Art doesn’t just live on walls. It lives in corners, in cupboards, in places where light falls and objects rest. I discovered this idea not in a gallery, but in a kitchen: more specifically, the kitchen that Claude Monet created in his home at Giverny.
When I stepped into that room, I expected to feel the legacy of an artist. What I felt instead was the legacy of a person who lived there. Blue-and-white Rouen tiles covered the walls; copper pots gleamed on racks; the stove loomed large, as if ready for a feast. Monet, the painter of light and water lilies, had turned his home into an extension of his palette. The color of the tiles, the materials of the pots, and the layout of sink and table are all decisions that say to me, This is where life happens. This is where art and interior overlap.
As an aspiring interior designer, this struck me deeply. Too often we talk about design only in terms of aesthetics or function. But here was a room that bridged both, effortlessly. Monet used color and pattern not for mere show, but to hold the rhythm of everyday life. The blue-and-white tiles are vivid yet calming; the copper warms the cool. It isn’t a museum piece; it’s a lived place.
In that room I didn’t just admire art. I took up occupancy in it. And in that feeling was the possibility I chase: spaces that go beyond looking beautiful by making us feel most ourselves, fully alive, fully present.
Allegra on Art & Architecture 