A Paris Apartment

RETURN TO FORM: A MODERN PARIS APARTMENT

A Danish designer revives a forgotten Paris gem of the 19th century, using his modernist magic to create a fresh vision of urban glamour

BY MICHAEL LASSELL

LIVING ROOM

Although this elegantly updated 1860s apartment in the 7th arrondissement of Paris appears to have survived its long use entirely unscathed, when designer Klavs Rosenfalck first saw it, in 2008, the years had indeed left telltale signs, both in wear and aesthetic “upgrades.” Being unoccupied since 1963 hadn’t helped its condition, either, although disuse had protected the original architecture.

OFFICE

Rosenfalck, a modernist Dane who has lived for many years in Paris and who owns a popular design shop, was the force behind turning the dusty relic into a comfortable 2,300-square-foot home for a bachelor executive in the health-care industry. Everything had to be fixed, Rosenfalck remembers. The floors needed to be repaired, the paintings cleaned, new heating, plumbing, and electrical systems installed. “The ceiling hooks for the chandeliers had never been electrified,” he says, “which means the last fixtures that hung in the reception rooms held candles.”

DINING ROOM

The dining room, Rosenfalck recalls, had been done over “in a sort of Ludwig II of Bavaria style, i.e., raspberry tapestries on all the walls, a trompe l’oeil sunset on the ceiling, and stained-glass windows onto the street—and there were hideous radiators everywhere. It was like Sleeping Beauty.”

LIVING ROOM

Rosenfalck decided to “soften” the restored rooms by breaking up the linear geometry of the paneling and parquet patterns with contemporary and 20th-century pieces that were not angular, like the living room’s S-shaped Vladimir Kagan sofa and roundcornered cocktail table.

DINING ROOM

The public rooms, says Rosenfalck, are a “design shrine. My job was to bring the place down to earth, to make it less pompous and more functional, to keep it light and livable, even cozy.”

MASTER SUITE

For the master suite, Rosenfalck designed a “banister” from yacht cables wrapped in leather; the wood sculpture is by Brazilian artist João Galvão, and the flooring is oak.

MASTER BATH

“The ornamentation was pretty much in place,” says Rosenfalck, “some of it hidden under plywood, some under 150 years of dirt, which was so touching.”

via: ELLE DECOR

Original text by Danièle Gerkens. Originally published in ELLE DECORATION France.