Kintsugi

Style Over Swagger

If you love superbly designed, harmonious interiors without a hint of alpine kitsch, then check out Chalet Kintsugi. It was renovated in 2023 to create a stunningly contemporary holiday home near the centre of Megève close by the Chamois ski lift. It uses a combination of natural materials – beautiful stone and weathered timber – set off against high-quality designer furnishings and artwork. Which might sound pretentious but manages not to be. Chalet Kintsugi avoids swagger and embraces style. It is also spacious, 348m2 for up to eight adults and four children, and it has a subtle sense for fun.

The first floor living room is a bright, airy space opening onto a sunny terrace. In spite of the super-cool yet sophisticated ambiance, it is relaxed. Those designer statements are playful and light-hearted. Who doesn’t love a few beautiful birds swinging from a barn-like timber roof, sheep peeping out from a mezzanine or the beady eyes of alpine hares watching from a shelf? Then take in the black lava-stone surround for the wood burning fireplace, a pleasingly large and pleasingly oval dining table and lighting features that will make you smile. The open plan kitchen is an eclectic combination of materials – richly veined timber and rippled marble – and adds to the pervading elegance with a funky twist. But Kinstsugi doesn’t lose sight of being essentially a family chalet and the party can spread out into the TV room with its massive sofa and table-football or the snug on the lower ground floor.

The top floor is given over to the 65m2 master bedroom. Up some stairs from the living space, you find a calm reading room in a gallery and continue into an office area, the indulgent bedroom, and a huge bathroom. The occupiers of the master also have the privilege of a private balcony. Two doubles and dormitory room with bunkbeds for four younger members of the group are on the ground floor and another double bedroom is on the first floor. They all open onto terraces and have their own bath or shower rooms.  

The steam or sauna debate is one of those that is oft revisited but a Hammam (we believe) acts as a wonderfully restorative antidote to the intensely dry air of the mountains, healthy for skin and lungs as well as relaxing for bodies that have spent the day exploring the ski slopes. Kintsugi’s garden level is home to a glowing Hammam that is again utterly tasteful, almost mystically seductive while so therapeutic. And the garden! Over 1,000 landscaped square metres, this is the place for fun and games for all ages, whether scattered with spring flowers or blanketed in snow. Anyone want to build a snowman?