Peter Mikic Revives a Côte d’Azur Estate Once Home to Brigitte Bardot
The designer contrasts the villa’s classic Mediterranean façade with an interior bursting with bold color, dynamic details, and edgy art
First impressions can be deceiving, especially when designer Peter Mikic is in the control room. The Australian-born, London-based talent, heralded for his exuberant take on contemporary glamour, recently completed a design for a new villa in the foothills of Saint-Tropez, France, that’s chock-full of surprises. The property even has a notable pedigree: It was once owned by Brigitte Bardot, the goddess of French film who made her home in this sybaritic Mediterranean village for more than six decades before her death in December.
Based on its sunflower-yellow plaster exterior, terra-cotta tile roof, and pale-blue shutters that appear faded from years in the sun (but are in fact painted a Farrow & Ball shade called Light Blue No. 22), the traditional-looking residence evokes the timeless, relaxed pleasures of the Côte d’Azur. The interiors, however, tell a more intriguing, more rigorously refined story. It’s un art total, or total work of art, informed by such modernist gems as Piero Portaluppi’s Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan as well as the homeowner’s dazzling collection of midcentury furniture.
“He wasn’t looking for loungy TV rooms—he likes to entertain. He’s sporty and adventurous,” Mikic says of his client, an art-collecting businessman for whom he has designed other homes in addition to a restaurant-cum–members club in London. “He wanted it to be smart.”
This is a home conceived with bold ideas. The entry features a helical staircase of Mikic’s design, carved from massive blocks of limestone. Unfurling like a seashell, it rises above strikingly patterned marble flooring that resembles strands of lozenge-shaped jade interwoven with the same heavily veined Breccia Pontificia marble that frames the doorways to the salon and the study on either side. The doors themselves are chic custom creations in glass and brass derived from a window that Mikic and his client saw on a field trip to Milan.
The designer originally planned for white walls in the salon, but because the space was so big—just under 1,000 square feet—“it felt cold,” he recalls. He opted instead for light-mustard plaster that casts a warm glow beneath a plaster ceiling whose circle-in-square pattern echoes the entry’s geometric flooring.
Mikic chose soft fabrics in monochrome such as mohair and velvet to allow the eye to focus on the owner’s midcentury treasures. Here, armchairs by Paul Dupré-Lafon and Joaquim Tenreiro join more recently conceived sofas by Vincenzo De Cotiis around a sculptural Gabriella Crespi brass cocktail table, with a gleaming Venini amber-glass chandelier by Carlo Scarpa suspended above. Paintings by Dana Schutz and Tracey Emin on the surrounding walls add contemporary punch. “We wanted a harmonious room that felt cozy when you walked in,” he says.
A former menswear designer, he launched his interiors firm, Peter Mikic Studio, in 2006, and his joy—and skill—in deploying color is evident. He splashed the oak-paneled study with red, the homeowner’s favorite color. Floor-to-ceiling ruby velvet curtains complement bespoke silk rugs in a matching shade, while a Jean Royère iron chandelier painted in a fiery hue hangs above an assortment of stylishly mismatched vintage pieces, including Royère seating and a Jacques Adnet desk. Radiant abstract artworks by Beatriz Milhazes and Damien Hirst punctuate the walls.
Effervescent hues infuse other rooms, too, including bedrooms in citron, tangerine, crimson, and bronze. “He’s definitely not afraid of color,” Mikic explains. “He wanted to venture out and push the boundary a little.”
Venturing out, by the way, is exactly what one must do to find the kitchen. A plein air affair at the request of his client, the kitchen is sheltered by a roof and glass doors that can be closed but are typically flung wide open to the surrounding dining terrace. Lined in teak and brass, the kitchen resembles a yacht, a Mikic specialty, as he has designed several. “We all thought it was crazy,” Mikic recalls, “but in the end, to be outside making your coffee is a pleasure, and it changes the entire mood of a dinner when it’s all outside.”
Past the outdoor dining room, the pool house bar, and the vast pool lined with Bisazza glass mosaic tiles, more pleasures can be found in the garden, which is populated with not only cypress, olive, and palm trees but also an array of arresting sculptures, which the owner collects as passionately as he does iconic furniture designs. A life-size iron body form by Antony Gormley overlooks a reflecting pool, while one of Annie Morris’s sculptures of colorful stacked orbs blooms from a garden bed. Other works—by Isamu Noguchi, Lynda Benglis, Mathieu Lehanneur, and Robert Indiana—are just as thoughtfully placed.
“It’s all about discovery and allowing his guests to find these treasures in the garden,” Mikic muses. “The whole property is very interactive. It’s spacious but contained. It feels easy. Designing from scratch enabled us to see exactly how it could all work together.” The results are deceptively easy with a mastermind like Mikic at the helm.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Summer Issue under the headline “History Play.” Subscribe to the magazine.