Our Paris design office and showroom (we like to call it Le Mini!) has been having quite a moment - and we're thankful and thrilled for the opportunity to work with such amazing clients on their projects.
As you can imagine, it's a lot of fun and sheer joy when our clients love the spaces we create for them. (Stay tuned for some humorous stories coming out of the Paris office soon. There have been enough funny events and colorful characters to fill a book. Hmmmm, there's an idea...)
Ann, who's leading the charge in Paris, has worked on a dozen projects in the past year with more waiting their turn. For the most part, these are apartments purchased by our clients who use them as their Parisian pied-a-terre.
As a design company, we're beyond lucky to have the world's most prolific flea market at our fingertips in Paris. Les Puces has become Ann's stomping ground for project sourcing and she's on a first-name basis with most of the vendors there.
While each project looks and feels completely different, there are a few common elements that our Paris office takes into account: apart from a fair amount of structural design that usually needs to happen, Ann likes to focus on delivering a design plan that embraces the essence of all things French and beautiful.
There's always an antique or two: it's just not an apartment in Paris without a Louis XVI chest or a crystal chandelier and we feel strongly that antiques speak to the history and very being of Paris. Plus, when you mix them with some new, modern pieces, everything starts to sing.
One of our very favorite shots! This vignette embodies everything we love about designing in Paris: a wonderful mix of periods makes the space interesting and dynamic.
There's always art: we have always felt passionate about art of any kind. We love adding abstracts in unexpected places and we're suckers for old, crusty paintings we unearth on our travels. Art adds depth and soul to any space, including Paris.
We've also had fun incorporating the most classic of classic French symbols: a vintage Hermes scarf. It doesn't get any more Parisian than that. More often than not, the colors of the scarf influence our design palette for the space.
We've recently been having a wallpaper and fabric moment: when you're working with smaller spaces, wallpapers and fabrics envelope the room making it feel cohesive and cozy. We've been having fun with wallpapers and fabrics lately, especially toiles and florals.
We love a good mirror and a chandelier: there's nothing like a gorgeous 18th century mirror to reflect all that gorgeous Parisian light.
We placed two stately Louis Philippe mirrors across from one another and hung a chandelier in between the two. Now we've doubled the chandeliers, thanks to the reflection.
Another apartment featuring all the things we love: antiques, old art, mirrors, chandeliers and fun modern swivel club chairs.
More beautiful reflections and a pretty pop of pink.
Of course, so much more goes into these designs than just picking out spectacular antiques, art and accessories - and we haven't even started on what it's like trying to get anything slightly oversized into an apartment (yep, you got it: the street gets closed off and the item is lifted into the apartment from the outside. All in a day's work, cherie!)
We truly love delivering the Paris dream to our clients and the sheer joy on their faces makes every minute of it worthwhile.
