An Interview with Nicolas Roux

What do you do for Rive Gauche?

I am the Managing Director and Founder of Rive Gauche London and I personally oversee the design and delivery of all client projects from start to finish with the support of my amazing team. I spend a lot of my time advising clients on their project; either for a potential new investment where they need pre-acquisition advice, or for an existing property they own which needs a full renovation. I take pride in personally managing the client relationship form start to finish. It's important for them to trust you and to feel that they have the best possible advice and high quality service all the way through with one person. The rest of my time is shared between design reviews with my team and coordination of meetings on site. Before setting up Rive Gauche, I spent fifteen years working for some of the most renowned designers, architects and contractors. It was always my intention to bring all of those skills under one roof to better serve our clients.

What do you love most about your role?

To me, I have a best job ever. I spend my time meeting incredible individuals, leaders in their industry. They put their trust in us to create and deliver their dream property - a place where they will build beautiful memories across generations. We have a very unique position, where they share with us their vision, their ambition and it's so rewarding for a designer to have the freedom to make those visions become a reality. I spent my childhood in the family workshop in the French countryside alongside my father, a Master Carpenter and Joiner. I developed a passion for authentic craftsmanship, a deep-rooted understanding of materials and an exquisite eye for detail. Today this translates into projects delivered with passion for my clients

How has your business adapted in light of COVID-19?

We have always worked on international projects; Monaco, Middle East, Kazakhstan, Africa etc so as a business we are very use to working remotely with teams and clients around the world. Client presentations had to adapt. We would usually prepare a room with all the materials, visuals and present face-to-face to the client so they can interact with the materials and textures. Its difficult to reproduce the same experience remotely but we have adapted and currently send samples to clients houses before a meeting so they still benefit from real life samples. The team has been amazing - we have managed to continue to coordinate and deliver extremely large and complex projects throughout COVID.

What has been your greatest achievement, personal or professional?

I always feel that my greatest achievement is yet to come. There is some much to look forward to. Professionally we have some amazing projects which we have been working on for the last 3 years, and I can't wait to share them. At the moment, I'm grateful to have a team who share the same passion for design and outstanding quality as I do. Personally, I have a wonderful family with 3 young children and this is an achievement in itself.

Why did you join PCD?

Our ability to deliver and manage projects from start to finish, combined with our deep technical insight and experience. is quite unique in the luxury interiors market. Often you'd need to appoint numerous advisors to get the outcome you desire. As we speak to more Private Clients Advisors (PCAs) we're hearing that they're very keen on one business/person managing all of their client's property requirements and acting as an extension of their own services and values. They want to build that trust with one team knowing its hassle free and effective as an ongoing solution for their HNW clients. The PCD club seems to be a good window into the PCA world allowing us to introduce what we do to more to the right people.

Have you attended a PCD Webinar? What did you think?

Yes - I find them very insightful with a great line up of contributors. I'm very much looking forward to contributing to a webinar in the near future!

On a weekend, I am most likely found...

In the park with my children either hiding behind a tree or doing some much-needed DIY!