How an Interior Acquires Character
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Originally published in AH Magazine, International Issue No. 7.
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Interiors, Materials, and the Legacy of the Decorative Arts
Architecture establishes an interior’s proportions, while material determines how it will be experienced. Ceiling height, the relationship between walls, and the light that enters through openings give an interior its structure, while textiles, colour, and surface shape its atmosphere. Fabric responds to light, influences acoustics, introduces tactility and movement, and draws the different elements of the room into a coherent whole.
“A space begins to acquire an identity the moment materials, colours, textures, and light begin to work together. Within that relationship, textiles bring a distinct sensory dimension: they add depth, softness, and movement, while also influencing acoustics and the sense of warmth within a space.”
This role of textiles is deeply rooted in European interior culture. Tapestries, wall fabrics, and decorative textiles shaped the interiors of houses, palaces, and public spaces for centuries, while also preserving the knowledge of workshops, weaving traditions, and a particular sensitivity to fabric. Contemporary interiors continue that tradition in different ways, through new compositions, modern proportions, and new ways of living within a space.
Aysseline Guerre, Maud Boudet, and Niamh Wright from the Pierre Frey creative studio speak of textiles as a medium that gives an interior depth, softness, and movement. Alongside that sensory dimension, fabric also affects acoustics and the feeling of warmth, giving a space a fuller, more resolved expression.
Paris carries a long tradition of the decorative arts, which gives any conversation about textiles, craftsmanship, and interiors in this city a broader cultural context. In their view, Paris brings together refinement and eclecticism, while history and contemporary life shape the same visual language of space.
Within that cultural setting, the work of Maison Pierre Frey has also evolved. Founded in 1935, the family company now operates through an ongoing dialogue between its creative studio, its historical archive, and a network of workshops that preserve various textile-making techniques. From this meeting point of knowledge, archives, and material emerge collections of fabrics, wallpapers, rugs, and furniture.
Lapérouse ©Constance E.T. de Tourniel
The house’s archive comprises more than 30,000 documents and textile samples dating from the sixteenth century to the present day, including the collections of Braquenié, Boussac, Fadini Borghi, and Le Manach. For the studio’s designers, this archive serves as an active resource, where weaving structures, colour relationships, and historical motifs are studied before they find their way into new collections.
Working with this archive requires a clear understanding of the contemporary interior. The proportions, light, and ways of living that define today’s spaces differ from those of previous centuries, so historical patterns are incorporated through careful adjustments of scale, colour, and material. Within that process, an archival motif takes on a new function and context.
That freedom of interpretation allows an archival motif to enter the contemporary interior with new scale and intensity.
One of the key contemporary roles of textiles lies in their ability to create subtle transitions between openness and intimacy. A wall divides space definitively, while glass tends to open it entirely; textiles allow for a more nuanced relationship between visibility, privacy, and changing use. This is why they are increasingly used in recent projects, wherever an interior is meant to remain open without becoming fully exposed.
The status of the surface itself has also changed. In contemporary textile practice, ornament is no longer the only decisive element; relief, volume, and the material’s ability to introduce shadow, rhythm, and spatial tension have become just as important. When Pierre Frey speaks of a shift from flat surface to a sculptural dimension, through embroidery, structured weaves, and three-dimensional rugs, it becomes clear that textiles now do more than clad a space. They articulate it spatially.
Appartement Pierre. Photography © Philippe Garcia.
That is where their deeper contemporary value lies. Textiles temper the severity of architecture while preserving its logic. As a result, an interior shaped by textiles often feels less institutional and closer to lived experience, because it can accommodate change, withdrawal, and different degrees of presence without heavy intervention in the architecture itself.
Over the years, Pierre Frey has developed a network of workshops that preserve specialised production techniques and carry knowledge from one period into the next. Within that constellation, Le Manach holds a particularly important place, especially through its tradition of hand weaving. This kind of work demands time, experience, and precision, and gives the material durability, density, and character.
When asked to point to an interior in which textiles define the character with particular clarity, the studio selected the apartment of Pierre Frey, the house’s communications director and grandson of the founder. In the recently renovated apartment, the walls are covered in Toile de Tours from Le Manach, a semi-customisable textile in which the motif, yarn type, and colours can all be chosen. For this interior, the BOSQUET motif was selected and installed as a wall hanging, making the textile the dominant visual element in the room. The wall surface gains tactility, while the textile shapes the atmosphere of the room through its response to light, colour, and texture.
In the Pierre Frey studio, thinking about interiors often comes back to the question of how a space is shaped by the people who inhabit it. Personal choices of fabric, colour, and finish, the freedom to combine elements, and the pleasure of composing an interior all create an atmosphere that gives a space its identity.
Within the interior, textiles connect the structure of a space with the way life unfolds inside it. They alter acoustics, direct the eye, soften or intensify the presence of light, and add a layer that is experienced both visually and physically. It is where fabric, craftsmanship, and contemporary life meet that the work of Pierre Frey continues to evolve, through its archive, studio, and workshops, which together shape the interior as a whole with a strong and distinct character.
“The depth of an interior comes from the way people inhabit it. Freedom in composing a space and a willingness to play often create an interior with a strong personal character.”
About Maison Pierre Frey
Pierre Frey is a family-owned French house founded in Paris in 1935, specialising in textiles, wallpapers, rugs, and furniture for interiors. Through its creative studio, historical archive, and network of workshops, it shapes collections that connect the tradition of the decorative arts with contemporary design. The house also brings together the historic maisons Braquenié, Boussac, Fadini Borghi, Le Manach, Thorp of London, and Manufacture Zuber.
This article is part of AH Magazine Issue No. 7.
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