MAISON 1909

Our story

Boxwood bead curtains…

Who knows why Emile Reboul, a bootmaker by profession, decided to quite its formal job to start realizing boxwood bead curtains in 1909? The family workshop ran successfully until 1970, when he took the decision to retire and hand over his business. However, his daughter, Gabrielle Dejoux stayed on in the business to maintain the unique Know-How. Marie-Claude Brochet learned this unique handiwork from them when she opened her workshop.

From “Maison Reboul” to “Maison 1909”, a proof of her admiration and pride, a seal of quality

Marie-Claude Brochet followed the steps from her grandfather, leaving her formal profession in the IT business after 15 years. She had been able to preserve the ancestral Know-How and develop it by adding new designs and updating it with new uses in interior design. Changing professions is decidedly the link between the Reboul family members, especially when Amélie Ricard also took an important decision by leaving her job from the retail sector to go back to the family fold. Alone at the helm, she developed and carefully maintained the artisan approach of the business, whilst completing it with her own innovations. While her grandfather proposed ten different models from his workshop, she has today over one hundred. Each boxwood curtain is a unique piece, custom made and fully personalized according to the customer’s requests and needs. The boxwood beads are round, oblongs, circular or curved, olive-shaped, mounted upon stamped frame supports and hooked together using galvanised steel wire.  The different patterns vary according to the different colours radiances : Red clay, Pacific blue or Azure blue, Brown chocolate, Golden caramel, Spruce green, Black, Silver grey, Pearly white and Natural.

Amélie can also realise your own pattern if needed.

The boxwood curtain is definitely the very best solution. It will not only protect ourselves from insects, heat and excessive light but also nicely fit our interior and exterior design with charm and gracefulness.

MONTFAVET’s little boxwood pieces

Listen !

Can’t you hear it ?

Tendez bien l’oreille !

That’s it. That melody, it’s mine, rocking in the gentle breeze.

Follow my voice, a clicking which pulls you on. It will take you to Montfavet, to Faverolles, where i have fun while I wait for you. Don’t be shy, let yourself bu guided to the end of the path and you’ll be surprised !

You don’t believe me ? If only you’ll see me.

Go on, just a few more steps and you’ll see me.

I can see you. I’m waiting for you.

You can’t see me? Of course, you can! You’re even tickling my well-rounded, delicately varnished surface.

Yes, it’s me who’s speaking. The boxwood piece that you have in your hand!

Of course, a boxwood bead can talk! You just have to know how to listen.

How did I get here? It’s a long story and I don’t remember anything about my life before.

My first memories are of Marie-Claude.

No, not the next piece, but my adoptive mother who lovingly placed me on this curtain which you’ve just passed through.

She’s the one who came from the workshop where I was with my friends not long ago.

What a lovely smile, what kindness and especially what passion!

I already know that she’ll warmly welcome you and take you through to her room. Just between us small pieces of wood, we call this place the nursery. We’re placed in cradles according to our colours, waiting for Marie-Claude to honour us by choosing us to decorate a curtain that will go and live a beautiful life in a house where our characteristic sound, smell and large shape is loved.

But let’s go back to Marie-Claude. Listen to her tell the story about her grandfather, Émile (but it’s also in some way our story too), because he was the one who started this business here. Yes, Mr Reboul, that’s him, yes - this man who elevated boxwood to the rank of art until 1970.

Today it’s Marie-Claude who writes, no, rather who makes this story “roll” between her hands, the last hands making boxwood curtains in the region. And with such talent!

I’ve seen her hands give life to cats, Arlesians and flowers of all colours!

Marie-Claude is a magician with beads. And all of us want to be caressed by her hands. We bang against each other; we jostle each other to be the chosen boxwood bead! You can imagine what chaos it is.

Our song mixes with the curtains that are already made who mock us from up high. But we sing even louder!

When the “mistral” stirs up, it’s even better! It’s a true symphony of wood. And we love the coolness which surrounds us.

But what we really prefer is Marie-Claude’s warmth. Our love story is timeless, in the same way that the boxwood from which we are born is a symbol of immortality.

I can still remember a day when a young couple, filled with emotion, came to look for a boxwood curtain for their new house. They both wanted to have a living testimony from their childhood when they loved to warp themselves up in the family home’s boxwood curtain to hear the grandparents say, “Stop playing with the curtain, you’ll let the flies and the bees in!”

They wanted their future children to experience the simple joy of playing with a boxwood curtain too.

In my opinion, they also wanted to have fun with the curtain, just like the children they still were at the bottom of their hearts!

Yes, we’re useful to stop insects coming in and have become inseparable from the cosy atmosphere of home and we often evoke memories.

Marie-Claude lovingly continues the beautiful family stories by creating, and often reproducing exactly, the curtains which rocked childhoods.

Lots of people who love these works (and love us too!) say that coming here is like a whiff of youthfulness and carefreeness, a way of life that needs to be preserved.

I fully agree!

You’re here again! I bet you choose a curtain with a cat!

I admit it wasn’t difficult to guess, I listen to everything! You know I’m a curious bead by nature.

You’re tickling me again and I feel your touch more gently and full of nostalgia.

Have you remembered a boxwood curtain from your childhood? I bet you have!

I’m going to let you surround me in your hands, so you can await your future curtain while thinking of us.

Don’t be afraid: Marie-Claude will create a custom-made masterpiece for you and all the beads will keep a weather eye open!

See you very soon! I know you’ll come back to see us. People always return to Faverolles.

And this evening, when the sun leaves its place to a beautiful full moon, look towards the horizon and listen to the noise of the night. You’ll hear whispers. That of the little people from the country of the boxwood beads, at Marie-Claude’s home.

Stéphanie Maisonnave