This Chic Paris Apartment Is a Perfect Mix of Old & New

What is it about Paris homes that feel so chic and elegant? This apartment in a classic Haussmannian building in Paris is both those things. But it’s also a beautiful example of mixing traditional architectural elements with modern designs.

Anna Piwonska of Atelier Anna Piwonska designed the remodel of this 1,150 square foot home.

Tall ceilings, natural light and charming architectural features make this apartment a classic space, but Anna faced design challenges. The kitchen needed modernizing. So did the bathrooms (and the family of four needed another). Missing architectural details would need replacing. Most of all, the new design needed to complement the space’s original style.

Design choices included modern furniture and patterned tile. The result? A combination of modern and traditional that is a beautiful marriage of style.

From Anna*:

The Clients’ request was to provide a new design for the existing three bedroom and two bathroom apartment in order to accomplish the following goals:

• Create a space that preserved the beauty and authenticity of the Haussmannian apartment, while adjusting them to meet the clients’ lifestyles and cultural heritages.
• Keep it Parisian in style while adding Californian flair.
• Make it modern to meet the current living standards without losing (actually enhancing) the historical detailing.

Functionally:

• Provide an open plan kitchen with contemporary appliances and ventilation system.
• Redesign and upgrade the two existing bathrooms

The main challenges came from dealing with the fact that the apartment was located in a historical building.

• Problem: Adding an entirely new bathroom and providing a new plumbing connection on a 2nd floor of a historical building.
• Solution:We decided to locate the bathroom in a former closet space and connect its plumbing to the redesigned plumbing structure of the adjacent kitchen.
  
• Problem: Moving and demolishing existing walls exposed differences in ceiling heights and forced us to remove some of the original crown moldings.
• Solution: Drop down the ceiling in certain areas in order to align the surfaces. Then we used the extra space above the dropped ceiling to hide ventilation pipes. In order to keep the style of the apartment, all new baseboards, wall detailing and ceiling detailing was chosen to match the period. The crown moldings layouts were also redone and areas with missing details received new custom parts in a style to match the existing ones.

(Most materials were acquired in Paris)

• Tiles, shower pans and enclosures, toilets – Porcelanosa
• Metro tile for Bathroom 1 – Aire Azur
• Shower fittings – Hansgrohe
• Master bathroom – sink faucet – THG Waterworks
• Kitchen cabinets – Ikea
• Kitchen appliances – Miele
• Kitchen faucet – Dornbracht
• Crown moldings – Auberlet et Laurent
• Dining table – Ethnicraft
• Decorative objects, candle holders etc from Nordik Market.

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*(Information provided by the designer edited for clarity)