La maison
Ananbô

THE HOUSE OF ANANBÔ - FRENCH PANORAMIC WALLPAPER

An independent, creative, family-run French design house, founded in 2008 and based among the vineyards of Gironde

At ANANBÔ, every design begins with a landscape, a memory or the thought of a journey. Painted by hand and then refined in our studio, our creations bring depth, character and a distinctive presence to interiors.

From the very beginning, we have envisioned our panoramic wallpapers as landscapes to inhabit. Mediterranean gardens, distant horizons, lush vegetation, dreamlike architecture, grisaille, sepia tones and patinas create a distinctive world, inspired by travel, art history and a uniquely French approach to interior decoration.

Every creation begins as an original artwork painted by hand. Texture, brushstrokes, translucent layers and subtle tonal variations give each design its depth and presence. The artwork is then digitised and carefully refined to preserve the full expressive quality of the painting on a large scale.

ANANBÔ panoramic wallpapers are designed and made in France, and printed to order. This considered approach to production allows each wallpaper mural to be tailored to the dimensions and architecture of its setting, whether a private home, an apartment, a hotel, a restaurant or an interior designer’s project.

Every room is a journey

The interview

Interview by Marie-Maud Levron
Photography credits: Ananbô

The House of ANANBÔ is rooted in Anne Boghossian’s vision and personal story.
Here, she reflects on how ANANBÔ began, her inspirations and her creative process.

Hello Anne, you are the brand’s founder and artistic director. How did the idea for Ananbô’s first panoramic wallpaper collections come about?

My initial wish was very simple: to dress homes, decorate and enjoy the process. ANANBÔ was first created for my own home. I have never wanted to create a design I would not enjoy living with in my own home.

Where does your love of interior decoration come from, and how has your eye for design developed over the years?

I have always spent a lot of time decorating. I have lived in many flats and houses and moved often, and every new place was an opportunity to reinvent everything. My mother had wonderful taste. In the 1970s, she subscribed to Art & Décoration; we would talk about colours, repaint the furniture and walls, rearrange the rooms and transform the house with very little. Those memories are still vivid. I can still picture the wallpaper we chose for my bedroom when I was ten or eleven.

Later, when I left the family home for a studio flat in Paris during my studies, I started making some of my own furniture. I particularly remember a coffee table made with seashells, which I designed after returning from a trip to the Pacific. That sense of freedom in creating an interior has stayed with me ever since.

What inspires your collections, and which themes are you particularly drawn to?

Discovering South Asia in the early 1980s was a revelation. In Paris, near Les Halles, there was a shop called Le Monde Sauvage; its name alone fired my imagination, and I would spend hours there.

Since then, travel has remained at the heart of my imagination. I am drawn to landscapes, lush vegetation and architecture, but also to the sense of calm a place can evoke. Every ANANBÔ design begins with a real place, a memory or an imagined journey.

Anne Boghossian
Founder of the House Ananbô

How does that inspiration then become an ANANBÔ design?
At what point does the landscape really begin to take shape?

I always begin by sketching out the composition. First, I draw a horizon line in pencil: this is what gives the landscape its balance and depth.

Then I look for the elements I want to use. I draw on old drawings, engravings and travel photographs, some of them very old. I have also kept my mother’s travel journals, which are a particularly precious source of inspiration for me.

Then I begin to build the scene: I place a tree, then another element, an architectural feature, some vegetation… I layer things, move them, remove them and start again. It is a very instinctive process. Little by little, the elements find their place and the landscape emerges. That is when I know the design has come to life.

“The creative process always begins with a journey,
or the idea of a journey: how I would like it to be.”

Could you tell me about the technical side of the creative process, your work on colour and where production takes place?

My vision and sensibility are reflected in every design. It always begins with a journey, a memory or the idea of a journey: a personal vision, often with a dreamlike quality. The landscape gradually takes shape; plants, animals, figures or architectural elements sometimes come to inhabit it. The decorative painter then brings the sketch to life.

The artist’s hand, the brushstrokes, the translucent layers and the subtle nuances are essential to the identity of ANANBÔ landscapes. The original hand-painted artwork is then digitised. This is followed by meticulous work on the composition, balance, pattern matching and colour, to preserve the painting’s presence on a large scale.

Our panoramic wallpapers are designed and made in France. They are printed in Bordeaux on non-woven paper with an ultra-matt finish, chosen for its depth and elegance. Each order is carefully prepared and undergoes a quality check before dispatch.

How would you define the spirit of your collections?

Refined, evocative of faraway places, delicate, sometimes theatrical. There is something distinctly French and very 19^th-century about the ANANBÔ spirit, in its passion for landscapes and travel. But I also want the designs to remain timeless: to feel equally at home in a period house or a thoroughly contemporary architectural setting.

Ananbô is also a family business.
Could you tell me a little more about that?

Making ANANBÔ a family business was a way of ensuring that what began as a very personal intuition could endure. To this day, our independence allows us to grow without losing what defines the House: creative freedom, attention to detail and the desire to maintain a direct relationship with our clients.

How many designs and variations do you offer?

The collection grows each year with new landscapes, in a wide range of colourways, grisaille and sepia variations, and patina effects.

The world of ANANBÔ now extends beyond wallpaper to furnishing fabrics, wall hangings, cushions, decorative panels and home accessories.

You refer to both “panoramic wallpapers” and “decorative panels”, don’t you?

For me, panoramic wallpaper is first and foremost a landscape that unfolds across a wall and transforms the way a room is perceived. It is at the heart of ANANBÔ’s work. Decorative panels work on a different scale: they are more self-contained compositions, conceived as large paintings or elements of interior architecture.

What does the name “Ananbô” mean?

ANANBÔ is an invented, deeply personal name, created for its sound and the images it could evoke. I wanted a name that suggested distant places, landscapes and journeys without belonging to any one location. I put it together freely, drawing on sounds associated with my own name and the things that stirred my imagination.

Panoramic wallpaper was hugely popular in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, when it adorned grand houses. Has production on a larger scale made it accessible to a wider audience today?

Panoramic wallpaper now reaches a much wider audience, but I believe ANANBÔ’s clients are still, above all, people who appreciate landscapes, interior decoration and interiors with a story to tell.

Our designs now travel throughout France and abroad, into private homes as well as hotels, restaurants and projects by architects and interior designers. They are still made to order: this approach allows us to give careful attention to each design and the project in which it will find its place.

Each room is a journey…