Expressive bathrooms: the signature of Café Compagnon in Paris

The bathroom is not just one of the most important rooms in the home. It can be a real game-changer in restaurants too. For a truly memorable dining experience, this room needs to make just as good an impression as the cuisine. Café Compagnon in Paris shows exactly how this can be achieved. As the key piece, the designer Gesa Hansen chose the Artis washbasin, her design for Villeroy & Boch, in a striking Bordeaux BiColour look creating a harmonious transition to the wine-red tiles and white ceramic fittings.

Bathrooms in Café Compagnon – strong colours for a memorable experience

“I find impressive toilet facilities in restaurants an absolute must. This space should be a real experience, it needs to stand out and this can't be achieved with shades of white,” says Gesa Hansen, responsible for the design of the contemporary yet warm interior of the new Café Compagnon in Paris. In the middle of the first lockdown, as well as opening his third establishment in the second arrondissement of Paris, her restaurateur husband Charles Compagnon also purchased the Charmetemps vineyard in the Beaujolais region of France. This gave Gesa the idea of creating a colour concept reflecting the hues of his new organic red wine, now being served in all three establishments. The modern bistro is decorated in a graduated spectrum of red shades: from rust-red upholstery on the seats to terracotta marble and light-pink graphic elements on the terrace. But most striking of all is the strong Bordeaux colour in the two bathroom areas, decorated from top to bottom with dark-red square tiles, with Villeroy & Boch Bordeaux Artis handwashbasins as the focal point in the centre. These rich red shades not only give visitors the impression of entering a cosy cocoon, the completely tiled walls and high-quality ceramic also make the bathroom very resistant and easy to clean, a big advantage for such a highly frequented area.

Artis. The surface-mounted washbasin in on-trend Bordeaux

The Villeroy & Boch Artis surface-mounted washbasin is, to a certain extent, the star feature in the large bathroom in Café Compagnon. This stylish classic has just revealed a new look created by Gesa Hansen in the latest trend shades of Indian Summer, Sage Green, Rust and Bordeaux. The colour expert has been predicting wine red as a future colour trend for some time. For the bathroom concept, the designer placed great emphasis on creating a harmonious transition between the Bordeaux-coloured washbasin and the tiles. “I feel that ceramic needs to move away from the classic white to open up more scope for colour concepts in bathrooms,” she explains. Thanks to the stylish colour palette, her newly developed BiColour washbasin series will ensure perfect transitions in any bathroom. Artis washbasins are available in different versions. For the Café Compagnon, Gesa chose the square model, reflecting the square shape of the tiles and Villeroy & Boch Finion toilet.

Architectura. The solution for small spaces

Space tends to be a premium in restaurant bathrooms. In search of space-saving solutions for the second bathroom in Café Compagnon, Gesa Hansen chose Villeroy & Boch’s Architectura line which offers a wide selection of washbasins of all sizes. This series includes compact washbasins and hand sinks designed specifically for small spaces, with back or side placement of the tap landing and flexible positioning of the tap holes allowing very versatile and practical use.

Designer and colour expert Gesa Hansen

Gesa Hansen studied design at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and was recently listed among the 100 most important designers for 2022 by AD magazine. The German-Danish designer feels that expressive bathrooms are an ideal way to give diners in a restaurant the impression of being in a very special place. Gesa Hansen has worked successfully with Villeroy & Boch for many years – in particular in the area of colour in the bathroom.

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