“Our furniture with its mixed and colourful styles can give the impression of being in a second home, just what I wanted!”
Today, we meet at Mélina, from the Instagram account @chezmelina. She opened the doors of her apartment to us, located in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. A pretty space completely redone, where she welcomed us with Elios, her barely one-year-old son.
Let’s start the visit!
Hello Melina! Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit more...?
My name is Mélina, I’m 32 years old, and I’ve been living in Paris with my husband, David, for almost 10 years. We hail from the south of France, originally, but we love living in Paris. This city inspires me a great deal and we feel right at home here. In April 2021, our little boy Elios came along and rocked our world. Since then, the three of us have been living out our Parisian adventure, and we couldn’t be happier!
Tell us the story behind your flat, when did you move in?
David and I got married in July 2018, and after that we immediately had the desire to embark on the project of buying a flat in Paris. At the time, we didn’t really know what we were getting into… we were first-time buyers! The search was not easy, but when we fell in love with this small two-room apartment in the 3rd arrondissement, we fought hard to get our application accepted! We got the keys to our flat in May 2019, and then we started working on it as soon as possible because we had to redo everything from top to bottom!
Can you share with us a good address in your neighbourhood?
We live in the upper Marais, so there are many! But if I have to name just one: the Bontemps patisserie. Their cakes, tarts and fruit pavlova are as beautiful as they are good!
Your “home” is synonymous with...?
Holidays! The country house spirit is highly present in our flat, thanks to its atypical layout, the exposed beams and our dormer window. Our furniture with its mixed and colourful styles can give the impression of being in a second home, just what I wanted!
What inspires you on a daily basis?
My work and my professional environment inspire me a lot. Paris is a very inspiring city, the street inspires me a lot, exhibitions, events, museums, and of course social networks (Pinterest in particular and Instagram).
What is your favourite object in your flat?
My favourite object belonged to my maternal grandparents, it’s an old white flower pot. It’s very important to me, it sits on our balcony in the summer and I take it inside in the winter to protect it.
How did you discover us? What do you like about our objects?
I discovered you in 2016, on social networks!
I like several things about TIPTOE objects, first of all their durable aspect. I know that I can use my objects constantly and for a very long time. If we move, I can transform my bench into a coffee table, or our dining table into a desk should our needs change and I really like this idea!
Secondly, I really like the fact that things can be taken apart and put away very easily. We live in Paris, and like many people we have a very limited amount of space, so the fact that we can unscrew the legs of our dining table in a flash and hide it behind the sofa is really practical!
And finally, the design! We have a lot of wooden furniture at home, so I immediately loved the TIPTOE items, which are colourful and made of steel so that we can mix them with our raw wood furniture.
What is your favourite TIPTOE item at home and what would you like to have?
My favourite TIPTOE item is our large dining room table, which is a large raw wood top with white steel TIPTOE legs. I also love our Lou stool, it’s extremely practical!
The item I would love to have at home is from the Kids collection: it’s the Tutti Frutti desk with its beautiful whale blue legs, but I’m waiting for Elios to get a bit bigger…
