GREAT ESCAPE
A 16th-century ‘pool house’ in Florence is converted into a weekend getaway that is equal parts bucolic retreat and Surrealist’s dream
Even though Yvan Mispelaere’s house sits within the historic heart of Florence, it has all the characterful charm of a welcoming country escape. A modest home with a big personality, the cottage sits on the edge of a private park, surrounded by high walls that block out the city beyond. Although it’s just a short walk to the Pitti Palace and the banks of the Arno, the house feels quiet and remote, looking out onto the tended lawns and towering trees of the park. For Mispelaere, a creative consultant in the fashion industry who divides his time between Paris, London and Florence, it represents the perfect retreat. “It is more like a country home for me,” says Mispelaere. “Many people in Paris have a country home two hours’ drive outside the city, but I have mine two hours away by plane and taxi. When I come to the house I am really looking for that feeling of being quiet and relaxed, with greenery and birdsong around me, and that’s what I get, along with the advantages of being in a beautiful city with everything that it can offer.” Mispelaere has a long-standing relationship with Italy. Born and raised in Normandy, he studied art and fashion in Nice and Paris, and has worked with a number of major fashion houses in Italy, including Prada and Valentino. He first came to Florence in 2006 while working for Gucci, and took an apartment in the city that he filled with the results of his searches for furniture, art and antiques. After a period living and working in New York as creative director at Diane von Furstenberg, he found himself back in Florence and tempted by the idea of finding a house in the city. “I love the place and always feel good when I am in Florence,” says Mispelaere. “My partner and I looked at four places in the city and then discovered this house through some friends and we took it as a sign that the house was meant for us.” Mispelaere’s home sits against a tall stone-and-brick wall that protects one of the largest private urban parks in Europe, which has been in the same family since it was first laid out in the 16th century. During the 19th century a number of changes were made to the parkland, including the addition of this cottage, which once served as a pavilion for a tennis court that inhabited the lawns alongside. “It was used as a changing room and a place to refresh after a game of tennis,” says Mispelaere. “But we actually call it the pool house for a swimming pool that was never built. That’s why I chose blue for the carpets in the house — to suggest the poetic blue of the potential pool and the sky, surrounded by the greenery of the lawn and the park.” A striking and elegant Neoclassical façade lends the house a quirky grandeur that is somewhat at odds with the modest scale of the building. The house had already been renovated and updated in a contemporary style within, creating a striking combination of old and new that appealed to Mispelaere almost as much as the setting. On the ground floor there is a fluid sequence of intersecting spaces — the kitchen, the central sitting room and the dining room — which all look out onto the gardens, their backs against the tall boundary wall. The main bedroom also sits on the ground floor, while twin staircases climb to two small guest bedrooms in the wings along with a mezzanine lounge and a tiny library. “It was a great help to have a space that was modern, neutral, practical and clean with this mix of Neoclassical style and a modern twist,” says Mispelaere. “It’s part of the charm of it, along with the romantic setting around the house.” ››