Custom Ceramic Designs for La Cour des Artistes, Antibes
- Naaya
- Jul 13
- 4 min read
Some projects arrive with a brief that has already done most of the thinking. The space tells you what it needs, the client knows what they want, and the work is about precision rather than invention.
La Cour des Artistes in Antibes, French Riviera was that kind of project. And Philippe, a restaurateur who worked with us from the first conversation through to final specification, made sure every decision stayed honest to the space.
Project Details | Specifications |
Design Brand | Naaya Studio |
Venue | La Cour des Artistes |
Location | Antibes, French Riviera (France) |
Collaborator | Philippe (Project Specifier) |
Fixtures Installed | Ceramic Pendant Lighting (Custom Bar Series) |
The Venue
La Cour des Artistes is a bar, cocktail lounge, and evening gathering space in the old town of Antibes. It has terracotta plaster walls, a gallery of mismatched vintage mirrors in gold frames, wine barrels used as furniture, coral and cobalt bar stools, oil paintings stacked against textured surfaces, and a terrace that fills every night with the kind of crowd that lingers. It is warm, layered, and completely its own thing. Generic lighting would have flattened it immediately.
The Commission
Philippe came to us needing five custom ceramic pendant designs across two distinct zones within the venue. Not adaptations of existing designs, actual custom work: silhouettes, dimensions, and finishes developed specifically for the positions they would hang in.
This is the kind of commission we find most interesting. The constraints are real, the decisions matter, and the result either belongs or it does not. There is no middle ground.
Over the Bar: The Custom Bar Series
Three pendants hang above the main bar counter, where a full wall of backlit spirits shelving runs behind a professional espresso machine. The light in this zone needed to be warm and present without competing with the theatrical quality of the bar itself.
We placed three pieces from what we are calling the Custom Bar Series here, all finished in a warm clay tone that sits naturally within the amber and terracotta palette of the room. These lamps bring a wide, grounded presence and one introduces a narrower, more vertical form. The third piece from the Custom Bar Series adds a third silhouette to the grouping, keeping the eye moving without creating visual noise.
Philippe worked with us through multiple rounds of dimension adjustments on each piece. The final sizes were not standard. They were arrived at by looking at the specific ceiling height, the bar counter depth, and the scale of the shelving wall behind, and asking what would feel right in that exact position.
At the Centre: The Black Pendants
The two black ceramic pendants are a different conversation entirely.
They hang at the centre of the restaurant at varied heights, on a drop long enough to place them at eye level as you approach from outside. Before you step through the entrance, before you see the mirrors or the terracotta walls or the terrace beyond, you see these two pendants hanging in the dark interior. They are the first impression of the whole space.
Black in a room this warm is a deliberate contrast. It grounds the centre of the restaurant, gives the eye an anchor, and signals that the space has been thought about carefully. Philippe was clear on this from early in the process, and the final pieces reflect that confidence.
On Dimension and Customisation
One of the things that makes ceramic lighting genuinely different from manufactured fittings is that the form is alive until it is fired. That means dimensions can be adjusted, proportions can be shifted, and scale can be tailored to a specific spatial need without tooling costs or minimum order quantities.
Philippe took full advantage of this. Across all five pieces, dimensions were revised multiple times as the installation planning became more precise. The final pendants are not standard sizes. They are the sizes that work for La Cour des Artistes, arrived at through an iterative process that most lighting suppliers cannot offer.
The Result
The bar glows. The centre of the restaurant anchors. The street outside draws you in before you have made any decision about whether to enter.
That is what our custom ceramic pendants can do when the brief is taken seriously and the collaboration goes deep enough.
La lumière fait tout. The light makes everything.
If you are a designer, architect, or hospitality operator working on a project that needs lighting made for a specific space, we are open to a conversation. Contact us at sales@naayastudio.com or visit naayastudio.com. We work on custom commissions at any scale.
Quick Project Summary
Q: What lighting is used in La Cour des Artistes Antibes? A: La Cour des Artistes features five custom-made ceramic pendants by Naaya Studio, specified by Philippe, the restaurateur. The installation includes a warm clay-toned "Custom Bar Series" ceramic pendant acting as a central anchor.
Comments