Set among vineyards and centuries-old oaks near Montpellier, France, the 18th-century Château La Banquière has been thoughtfully reimagined by Marianne Tiegen Interiors as a hospitality destination where architecture, landscape, and textiles come together in a quiet, contemporary take on sustainable luxury.
Château La Banquière sits within a serene park, framed by centuries-old oaks and sprawling vineyards — a setting that became a natural starting point for the design. Each room is conceived as a dialogue with natural light and the surrounding landscape, where stone, wood, air, and textiles interact and animate the spaces throughout the day.
In this project, textiles move beyond decoration to become spatial anchors. They help define rooms, soften acoustics, frame views, and introduce a sense of tactile warmth more often associated with private homes. For this hospitality setting, Marianne Tiegen Interiors has used textiles for key elements — canopies, screens, bed throws, and wall panels — to create intimacy and comfort without overwhelming the classical architecture.
La Banquière's textile palette draws deeply from its Mediterranean context. Working with botanical dyers and local specialists, the team developed shades derived from the estate itself: Blush, from grape seeds harvested on the château's vineyards, warm coral and apricot tones from garance (madder root), and soft blues and greys from pastel (woad). These plant-based pigments speak to the the estate's history and romance — a former honeymoon gift, cast in the tradition of an Italian villa.
Alongside newly dyed linen, hemp, and cotton, the design includes a curated selection of antique fabrics — Provençal damasks, Venetian block-prints, and couture-surplus textiles, sourced through a long-established network of collectors and dealers. In many rooms, antique textiles served as the starting point: their unique texture, patina, or pattern helping define the overall design direction. In others, naturally dyed linen or hemp sets the tone, its subtle variations and depth imparting a quiet, living luminosity.
Where antique materials were fragile, they were either restored, backed with light cotton, or embraced as imperfect surfaces, repaired rather than disguised, celebrating their history, much like a textile-bound equivalent of kintsugi.
La Banquière marks the return of European artisan skills once confined to couture ateliers. Woven Belgian linens, hand-printed serigraphies from historic Lyon workshops, and block-printed Venetian fabrics sit alongside embroidered panels executed with haute couture techniques. The project's signature motif, a subtle bee rendered in the Pont de Beauvais stitch, unites the estate's biodiversity, regenerative spirit, and circular design philosophy.
Bed canopies, privacy screens, and bed throws, anchored in metal frames or removable structures, combine grandeur with practicality: they can be unfastened, cleaned, repaired, or even redyed over time, without compromising the design integrity. Upholstery features removable covers, while cabinetry and screen panels can be restored or replaced — meaning the château is not just furnished, but designed to evolve, age gracefully, and grow richer with use.
For Marianne Tiegen, La Banquière is a manifesto: sustainable hospitality does not mean austerity; it means selecting materials and techniques that age with dignity, that carry memory, and that contribute to a circular, regenerative design economy.
"Luxury today faces an identity crisis," she says. "Its renewal lies in craftsmanship, authenticity, and rarity. With La Banquière, we show that sustainability can be a form of true luxury — rooted in nature, in history, in care."
In twenty or thirty years, the fabrics, colours, and textures of La Banquière will tell their own story: one of place, of patience, and of beauty truly lived-in.
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