FOLLOW US ON INSTAGARM @bettinakapareinteriors

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

Home and lifestyle stories that inspire us

Every now and then we come across the people who managed to make their passion their life. Who´s home reflects their personality and WITH A lifestyle THAT is truly inspiring. 

we Love sharing home stories of people who truly made that happen. 

Because in the end, the question we all are asking ourselves is, What does it mean to feel at Home? In life and in business?

Make yourself at home with

Lisa Maussine-Puchkine Wallen

Make yourself at home with Lisa Maussine-Puchkine Wallen

On her way home, after a night out with her friends, Lisa passed a “for sale”-sign on a deserted location with a restaurant license on Portobello Road, London. Most people would pass by, but Lisa decided to go after her dream of opening a restaurant and made an offer to buy it on the spot.

With no looking back she quit her fashionable job in London to become a restaurant owner of Lisa’s in Noting Hill. 

10 years late she is a successful entrepreneur running a restaurant in Central Chamonix, opened the first combined skateboard, cafe and vintage shop, and became a mother to two 2 beautiful girls. As well as just finished writing her first cookbook. (she is looking for an editor so if you know one give her a shout)

So how does a cool city girl with a successful restaurant end up settling in the French Alps of Chamonix?

I got a chance to visit Lisa, style her beautiful home, and at the same time learn more about what she learned along the way and what makes her feel at home.

Interview by: Bettina KAPARE

Interior styling and Photographs by KAPARE INTERIORS for more pictures visit @BettinaKapareInteriors

Tell me a little bit about your life and lifestyle?

I run my restaurant and cafe, then I have my two girls, my dog, and my husband, Ilia. “That kind of takes up all of my time” Lisa says with a smile.

Work is our life, the restaurants and cafes become like second homes. In the same way, our home is a part of our business.  The girls come with us to our restaurants and sometimes I do some preparations for the restaurant at home. It all melts together - my personal life and my business life.

Take our garden, for example, the strawberries in the drinks at cool cats are from our garden. ( visit @coolcatschamonix Lisa’s Restaurant in Chamonix)

I use the home for gardening for the restaurant and cafe as well as for us. We use the veggie food waste from the restaurants for the compost of our garden. The veggies and fruit that grow in our garden are then brought back to the restaurant.  I like the idea that nothing going to the waist and it all is working together.

How did your journey as an entrepreneur start?

When I started Lisa’s in London. I had been dreaming about a restaurant of my own for a while. I had worked in restaurants in Sweden before that, so I felt confident on that side. I got a friend of mine to help me write my business plan and it all started from there. 

“It wasn’t an easy start. On our opening night, we had a food critic from Timeout London, and he wrote a horrible review on us. When it was published, I just wanted to walk out on the street and get hit by a bus.” – Lisa says and rolls her eyes.

But She didn’t and instead she turned the place around and a few years later that same magazine gave her standing ovations. 

Best advice / life lessons you ever got? 

Have someone to do what you are not good at and focus all your energy on what’s your talent. 

How did you end up in Chamonix?

I always had a strong love for the mountains. After London, we lived in Vevey Switzerland, but I was longing for a more international pace and a dream to live and open a place in Chamonix. “It was always on my to-do list - so we moved here! ”

A little over a year ago we bought this house and I kind of feel like it will be our forever home.

How would you describe your home in 3 words? 

Vintage, warm, and alive.

Where do you find inspiration for your home? 

Everywhere, right now the reason for the colors in our house is from the stones & cliffs on the small islands on the west coast of Sweden where I grew up. Grey concrete floors like the stone and light green (sage) for the kitchen and stairs case like the moss that grows on the stone there.

What are your most beloved furniture and how did you become an owner of it? 

It’s my marble table for sure!  We bought it outside of Florence and it barely fit in the car.  Had a long discussion with Ilia if we should buy it or not, luckily, we did.

“I have even devoted a little chapter in my book about it, you can read more about it there” - if I ever get it published she humbly adds.

If you didn’t live in Chamonix, where would you live? 

Santa Teresa in Costa Rica.

I am starting to long for a simple life on the beach or closer to my family on the west coast of Sweden. Close to the ocean for sure.

What makes you feel at home?

My family, pillows & candles

As I’m about to leave Lisa’s home I notice that at some places the concrete floor has started to crack. “Oh yes, do you see the cracks in the floor” -  she says.  “They did a mistake when they put it in. But I hope it will crack a bit more so that I can put gold in all the cracks. That would look so good, don’t you think?“ - she continues with a smile.

Somehow it leaves me astonished and I realize that this is what makes Lisa so unique. Somehow, she managed to see even the cracks in her newly done concert floor as something positive. An opportunity to turn something bad into something good – something even more beautiful.

It’s no doubt to me that Lisa has turned Chamonix into her home. Her positive attitude and determination is admirable. Lisa's passion for food and positive lifestyle vibe has taken her a long way in life. She is so full of energy and always with a new project around the corner. A true inspiration on how to make yourself at home.

At the moment she has just finished writing her cookbook and is now looking for a publisher who shares her vision. If you happen to be a publisher or know someone who is, I would say don't wait to get in contact because this story is definitely not one you want to miss out on being a part of.

For more inspiration or contact. Visit Lisa’s Instagram account @WALLEN.LISA.

The home and story is shared with kind permission of Lisa Wallen all rights for picture and content belongs to Bettina Kapare and KAPARE INTERIOR´s Bettina Kapare Interiors (@bettinakapareinteriors) • Foton och videoklipp på Instagram

Are you our next Make yourself at home future or do you know of someone with an inspiring home and story?

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @BETTINAKAPAREINTERIORS