On a quiet street in Gbonvié, a residential area of Lomé in Togo, they’re the first things to catch the eye: five robust benches, covered with brightly coloured mosaics, standing out against the sandy hue of the unpaved ground. A few children are perched on one of them, enjoying the shade of mango and breadfruit trees. The rounded seat backs are smiling figures entirely lined in shards of glass – friendly people whose noses and eyes are made from tiles. But this incredibly affable public furniture is just a taste of what awaits us in the large corner house just opposite, the façade of which is a polychrome fresco bursting with naive faces and abstract patterns, all topped by a reproduction of the Statue of Liberty in rainbow colours. There, above a large gate, a grey-and white jigsaw puzzle announces Koumy House in capital letters.
This characterful building springs from the mind of Jean Koumy, a painter and sculptor born here in the country’s capital who left in 1982 to lead an artist’s life in Belgium. There he made a career for himself, exhibiting in European galleries from Monaco to Brussels, before returning to live in his native country full-time five years ago. Today, the prolific mural-maker’s work can be seen across Lomé, embellishing the walls of supermarkets, the Institut Français and even the airport; one recent piece, made alongside students in an art workshop aimed at fostering young talent, was created for the Lomé outpost of the UN Population Fund.
His home/studio, meanwhile, has been 15 years in the making. ‘When I bought the plot, it was just scrubland; the neighbourhood was nowhere near as vibrant as it is today,’ recalls the 65-year-old artist, who greets us in a customised smock with heart-shaped pockets and white dungarees dappled with brush strokes. ‘I built this house step by step, on round trips between Belgium and Togo, and designed it all myself, without an architect,’ he says. ‘The first thing I did was take wooden planks and lay them on the earthen floor to draw the plans directly. Then I brought in the masons and craftsmen. Year after year, as soon as I earned some money, I’d come back and build another part of it.’
Beyond the large gate, the house opens on to a lush walled garden populated by birds, vines and mango trees. You need only stand there on the threshold for a few minutes to guess the general theme: there are human figures everywhere, but above all, hearts. In all sizes and colours. Hearts modelled in golden concrete or held in the beaks of doves drawn on the wall. Hearts carried like trophies by humanoid sculptures tiled in indigo, yellow, purple and orange; or embedded between two fish at the bottom of the little pool that borders the greenery. ‘My art, like my house, is based on love,’ says Koumy, with a joviality that perfectly matches the spirit of the place. ‘And there’s no white or black here, only colour, colour, colour.’ He defines this style, which he terms ‘Koumysme’, as ‘a call to joy’; it’s an idiom influenced as much by the ceramic mosaics of Parc Guëll, Gaudí’s masterpiece in Barcelona, as by the distorted faces of Pablo Picasso, the generous Nanas sculpted by Niki de Saint Phalle (WoI Nov 2022) and the spontaneity of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
A small alley – entirely paved, of course, with tile shards – leads gently to the veranda of a single-storey house and, further on, towards a workshop where pots, brushes and rags surround several paintings in progress. Koumy refers to this tree-lined pathway as ‘the boulevard of love’. ‘When they come in, I want my visitors to walk along a boulevard somewhat like the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, but here dedicated to love,’ explains Koumy with a smile. ‘I’m a bit of a hippie.’ He remodelled and replanted the surrounding garden four times before he was satisfied. Among the foliage stretches a concrete sculpture of a man, his belly inscribed with the words ‘Love, love, all the rest is nothing’ – a phrase borrowed from the 17th-century fabulist Jean de La Fontaine.
Inside, the baton is passed from mosaics to painting. Living room, bedrooms, corridors, kitchen – everything is decorated with freehand frescoes: laughing faces that form purple, pink or yellow patches, lianas of hearts unfurling around the windows, birds escaping from the frame, ceilings adorned with golden volutes. Here and there, chequerboard patterns both above and below help make these sprawling murals pop. The abundance continues into the small bathroom, Koumy’s favourite space in the house: a big blue heart features on the tiled floor, while the shower walls are joyfully painted with fish, flowers and stars. Even the loo, bin and boiler, covered with abstract shapes and dots, blend into the harmonious whole.
Koumy opens his doors to visitors every day. By appointment, the owner welcomes small groups of art lovers, city locals or inquisitive tourists. Schoolchildren regularly come to picnic outside and learn to paint. A yoga studio rolls out its mats here between the trees every first Saturday of the month. Recently, the US ambassador to Togo came to take a stroll. Koumy loves these comings and goings, relishing his guests’ surprise. ‘Listening to people share their feelings, seeing them sitting in the garden not wanting to leave – that’s what makes me want to keep going. Like many artists, it pleases me to please!’ When do you deem such a house finished? That’s the question preoccupying its master at the moment. ‘I do feel a sense of completion with the place, which I’m passionate about sustaining and sharing. But I also wouldn’t put it past me, one day, to want to add things... When an artist lives among his works, anything can happen.’
Visit Jean Koumy's Instagram @jkoumy
A version of this article appears in the May 2026 issue of ‘The World of Interiors’. Learn about our subscription offers
