Inside Parisian Artists' Playful City Apartment - Architectural Digest

It is true that Paris is the most densely populated city in Europe It is true that people are used to living in extremely small apartments To fully maximize spaces I am a proponent of living in small spaces In fact I think I could never live in a huge house unless I had a family with 20 children I think being in a small space allows us to control what happens there which also contributes to physical and mental well-being I like well-optimized small spaces but if I had a choice between a big house and a small apartment I really prefer the small apartment I am Hugo Vince I am Caroline Barrault And welcome to our 69 square meter apartment At Saint-Ouen in the heart of the flea market near Paris Oh but you got worked up there I felt inspired With Hugo we've known each other for 21 years We were best friends and we fell in love five years ago And naturally when they got together as a couple they started collaborating together I decided to become an architect it happened quite naturally I have always loved anything that was a bit creative And so quite naturally I was drawn to interior architecture I am a painter and muralist at is to say I have a practice that is divided into two parts both painting on canvas and at the same time monumental frescoes in public spaces In fact we have friends who lived in that apartment We came for dinner one evening they told us they were selling the apartment and it happened quite quickly There was only one boy back then when this apartment was bought When they found out they were going to have twins they immediately decided to move to a new apartment It was said that it would be too small there were only two bedrooms And very quickly it was said that they were really comfortable in this apartment Being a family first of three then of five people we definitely had to optimize every space To make it both beautiful and functional What we really wanted from the start and that's why we painted everything white It really was like having a canvas like in Caroline's work where you arrive and then you come to add some color We really wanted it to be a very lively place that also inspires people We really wanted to work on our interior to make it aesthetic to make it reflect us and to make it really practical where a family can live a perfectly normal life There we enter the main room the living room So in this living room there was a real challenge right from the layout itself It was about figuring out where to put the sofa It's somewhat unconventional to place a sofa in front of a fireplace So the question was raised of removing the fireplace As a result we decided to fully embrace the layout and functionality of the room and to put the sofa right in front of the fireplace We found that in the end it works quite well There was also a quite significant challenge It's because we really wanted a library and we had no idea at all how were going to make it happen Would she be drawn was she placed on the floor would she be suspended would they add color again Are we going to work with lacquer And in the end I think we made the right decision to do something very discreet the same tones as the wall like as if a bit the wall was becoming a growth And we really wanted that linear functional side and at the same time a bit childish a bit Memphis Design without the colorful side It is this console by Garance Vallée designed for Monde Singulier A somewhat hybrid piece of furniture that allows for a function A connection between the two spaces This side a bit graphic a bit of a road safety strip we wanted to highlight the fact tha There was a partition before It's even a way to highlight once again things that one wants to hide Just like the pipes just like the radiators It's really about shining a light on them to fully accept them And precisely that weakness becomes a strength These paintings are like the first paintings of a new chapter in my artistic life They are talismanic works Who follow me everywhere These are three abstract translation portraits of inspiring women around me It was really the first art piece They knew she was going to be on the wall It really turned all the choices of colors materials and all the furniture around The sun is quite a special piece since it's a piece we both created but it came from an idea of our son He told us it would be cool to have a sun We already had the need to have a ceiling light We also wanted to experiment with a slightly distorted mirror effect to continue this narrative we have in the apartment of reflection light game mirror game It expanded the space in that we have a view where the central element It seems a bit exaggerated It distorts the entire view When you look at it It's quite interesting to watch The biggest challenge in this room was really managing to create a functional kitchen without being too intrusive on the living area What was really the most complicated was knowing where to put the fridge We really dug In this wall There was an entrance but it was slightly enlarged to fit in the fridge and we ate in the dressing area On the other side We have slightly expanded to have a somewhat technical section with simple storage compartments on the side It's a fairly simple piece but functional and we are very proud of our fridge Quite quickly we decided to make this huge wall A mirror to truly give great depth and at the same time keep a bit of practicality very light and that stands out like that from the mirror which adds an aesthetic side and also a practical side We really wanted these shelves to be able to pu other art objects to put some books especially about plants and flowers They said that this kitchen She continued this gallery space And in the evening they really wanted these shelves to not only be Shelves but also make it a light fixture As a result we integrated LEDs so that the furniture Become also a source of illumination and not just a functional piece of furniture but an aesthetic piece of furniture that also brings warmth into the interior When we arrived at the apartment it was a kitchen that was much less functional So there it's true that we did They really wanted to adapt the storage When you open the drawers there is this third color that complements the other two Each storage space is maximized so that it can feed a family of five and have all possible storage We really wanted to have An aesthetic apartment a nice apartment with designer rooms but also with a practical and functional side And we really wanted to break A bit with the colorful side with this worktop a bit more industrial a bit more once again functional The same design line was The Fisher-Price of the Bauhaus And there we really wanted to bridge between two worlds between the Fisher-Price world and the more technical world We love the fact that when we receive and we receive a lot the guests stay we can cook at the same time we can cut everything The children are playing nearby There is a sense where we are all together in the same place There is no group separation so maybe a bit of a loss of energy or atmosphere We're all still together We are now in the bedroom the master bedroom It is a rather unique room because it is the only one with two doors which truly enables the flow of energy and movement At the room level everything was oriented towards the purchase of our sheets and towards the purchase of this fabric It immediately showed a touch of a violet tone so this is a painting by Clément Davout This is our love room So we really wanted in fact to later design a headboard that would somewhat also resemble a love hotel This headboard was made from maple wood A glossier finish was applied to maintain a bit of this theme A reflection and a mirror And to break a bit of that 60s love hotel vibe were much more radical and tried To do something at the level of the bed completely cubic and monochrome and to make the structure disappear a bit So we redesigned this bed It is in fact a trunk bed completely covered in mirror the same mirror that was used in the entrance We managed to get several places a collaboration with an artist who makes stained glass named Rebecca Roquet so that's one We really wanted in fact to make a drawing that would make you think of a sunrise or a sunset It was also the idea of truly bringing light into this kind of circulation while bringing Of the color It's a bit along the same principle as kitchen shelves where the furniture becomes a light For this bed headboard the LED has been really integrated which is very warm creating a much more cozy and soft atmosphere Then we are in the children's room This is a room that naturally decorated itself with items we had found At the corner and then some elements that were previously in my studio for example like these shelves that I had slightly customized There was also the issue of finding a table to paint on Hugo drew it a friend made it then I painted it So it's true that it gives a bit of this quite colorful tone as well as quite cheerful and playful But the fact of having transformed this lingerie table with all the technical part a bit on top which simultaneously becomes a toy chest and we manage to take all the toys As soon as there are people put everything underneath That's why at ground level we didn't want to put it Shelves to quickly slide all the toys inside and have a slightly more aesthetic space But not a mess of games everywhere We really wanted the children's room to continue with this color stimulation with cheerful visual forms It was decorated with some rather surprising things like this light Where in the evening you can turn on the lights and put it in a little disco mode We also wanted to put up a trellis so that the childre They could also play a little bit on it When the announcement came that were expecting twins we had to make do with what we had and with this room We put our daughters in one corner our son in the other We also wanted this area to be a bit adjustable which is both a sleeping area To welcome friends and also a play area We really wanted everything to be very functional The rest will really be just decoration To stimulate their imagination We can tell they are really taking advantage of the rest of the apartment to make it their playground and that was really our main wish It was just that this apartment was our playground for both of us and also for the children who could push the room beyond the walls And that their colorful toys can also gracefully blend with the rest of the apartment since we are in tonalities At every moment when they are very vid We are now at the entrance of the apartment where you can see a whole mirror effect both on the ceiling and on the front door where there are storage solutions for having this wide range of thinking play for expanding the space for really having fu with the reflection of light which is not necessarily very present in the apartment entrance After that once aga Some pieces that were bought a little There are also paintings from my own practice which is abstract so it also allows To get a bit more into the colors We really wanted to think about this entry a bit like a gallery to display a bit Some artworks but also a bit of a place for children to play and a place to pass through That's why we also decided To put some of the children's toys inside this corridor so that it comes alive and isn't just empty A place of passage and a dead space So it is really part of the optimization precisely of the small spaces It's quite pleasant to be on this journey of transformation I think we' ll go from project to project There will never be a moment when we'll say Ah it's done I'm always an eternal dissatisfied person I always want to go a little bit further In any case I really consider the interior as ours The story and decoration of a family of an apartment is never really finished I think that's what's interesting and quite exciting It's that anything can still change It really changes depending on the times of the year Life moments It's never really finished I think being confined in small spaces also allows us to deploy freedoms in our minds and try to be full of resources and do things expand somewhere