Using pop and graphic elements, designer Axel Chay has transformed his late-19th-century house in Marseille into an arty refuge where great ideas fuse
STYLING Marie Maud Levron
REPRESENTED BY A.C Scoffoni
LIVING ROOM
Axel describes this space as a gallery-like white cube perfect for showcasing colourful pieces.
Home profile
Designer Axel Chay, his wife Mélissa and their one-year-old, Austin.
A two-storey house in Marseille, France.
Downstairs there is an open-plan kitchen/living room and dining space. There are three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.
After studying at a business school in Lyon, where he met his wife Mélissa, Axel Chay flew to London to finish a course in marketing.
Originally from the ‘Blue Coast’ region, a stone’s throw from Marseille, the couple returned to settle in this Mediterranean city in 2013. ‘In Marseille, we take the time to live, surely because this city is linked to nature and to the sea. Once nourished by contemplation, then comes the creation: in various shapes and colours,’ says Axel.
Axel, who has always been passionate about design, first set up Studio Nova Obiecta with Marouane Sadki, creating furniture on the border between art and design. He now officiates alone, under his own name, since 2020: the true realisation of Axel’s childhood dream.
Under the influence of the Mediterranean Sea, Axel is inspired by evocative colours, graphic waves and sensual curves, an ode to women, which gives birth to both contemporary and sculptural pieces. Axel’s playground? Experimenting with materials like steel, aluminium, cork, wood, expanding foam or plaster. ‘My family ran a metal frame company, so I’ve always been around workshops and construction sites, where I developed my attraction to metals,’ he says. ‘My parents were fascinated by everything contemporary, therefore I’ve always benefited from this cultural background.’
To accommodate their young family, Axel and Mélissa found this perfect nest on a website called Leboncoin. ‘I sent the advert to my wife, it read: ‘an abandoned garden and a sea view’. Her reaction was immediate and we went to visit it. The panorama from this house is so incredible and we fell under its spell as soon as we set foot in the place. The 1890s dwelling, with small, dark rooms, was divided into two areas over two floors. The couple embarked on a renovation to brighten it up, with the aim to highlight its stunning sea view.
During the renovation almost all the walls were knocked down to open up the space. ‘The walls had to be dried and painted white. Like a sort
