This interior design project takes place in a mountain house situated in La Cerdanya, just a few kilometres from the La Masella ski resort, in a setting of natural beauty that permeates everything. Verónica Mimoun Studio leads the full intervention of the space guided by a premise that shapes every decision from beginning to last detail: to respect the soul of the house, enhance its genuine rusticity, and elevate it with the comfort, elegance, and functionality that a home lived in intensely across all seasons truly deserves.
The first image the house offers says everything: a lit stone fireplace, dark wooden beams overhead, the Cerdanya valley stretching into the distance through the windows. From that very first vision, the intervention by Verónica Mimoun Studio is understood as an act of listening rather than imposition, work that is born from its surroundings and returns to them with every decision made.
The entrance welcomes visitors with the warmth that announces the rest of the house. A dark solid wood sideboard of rustic character, with a handcrafted-frame mirror, supports a table lamp with a wrought iron base and a linen shade that casts a golden, enveloping light. Atop the wood, a basket of pink hydrangeas provides the only soft touch of color in a space of earth tones and shadow. On the other side of the entrance, the ski zone, resolved with iron hooks on a wooden panel, a bespoke bench, and a ski rack, fulfils an essential function in this house without sacrificing the aesthetic coherence of the whole, integrating as if it had always been part of the original architecture.
From the hall, the dark wood staircase and hand-turned banister signal the passage toward the main living space, while a glazed door with a white linen curtain hints at the luminosity of the living room beyond. A small, framed work on the wooden wall, a black and white landscape print, enters into dialogue with the simplicity of the transitional space and reinforces the intimate, literary character of the house.
The living room opens generously, articulated around the large natural stone wall that Verónica Mimoun Studio identified from the outset as the structural element of the project. The stone is not decoration: it is memory, it is texture, it is the origin of everything. At its base, the wood-burning fireplace burns with an almost ceremonial presence, presided over by a colonial mahogany sideboard with glass-fronted cabinets and drawers that house books and keepsakes, and upon which three large terracotta amphoras rest, bringing an unexpected Mediterranean echo, perfectly integrated into this mountain landscape.
Facing the fireplace, two Chesterfield-style sofas upholstered in pearl grey fabric are arranged generously around a square solid wood coffee table with pronounced grain on both legs and top, a design chosen by Verónica Mimoun Studio for its ability to anchor the space without artifice. Decorative cushions in navy blue and grey tartan, a nod to the Scottish character of mountain homes, complete the composition with a palette that remains faithful to the surrounding landscape: greys, ochres, browns, the distant blue of snow-capped mountains.
The lighting of the living room deserves mention. Verónica Mimoun chose to avoid any light source that might break the warmth of the ensemble. Table lamps with black ceramic bases and white linen shades, placed symmetrically on side tables flanking the rear sofa, create an atmosphere of almost hotel-like intimacy. An articulated wrought iron floor lamp, with its large linen shade, reinforces the sense of a well-lit space without ever resorting to cold light. Switches and electrical fittings, consistently in matte black, visually structure each wall without reducing the warmth of the environment by a single degree.
The dining room is integrated on the same level as the living room, separated from it by a threshold that is suggested rather than built. The long dark solid wood table, austere in its elegance, is surrounded by chairs upholstered in hand-stitched black leather that bring a contemporary rigor in perfect balance with the rusticity of the beamed ceiling. Above the table, a large-diameter linen drum pendant lamp descends with composure and creates the focal light needed for long winter meals beside the fire. The table setting, wicker placemats, mouth-blown glass stemware, and an earthenware carafe, tells a story of conviviality and rootedness that the designer had envisioned from the very first day of the project.
The terrace is, as Verónica Mimoun herself notes, the treasure waiting to be discovered. The photographs confirm it beyond any doubt: the view over the Cerdanya Valley from this elevated position is of breathtaking beauty, with meadows of an impossible green stretching out to the mountains. Verónica Mimoun Studio transformed this space into a true outdoor living room, with a teak wood table and folding chairs for long summer breakfasts and al fresco dinners, a white awning that tempers the midday light without stealing an ounce of its character, and a second lower terrace paved in natural stone that allows for different uses throughout the day.
The main staircase is a piece of craftsmanship in its own right. The solid wood treads, with the generous grain and slightly aged finish that Verónica Mimoun Studio chose to honour the passage of time rather than erase it, ascend flanked by a natural fibre wallcovering with a horizontal texture that runs the full height of the stairwell, lending a surprising tactile warmth. The detail of the matte black switches set flush into that wallcovering, an element at once so minor and so significant, encapsulates the philosophy of the project: nothing is too small to be considered with care.
The landing on the upper floor signals a shift in register that both surprises and seduces. The walls transition from the dark wood of the ground floor to a warm sand-toned plaster, and the bedroom doors are lacquered white with classical moldings and matte black handles, a combination that Verónica Mimoun Studio uses to introduce a more restrained, domestic elegance into the sleeping areas. The untreated natural wood ceiling, in a lighter tone than the floor below, completes the transition with ease.
The bedrooms were conceived as refuges in the most literal sense of the word. In the room that doubles as a playroom, a wooden foosball table shares the space with a simple single bed and wall shelves where toys and books wait. The natural wood ceiling and the slatted blind window create the atmosphere of an intimate cabin, the kind of space that children remember for the rest of their lives.
The master bedroom, with generous proportions beneath the sloping wood ceiling, has the quality of the finest mountain bedrooms: a double headboard upholstered in fine check linen with a nail-head trim, bedding in grey and cream tones, and the open skies of La Cerdanya as the finest possible artwork. A cream lacquered Louis XV chair, positioned before the triple-casement window, creates the reading corner that every mountain house deserves. The colonial wood wardrobe, with its drawers and glazed doors, serves as both dresser and surface for a table lamp with an artisanal stem, a floral arrangement of white flowers, and a painting leaning against the wall.
The bedside table, in mahogany, holds a contemporary-design lamp with a base in oxidized metal and stone, one of those elements that Verónica Mimoun Studio introduces with surgical precision so that rusticity never tips into pastiche.
The bathrooms complete the project with the same coherence that defines it from the entrance. The vanity unit, resolved with a solid wood countertop that will only deepen in character over time, supports a clean-lined white above-counter basin. The walls and floor, finished in warm sand-toned microcement, create a material continuity that amplifies the space and connects it to the chromatic palette of the rest of the house. Matte black track spotlights above the mirror provide the necessary functional lighting without betraying the character of the whole. Beneath the unit, woven wicker baskets resolve storage with the naturalness of someone who knows that organic materials are always the finest answer.
Finally, the children's bedroom, with its arrangement of bunk beds of solid lines and timeless character, responds naturally to a functional way of living without sacrificing aesthetics. The layout makes balanced use of space, integrating each element with discretion and harmony. Raw tones, delicate prints, and red accents bring a domestic, enveloping quality that enters dialogue with the nobility of the dark wood and the filtered light entering through the window. The result is a bedroom conceived for sharing, yet also for feeling sheltered: a space where alpine warmth is reinterpreted with contemporary sensibility, attention to detail, and quiet elegance.
Taken together, this project in La Cerdanya is a demonstration of what Verónica Mimoun Studio understands by mountain interior design: not the reproduction of a style, but the deep listening to a place and to the people who inhabit it, the patient work of someone who knows that a well-considered home is not one that changes everything, but one that finds the very best of itself and brings it into the light, for good
