From Plant to Palette: Marijeen Tigen’s Natural Dyes Bring Chalet Cocagne to Life

In the heart of the Swiss Alps, along a winding path framed by pastures and ancient stone walls, Chalet Cocagne emerges as a meditation on colour, craft and a profound sense of place.

For interior designer Marijeen Tigen, this project was far more than a renovation of a 1970s mountain retreat — it was a return to her longstanding fascination with natural dyes and the way colour can root a home within its landscape.

For Tigen, the process begins long before sketches, material boards or furniture selections. Every shade is the outcome of a slow, almost ritualistic journey of researching, gathering and transforming natural pigments. She and her team walk the surrounding meadows and forests, collecting plants, flowers and minerals from which they extract delicate tones that mirror the light of the Alps: misty greys derived from stone, soft late-summer yellows, muted purples inspired by mountain thistles and wild asters.

“The palette comes directly from the land,” Tigen notes. “Each colour carries a story — of soil, of light, of season. When you live with these hues, you feel that connection.”

The result is a textile and paint palette developed in her Paris atelier and entrusted to artisans who safeguard generations of knowledge in natural dyeing. In the living room, a linen sofa dyed in her signature shade Orage evokes clouds drifting over the peaks at dusk. In the main bedroom, a wool-and-linen headboard reflects the silvery tones of dried thistles, while the dining chairs bloom in her colours Lupin and Bleuet, directly inspired by the wildflowers edging the alpine meadows.

The atmosphere that permeates Chalet Cocagne is born from this rare harmony between nature and craft. Tigen’s colours are not trend-driven but timeless — tactile, emotive, and resilient to passing fashions. The entire process is inherently sustainable: plant-based pigments require significantly less water, leave no chemical waste, vintage textiles are revived, and locally sourced wool reduces transport and environmental impact. Every element is chosen with intention — from hand-stitched curtains to patinated mirrors and a dining table carved from reclaimed oak.

“Natural dyeing teaches patience,” she says. “It is unpredictable in the most beautiful way. It teaches you to embrace imperfection and let nature have the final word.”

In Chalet Cocagne, this philosophy finds its purest form. Earthy textures and harmonious tones blur the boundary between interior and landscape, creating a space that feels alive, organic and deeply rooted. Even the smallest details — lighting crafted from recycled zinc, wooden bird sculptures, a bench upholstered in hand-dyed linen — echo the same guiding principle: respect for material, sensitivity to nature and the belief that true luxury is born from time, care and the hands that shape it.

At a moment when sustainability is often reduced to marketing language, Marijeen Tigen’s practice offers a more intimate and honest model — one that unites material truth, emotional resonance and a deep connection to place. Through her “from plant to palette” approach, colour ceases to be decoration and becomes a living expression of nature, memory and mindful creation.