain offer the visual entertainment. A vintage burnt-orange Ligne Roset ‘Togo’ sofa occupies most of the space; Lucie hails it as ‘the only one in Cape Town’ thanks to shipping issues. Perched beside the wood-burning stove sits Egbert – a stuffed wild-green parrot fetched from best friend and collaborator Michael Chandler. Gallery walls showcase Lucie’s intricate earlier works as an artist. ‘My dad always taught me if you want to be a painter, paint, and I haven’t stopped since.’ Even when working as an architect, she would create editions for glossy galleries, often selling out. ‘One month, I made the same salary selling one piece of art as I did in my nine-to-five.’ An ‘ah-ha’ moment for Lucie paved the way for Shellegance to emerge. Today, her walls are filled with archival paintings, often used as currency for swapping antiques or other works with friends. In contrast to her shells, ink drawings of Camps Bay and another monotone cartoony sketch of an overcrowded beach showcase Lucie’s talent in a more formal way.
Unlike the linear lines of her youth, today the ceramicist’s expressive personality enlivens the walls of her home. A relatively small courtyard garden displays Lucie’s childlike finesse. The ‘shell cove’, or outdoor shower, is encrusted with discarded broken Shellegance ceramics. Directly opposite, another cluster of repurposed shells, this time in coral red, ‘brings colour to mundanity’. Open any door, and you will find another surprise. Even the tiny toilet is a pictorial expression. A handmade guestbook in tile form, each one is a personal scribble ‘by friends and family’. One is an Arsenal logo; another reads ‘I love Notting Hill’; yet another is an abstract mermaid resembling Lucie. The shoebox room also houses a delft toilet rumoured to match John Lennon’s. Next door in the laundry room is a Venus-inspired mosaic, where daily errands are rewarded with some creative comedy. ‘Often people are shocked that she is naked, but of course she is. She is doing her laundry.’
Lucie’s ‘secret hideaway’ is her powder-pink and red-coral studio. Hand-painted Renaissance female figures climb the wall next to cabinets of cascading curiosities stuffed with jam jars of shells collected from years of morning walks. On her ‘shellf of life’ are endless diaries full of impromptu sketches of memories. ‘I never stop drawing; even if waiting for a train, my bread and butter at dinner, anything goes!’ Lucie’s skills as an illustrator have taken her to the Cannes Film Festival, drawing celebrities – and commissions from worldwide tastemakers.
Unlike the remainder of her home, the Shellegance founder’s bedroom is minimalistic. ‘A clean drawing table and simple bed’ are punctuated by a suzani draped on the wall. Swerve to the left, and it is quite the opposite. ‘You cannot miss the bathroom.’ Strict, geometric steel lines are picked out in tomato red and there are licks of avocado green. Mismatched practical appliances (from the 1970s) were collected from various locations across Cape Town. ‘Our bathroom is so private, I felt I could be as expressive as I liked.’ Lucie’s shells, reworked as candle sconces, sit beside the elevated bath among display shelves garnished with sea creatures and Lucie’s handmade necklaces. This space, a private quadrant of the house, exposes Lucie’s dramatic raw artistry. Like her ‘drops of shells’ online, the founder’s home is burning with craftsmanship, teetering on the edge of humour. Her place is a small reminder to take chances, dare to be different and defy the boundaries of what is possible in design.
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