For Sale: $61.68m Cap d’Antibes villa, interiors by Casamanara – unveiled & listed for sale

At the Domaine de la Belle Étoile residential estate on the exclusive Cap d’Antibes, by luxury developer Caudwell, globally renowned interior architecture and design firm Casamanara have unveiled their bespoke interior design scheme, inspired by the estate’s iconic celebrity history, waterfront setting and the region’s artistic heritage.

At Domaine de la Belle Étoile, with the colour palette of the interiors inspired by the sparkling blue of the Mediterranean sky and sea, the beautiful contemporary decor by Casamanara pays homage to the estate’s glamorous history as the Hôtel Provençal Tennis Club.

Between the 1930s and 1970s it hosted royalty and A-list visitors including Marilyn Monroe, Coco Chanel, the Duke of Windsor, Jackie Kennedy and Charlie Chaplin.

Today, Domaine de la Belle Étoile, provides the ultimate turn-key French Riviera family home: beautiful, sensual, yet always practical, the mark of a new gilded age for the Cap d’Antibes address.

The founders of Monaco-based Casamanara, interior architect and furniture designer Piero Manara and his sister, Debla Manara-Berger, an interior decorator, have brought their inimitable style to Domaine de la Belle Étoile, the striking newly built villa providing leisure amenities including a glass-walled 23m (75ft) swimming pool, two guest houses and 3.65-acres of landscaped gardens overlooking the Port de l’Olivette.

Showcased at Domaine de la Belle Étoile is the design duo’s signature approach of careful curation, bespoke furniture design and the symphonic balancing of texture, colour and pattern to reveal a building’s inner beauty, forged over decades of collaborating with international clients and luxury brands.

Raised between Italy and the Principality of Monaco, Piero Manara studied interior architecture in Paris before working with Robert Couturier in New York, where projects included the late Franco-British financier Sir James Goldsmith’s two lavish Mexican hideaways. He founded Casamanara in New York in 1999, and relocated its headquarters to Monaco in 2009.

Debla Manara-Berger, raised for the most part in Monaco, developed her passion for interior design and the decorative arts while working in her mother’s interiors showroom, going on to study Art History at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and curating exhibitions. She joined Casamanara in 2009 as a full-time partner.

High-profile projects by Casamanara include the interiors of the iconic MayaBay restaurant in Monaco, alongside a portfolio of residences for private clients across the South of France, Paris, Asia, New York and the UK. Through their associate office in Hong Kong, led by interior architect Richard Moreau, international outposts for luxury retailers Balmain and Harvey Nichols were also designed.

The contemporary main villa ‘La Belle Étoile’, designed by Nice-based architectural practice Atelier Baraness + Cawker, provides 14,200 sq.ft. (1,320 sq.m.) of luxurious living space including five reception rooms, six bedroom suites, a family show kitchen, a full professional kitchen and an outdoor kitchen, a study, cinema room and spa, plus a series of expansive covered loggias and terraces.

Casamanara’s scheme for ‘La Belle Étoile’ showcases sofas, chairs, side tables, sculptural lighting and floor coverings from its own exclusive Casamanara Edizioni range, alongside Manara-Berger’s bespoke designs for the villa, crafted by furniture makers’ HKP International, whose clients include The Crown Estate and Six Senses.

Handpicked contemporary design masterpieces such as Victoria Wilmotte’s 2017 ClassiCon Pli stainless-steel side table in blue, with intricate bends and folds giving it the appearance of an oversized polished stone, pop against an overarching palette of cream, teal, blues and celadons, with wallpapers and fabrics by Pierre Frey, Arte, Elitis, Dedar and Nobilis building up striking and vibrant layers of colour and pattern throughout. Glass details by Lalique, handsewn leatherwork by luxury yacht outfitters Foglizzo and ironmongery by British brand Turnstyle add further indulgent and textural depths.

The striking entrance to ‘La Belle Étoile’, created from blue enamelled lava stone and creamy Moleanos limestone, leads onto the foyer where a bespoke curved wall panel, inset with Nobilis’s bamboo-motif Sagano textile and framed in stained oak, instantly provides a connection with nature.

Beyond, with Egyptian limestone underfoot, lies the main reception room, bordered by double-height windows on both sides offering views across Port d’Olivette to one side and to the other the gardens and outdoor swimming pool. Here, providing graphic dynamism amid the sedate cream sofas, in a turquoise colourway, a duo of armchairs and array of cushions are covered in Dedar’s Flimflam Iles Caïmans, a nod to 17^th century Bargello embroidery in alternating chevron and undulating wave pattern.

Designed by Manara-Berger and developed by Joanna Moreau, the head of HKP International, a huge rug, featuring abstract forms and in a palette of celadon, blues, taupe and black, references the art of Picasso, Chagall, Matisse and Cocteau, these famous artists all drawn to the Côte d’Azur for its vivid landscapes and light.

The reception room has a wonderful circular lighting installation, bearing white and bronze leaves, and a contemporary ethanol fireplace ensuring year-round comfort. To one side of the living space is a curved cocktail bar, of bleached solid oak hand carved to resemble tortoiseshell, and with mirrored panels, topped with Amazonite Quartzite, in mesmerising hues of green and blue. Behind the bar hangs Casamanara Edizioni’s concentric-ringed Target mirror, finished in zinc liquid metal, which refracts light around the room.

Next to the cocktail bar, statement double doors of alabaster and onyx, with bronze rays radiating across them, a tribute to the sun, open onto the adjoining show kitchen and ten-seat dining table. Custom made by L’Atelier de Saint Paul, in Hérault, in southern France, the kitchen and matching credenza are completed with polished ice jade green marble countertops, Gaggenau and Novy appliances, Gessi brassware and another sculptural lighting installation.

In its own dedicated wing, is the 1,076 sq.ft. (100 sq.m.) principal bedroom suite. With its own private terrace and views across the grounds and swimming pool, the elegant, private space has pale oak flooring, a wing-backed bed in an olive-coloured weave, and walls covered in Dedar’s pale shimmering silk velvet, Splendido Splendente. At the floor-to-ceiling glazing, drapes in Lelievre’s Sculpture Fabric in Celadon, featuring a contemporary ikat design, adds a fresh, nature-inspired twist to the space.

The suite has two opulent dressing rooms, with a decadent Art Deco feel created by white leatherwork panels by Foglizzo. Of the twin bathrooms, one is finished in Grigio Carnico marble, from the Italian Dolomites, and the other, impossibly pretty rose onyx. Both showcase bespoke cabinetry by Casamanara.

Within the estate Caudwell have meticulously restored the original tennis clubhouse, built in the 1920s, and created a 1,292 sq.ft. (120 sq.m.) two-bedroom guesthouse known as ‘Villa Céleste’ with 14.7 ft. (4.5 m.) high vaulted ceilings with the original beams and three terraces. Here, Casamanara has created a scheme inspired by vintage elegance, with Biseau sisal wallpaper, from Arte’s Marqueterie collection, in the open-plan living/dining space.

The bold gold-beige paper, inspired by a decorative frame with mitred corners, has a subtle 3D effect, accentuated by the modernist curves and rattan features introduced in the bespoke furniture throughout. Mohair bouclé rugs and, in the main bedroom, Lelievre’s Ikati fabric in celadon, in a trompe l’oeil ottoman design, add to the multi-layered vintage vibe.

Piero Manara, Co-Founder of Casamanara, says: “Caudwell instantly understood our vision for Domaine de la Belle Étoile, which was to create a private heaven, where intimate private spaces, such as the bedroom suites, are as important as the openness and grandeur of the main reception room, all inspired by the colours of the French Riviera’s sky and sea.

“In an expansive project like ‘La Belle Étoile’, the key to link it all together is to follow a storyline, obvious to the future owners even before they have walked through the front door. Infusing a new property with soul does not come from using famous brands or following fashion, but creating a connection between tradition and modernity, with wonderful, tactile materials and a sense of surprise and magic at every turn.”

Debla Manara-Berger, Co-Founder of Casamanara, says: “At Domaine de la Belle Étoile, the main inspiration was, of course, the timeless decoration of the French Riviera herself. We kept the atmosphere perfectly serene, with a soft palette of whites, beiges, celadon, greens and blues. We custom designed all the rugs to match the décor in each room, with fabrics and wallpapers chosen to contrast with the millwork, and sculptural lighting in all the main rooms. My own favourite piece is the contemporary chandelier in the family dining room, where hundreds of crystal drops beautifully catch the light.”

Domaine de la Belle Étoile is now available for viewings by prior appointment. The residential estate, providing the main villa and two guest houses, is being offered to the market on a turn-key basis, fully furnished with interiors designed and dressed by renowned interior architecture studio, Casamanara, set in 3.65-acres of landscaped gardens. The estate is listed for sale for €58.95 million Euros ($61.68 million US dollars). For sales enquiries, please contact Caudwell and visit www.domaine-de-la-belle-etoile.com or Tel: +33 (0)4 93 65 53 36 E: [email protected]