W
hen you talk about exceptional craftsmanship and
artistic carpentry in the depths of the Luberon, you
immediately think about the Atelier de la Boiserie.
The business has made history, as the product of two workshops,
one from Paris and one from Provence.
The story begins in the historic centre of cabinetmaking in Paris.
At 5, Cité Beauharmais, a stone’s throw from the Place de la
Nation, les Ateliers de Brimbois, created in 1963, built stylish
furniture in solid and inlaid wood. These chests of drawers,
card tables, cabinets and writing desks are very sought-after by
antique collectors throughout France.
In Provence, at the end of the 1980s, Fabien Foulfoin et Henri
Cheveaux formed the company, Boiseries et Décorations.
“Initially, we salvaged old doors and restored them. Over time,
our customers weren’t asking for just one Louis XIII door,
but twenty of them. That’s how we started making doors, and
then windows, shutters, paneling and parquet floors”, Fabien
Foulfoin tells us. The two self-taught men surrounded themselves
with cabinet makers and carpenters and bought a workshop
in Gargas, in the Vaucluse. It soon became clear that the most
refined products could no longer be made without some kind of
merger, considering the constraints of each project.
A few years after it was created, Boiseries et Décoration, which
planned to move to Paris, acquired the Ateliers de Brimbois,
whose director, a friend of Fabien Foulfoin and Henri Chevaux,
was retiring. Over 10 years, the new company grew from 2 to 60
employees.
“Provence was fashionable, American architects were contacting
us to do projects from Santa Rosa in California to Bâton-Rouge
in Louisiana” they recall.
In 2013, still with an aim to provide a close working relationship
with its clients, the company Boiseries et Décorations and les
Ateliers de Brimbois became Atelier de la Boiserie. This top-
class company now has some 60 employees, spread between
Paris, Avignon and Lausanne. The focus of their activity is in
three disciplines: restoring historic monuments, creating and
manufacturing artistic carpentry and bespoke furniture.
This insistence on quality, and culture of excellence, has born its
fruit: today the company works with world-renowned architects
and interior designers. Whether it be in New York, Moscow, Rio
or Dubai, more than half of the Atelier’s turnover comes from
international clients.
The Atelier de la Boiserie has been involved in restoring many
prestigious buildings. For example, the chapel in the former
Hôpital Laennec, where, most notably, lie the remains of Turgot,
Louis XIV’s famous Finance Minister. They’ve restored the
Sainte-Croix des Arméniens cathedral in Paris, the splendid
Opéra salon in the Hôtel International Paris le Grand, the
Maison Émile Zola-Dreyfus museum in Médan (in the Yvelines)
and also elegant private Parisian mansions such as the hôtel de
Bourvallais, the headquarters for the Ministry of Justice, the
hôtel de Pontalba, official residence of the US Embassy, and the
hôtel Besenval which houses the Swiss Embassy. Added to this
list are the Carnavalet museum and the fabulous boutique of the
famous perfume house of Annick Goutal Paris.
GARGA S I LUBERON