Marina Bautier’s Creative Compound: New Guest Apartments Over a Brussels Shop and Café

Belgian furniture designer Marina Bautier is known for her succinctness. Her pieces, all made of waxed oak, have no flourishes: they are a pure distillation of pleasing form and function. But in her own compound, she is voluble on how her work can be put to use: her studio, in a Brussels residential area aptly named Forest, is right next to her shop and café. And upstairs, there are two new guest apartments, all of which showcase the easy, conversation-filled settings Marina sees for her furniture.

“Every piece has been conceived with the ambition of finding an essential format,” she notes. “Simple as they look, great efforts have been put into the research and testing of how to arrive at the essential.” Come take a tour.

Photography by Stephanie De Smet, unless noted, all courtesy of Bautier (@marinabautier).

The Shop and Café

Above: The Bautier headquarters occupy a 1925 industrial building that was once a mechanic’s garage and more recently a sculptor’s workspace and showroom. Marina opened the shop in 2013 and began inviting people to join her for monthly lunches that she cooked herself. Her “yearning to create a hospitable and welcoming environment” led to the opening of the Bautier café in 2021. Above: The shop is set up as a living space furnished with Bautier accessories and work by other small, independent producers, well as favorite architecture and design books and cookbooks. The Glass Cabinet holds Marina’s own made-in-England white Stoneware Plates and Leech Pottery’s Standard Ware Bowls. All of her furniture is made by a small family-run carpentry three hours away in northwest Germany. Above: Marina pairs her Café Tables,€970, with Børge Mogensen’s J39 chair, a Danish midcentury classic still in production—says Marina, “the Bautier collection doesn’t yet include a dining chair and so the”J39 chair has been adopted as a friend of the family.”  When Marina writes about Mogensen, she could also be describing herself: “He examined the possibilities of developing historical and classical furniture types into contemporary practical and democratic furniture; simple wooden pieces which did not take up too much room or attention.” Above: On the menu: comforting, seasonal fare made from locally sourced ingredients. Here, red lentil Tumeric Dahl with Pickled Onions and a side of the café’s signature sour dough focaccia—recipes shared in the Bautier Journal.

The Studio

Above: Marina creates her quiet designs in a lively studio and workspace next to the shop. She sights “simplicity, genuineness, and comfort,” as her guiding principles.

Marina grew up in Brussels and studied furniture and product design at Buckinghamshire New University in the UK. On graduation, she established her practice in Brussels in 2004 and has since created designs for Case, Stattmann Neu Moebel, and Ligne Roset among others. She started her own brand 12 years ago with the idea of creating solid oak furniture basics and now has a nearly full home collection. Photograph by Justin Paquay.

The Apartments

Above: The two apartments are located in a just-built top-floor addition over the café and store. Here, classic butterfly chairs outside the entrance: find new versions at Circa 50 and Steele Canvas. “I wanted the space to be quite minimal in its decoration but warm,” she tells us by way of explaining the textured walls. After several tests on the exterior, they went with a “render with thick grains  applied directly on the insulation.”

Marina prioritizes sustainable design and equipped the addition with a heat pump and 20 solar panels, which power the café ovens, among other things, and a rain barrel “used to irrigate the garden, flush toilets, and run the washing machines.”

Above: There’s a one-bedroom apartment, Coté Jardin (featured here) as well as a studio apartment, Coté Rue, both sized for two guests “seeking a calm base in Brussels, whether for a few nights or a longer stay.” Each has a kitchen and living/work area—and a plant-filled balcony. The Bautier dining table, €2,470, and Miguel Milá’s Globo Cesta light by Santa & Cole, €540, are both offered in the shop.

Marina had the interior walls “plastered with a kind of cement you work with the trowel to achieve an uneven finish” that, she notes, adds “depth and materiality to every surface.”

Above: Each apartment has a “discreetly equipped kitchen” (pantry essentials are included and breakfast baskets are available from the café). There’s an oven and a portable induction cooktop. Marina’s shelving system is forthcoming in her online shop. Of the Amu Kettle by Fumie Shibata, €96, she writes: “Its timeless shape and smooth, glossy surface exude modernist pragmatism as well as nostalgic charm.” Above: An easy ensemble—the Bautier Day Bed, €2,530; Side Tables are €410 and €440; and Dhurrie Rug, from €1,800. In addition to balconies, the apartments open to a courtyard planted by landscape designers Bart & Pieter with fig trees, perennials, and herbs for the café. Above: The Bautier Oak Double Bed frame, from €1,990, “floats off the ground by 3 centimeters thanks to round oak feet.” The bedding, from €360 a set, is 100-percent white Belgian linen, produced for Bautier by a 150-year-old Belgian manufacturer. The rice paper lantern is Barber & Osgerby’s Hotaru Marker Light for Oseki & Co; €420. The Dhurrie Rugs are undyed New Zealand wool, hand-loomed in India for Bautier by Nani Marquina. Above: The bathrooms are lined in tactile unglazed tiles from Winkelmans of northern France. “Bautier is not about making standout objects,” says Marina. “Serene, well-crafted, and simple is the best way to describe the brand.”

The Bautier compound is at 314 Chaussée de Forest, on the south side of Brussels, an easy commute to the city center. The apartments start at €180 a night.

We featured a Bautier-designed entry hall unit on page 26 of our book Remodelista: The Organized Home and here’s our first story about her furniture.