From Paris to Turin

 

The French-Italian owner of this Parisian apartment lives and works in Turin, Italy, where she runs Verdelilla concept stores. Her passion is fashion but also decorating and it shows in her stores and of course in this eclectic and colorful home.

The above image shows the dining area and kitchen separated by a large French door but still visually connected. Note the chairs, all different, and the whimsical colorful one which is sold at Verdelilla.

 

Vintage plum chairs and vibrant yellow velvet sofa but contemporary Zettel’z e Knuller ceiling light by Ingo Maurer.

 

Black front door, black settee in a stark white hallway.

 

The kitchen is traditional and contemporary at the same time, with a fun stenciled table top.

 

Pale pink, a touch of fresh yellow and dark coffee tones for Foulards wallpaper by Élitis

 

Traditional wood floor and classic fireplace, stark lights and Rocker.

 

In a corridor a display of Black and White photography plus a red vase from Rossana Orlandi.

Images by Helenio Barbetta

©2014 Tent London Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

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If you need help to enjoy your home more, please send us an email.  It will be an investment in happiness at home, because a well designed house is always a good part of a great life and a beautiful room will make you happy every time you walk in

 

 

 

 

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A-Efendy Designers, Fashion, Furniture, Houses, Interior Decoration, Interior design, Lifestyle, Paris, Tent London Interiors

A charming loft house

An industrial building in Paris, transformed into a family home of an Interior designer, where the patio, with the ivy creating a decoration that changes with the seasons, is the center and the heart of daily life. Heirloom furniture, Baccarat chandeliers, contemporary pieces, extravagant accessories, chinoiserie collections create an eclectic atmosphere inside.

 

Warm colors for the pieces of furniture and pale colors for the walls make the industrial style building more attractive and liveable.

 

In the living room the main piece of furniture is “Proust” armchair by Alessandro Mendini for Cappellini, against a 1930’s cabinet. A reproduction of Canova’s Three Graces and a unicorne create another focal point.

 

Simple lines for the dining chairs and table.

 

In the dining room, 1940 style, a collection of animated lights, reminiscent of the owner’s childhood, glows against a trompe-l'oeil wall. The light comes from an ornate Baccarat chandelier.

 

The master bedroom, on the top floor, is all white, but punctuated by touches of ruby red and it opens to the elegant and functional marble bathroom.

 

A 1940 mirrored console with family images and objects plus a precious Murano sconce create a great vignette.

 

Outdoor chairs are designed by Philippe Starck for Kartell.

 

The charming patio with the terracotta colored wall.

Photography by Nicolas Millet for Côté Maison.

©2012 Tent London Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you need help to enjoy your home more, please send me an email. It will be an investment in happiness at home, a well designed house is always a good part of a great life and a beautiful room will make you happy every time you walk in!

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A-Efendy Furniture, Houses, Interior design, Lofts, Paris, Tent London Interiors

Christian Lacroix!

The apartment featured on my post Can you guess whose house is this? was fashion designer Christian Lacroix’s previous house in the elegant Marais area of Paris, in a 16th century building.  Nearby the superb Place des Vosges, the Picasso Museum and the Carnavalet Museum to name a few attractions of the area.  Lacroix studied Art history, wishing to become art curator for Museums, but then he worked for years as the creative mind at Emilio Pucci’s fashion house and soon became a famous stylist with exuberant taste. You can see his style also in this house, full of antique elements and of contemporary daring choices.

Can you spot the whimsical Fornasetti’s chair?

Colored textiles, contemporary art and eccentric accessories frame the delicate original fireplace.
The large house is almost 7,000 sq. ft. and has 12 feet high ceilings.

 

 

 

 

 

All the original elements were perfectly restored, wood floors, gilded stucco, doors’ frames,

all in a typical French late 16th Century style.

 

Another treasure is the inside courtyard  of about 600 sq. ft. an oasis of tranquility in the center of Paris and I can imagine how alive it was during Lacroix’s famous dinner parties.

***

A few years ago Lacroix started using his talent also in the Interior decoration of three boutique hotels in Paris:

 

Hotel du Petit Moulin

 

Hotel le Notre Dame

 

 

Hotel Le Belle Chasse

Paris, boutique Hotels, Christian Lacroix creative genius…who can resist?

The first comment on my previous blog post with the right answer was from The Swan and you can see all the other comments on my previous post HERE.

©2011 Tent London Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".


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Les Macarons

Ladurée is a prestigious French maison of pastries and cakes, famous also for the incredibly light shells of meringue with the most delicious flavors of ganache inside, called macarons in French.

Ladurée flyer with the assortment of flavors.

 

The macarons were introduced to France by  Caterina de’ Medici, a wealthy Florentine who in 1533, at the age of fourteen, married the future King Henry II of France, who was also of the same age at the time.  The Florentine cooks who went with her brought the secrets of Italian cooking  including canard a l’orange and the pastry makers used their innovative genius with sorbets and ice creams,  pastries and of course pasta dishes.

Colorful Macarons

Paris store

Rendering for the Milanese new store.

In September 2011 another Ladurée store will open in Milan, the second one in a few years, and it will be designed by the famous French architect  Jean Nouvel.  I can’t wait to see it (well actually not just to see...)

If you have a few moments enjoy the sweet, in every sense, Ladurée website (HERE) it will bring you back to your childhood!


©2011 Tent London Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".


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Midnight in Paris

A scene from “Midnight in Paris” (or afternoon in Monet’s garden in Giverny…)

The new film by Woody Allen “Midnight in Paris” will open the 2011 Cannes Film Festival in May. The romantic comedy is described by the director of the Festival as “a wonderful love letter to Paris,”  adding: “It’s a film in which Woody Allen takes a deeper look at the issues raised in his last films: our relationship with history, art, pleasure and life.”  The movie follows a family travelling to the city for business, and a freshly engaged couple that has their lives transformed.
The cast includes Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody and for a cameo role also the Italian artist Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, France very own first lady, apparently receiving  a bit more attention than the others.

Woody Allen, Owen Wilson and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

Woody Allen and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

But let’s talk about Interiors, as part of the film was shot in a gorgeous Parisian apartment in a building Napoleon III style (Second Empire)  and of course with a monumental  front door and soaring ceilings.

Owen Wilson and a typical Parisian wrought iron railing.

This image of the apartment is not part of the movie, but was shot for an exhibition of contemporary pieces of furniture, as the Chesterfield sofa by Poltrona Frau  and the chair Grande Papilio by Naoto Fukasawa for B&B Italia. Exquisite original wood floor and walls and ceilings decorations. The dark grey creates a very elegant background for antiques or for contemporary pieces, the large and tall windows allow the light to play with the different shades of grey.
I can see drapes not perfectly hung and a throw on the sofa casually draped around cushions, I have no idea about this choice but perhaps the photograher wanted to create a lived-in atmosphere in such an austere apartment of the past.

On the antique card table the modern lamp Abat-Jour, designed by Ettore Sottsass  for B&B Italia. Again the cord of the lamp could have been shortened but I like it as it is, since it gives the impression that someone is living in the place, instead of a perfectly staged image for a magazine.

Black marble for the fireplace is a background for the contemporary silver candlestick by Ora-ïto for Christofle. On the right a vintage armchair covered in moiré velvet.

In this room we see a dark purple-red upholstery for the chair Moël by Inga Sempé for Ligne Roset near a vintage table surrounded by industrial look chairs. A B&W portrait is casually standing on the antique fireplace mantel, behind a teapot that looks like an Alessi one.

Until I will see the movie “Midnight in Paris” I will keep wondering about the interior decoration Woody Allen’s team has created for the story which spans a few decades of the last century.

Top image by Roger Arpajou © 2011
Interiors photography by Didier Delmas

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A-Efendy Interior design, Movies, Paris, Tent London Interiors