Houzz Tours
Houzz Tour: A Classic Parisian Apartment Gets a Contemporary Makeover
The creative use of chipboard makes for an original and subtly cool interior
Claire Escalon and Nicolas Lanno are both designers at the Atelier Premier Etage, and are passionate about wood and original design. For over ten years, they have tackled many projects with the constant objective of featuring this raw and natural material. ‘These clients first came to us and asked us to redesign and renovate their new apartment, which was in very bad condition. Our offices are obviously the perfect showcase for our work. During their first visit, we noticed their appreciation of our use of eco-friendly chipboard.’ The resulting design was bold and creative, and was the first time the designers had taken on such a project.
Houzz at a glance
Who lives here Marc Grossman, his wife Fabienne and their three children
Location Paris
Size 970 square feet
Interior designer Atelier Premier Étage
Houzz at a glance
Who lives here Marc Grossman, his wife Fabienne and their three children
Location Paris
Size 970 square feet
Interior designer Atelier Premier Étage
The family finally found their bearings in this mix of Haussmannian style mouldings and chipboard casings. Marc is originally from New York, and is the creator of Bob’s Kitchen, Bob’s Juice and Bob’s Cold Press. He’s passionate about cooking and writes books and manages the website Grossman and friends - a food blog that allows him to share ideas he first came up with for his family. Marc and Fabienne had been living in Paris for quite some time, and with the birth of their first child they decided to move to a home with more space. However, they still wanted to stay in Paris’s 10th district, where they had previously been.
As in most classical Parisian apartments, the space is divided into little adjoining rooms. ‘One of the primary requirements was to create an extra room for this family, who now needed four bedrooms,’ say the designers. ‘This forced us to open up the space and give - quite immediately - a contemporary spirit to our blueprints.’
Check out ways to use natural wood in your home
Check out ways to use natural wood in your home
MFP chipboard is used throughout the apartment. Claire and Nicolas are both environmentally conscious, and enjoy using a material made from sustainable forests and water based glue. It’s compact and smooth, and offers a contemporary aesthetic that opposes the more traditional aspects of Parisian apartments.
‘Another constraint was to find a suitable location in the living room for the family piano, which was thankfully modern and compact,’ says Claire. Their children are regular players and their parents didn’t want them isolated in their rooms whilst they practiced. The designers were able to create an adequate casing for the piano, which transforms into a stylish console when closed. ‘The bench needed to be a two-seater to accommodate both the teacher and the student, or two players performing simultaneously. We designed it and partly assembled it. The legs come from Petites Productions,’ he explains.
A cupboard was removed between the kitchen and the living room to open up both spaces. The doorframe contrasts perfectly with the modern lower chipboard cabinet, which also serves as a service hatch. ‘This opening offers continuity between the rooms, allows the light to run through and showcases a pretty perspective. Even with the many inside walls, the apartment had nice proportions. We wanted to encourage discussions and interactions between the spaces - essential in a family environment.’
Obviously, the kitchen is of prime importance to Marc, who regularly prepares the children’s meals there. He wanted something both easy-going and practical. ‘Corian is the perfect material. It’s low maintenance, doesn’t turn yellow and is perfect for custom-made worktops. The opposition between its smooth surface and the textured touch of the chipboard was a great feature for us,’ explains Claire. ‘Disruptions play an important role in our work, so we preserved the rosettes and mouldings to contrast with a pared-down layout.’ A double doorway gives access to the hallway, but the kitchen cabinets extend further than the frame of the door to give an interesting effect.
Get tips on choosing the right wood for your kitchen cabinets
Get tips on choosing the right wood for your kitchen cabinets
In the kitchen, the chipboard needed some work to make it waterproof. Although the panels are extremely easy to position and work with, they’re not adapted to this type of use. A water varnish was used to protect all the different elements. For the family meals, Marc and Fabienne were looking for a table that matched with the rest of the kitchen. Claire and Nicolas came up with the solution by designing a custom table with black laminated oak layers.
‘We have a little carpentry workshop right beside our offices. From time to time we make furniture. We are both designers and Nicolas, who is also a cabinetmaker, turns our sketches into reality,’ says Claire. ‘He also came up with the design and production of the yogurt maker seen here on the worktop. It doesn’t need electricity and works solely using natural isolation.’
The Tom Dixon wall lamps hang nicely in the long hallway. ‘Here, as in the rest of the apartment, the wooden floors were once hidden under carpets. They have now been renovated, sanded and coated with a matt water varnish,’ says Claire. ‘We chose matt water varnish because it is non-chemical and respects the natural characteristics of the wood, a living material.’
‘Our choice of colours for the master bedroom and the rest of the apartment was intuitive,’ explain the designers. ‘Fabienne and Marc initially wanted white, but they opened up to (and enjoyed) our proposition of a colour range after seeing our blueprints. This is the tricky part of our job - we need to understand the needs and wants of our clients, who sometimes have trouble expressing and defining them. With every project we ask the clients to give us a few clippings to express their style, and then we come up with an interior that’s suited to them.’
This bedroom was quite little, but very long, and it needed to fit a large wardrobe and a desk. By creating a headboard that also has storage in it and can be extended to make a desk, the designers were able to fit it all in. Covering the far wall, the wardrobe is made of chipboard and matt-varnished wood. Slots were carved in the different doors to facilitate opening.
With the bathroom, the designers faced yet another challenge. ‘Moving the walls was not an option, but we needed to find a way to fit a bathtub into this room. It’s not for the youngest child, but for Marc, who just loves taking a relaxing bath,’ explains Claire. The sink was integrated into the bath unit, covered with 5x5cm ceramic sandstone tiling. A chipboard stool allows for the children to be at the right height and for the older ones to have easier access to the bath. The Duravit tub is a lot higher than traditional baths, a smart idea for compact rooms.
The boys enjoy the biggest bedrooms. They’re very close and didn’t want to be separated. Their parents were happy to comply and kept the link between both rooms.
They continue to enjoy playtime together, while still being able to retreat to their own personal area. The toy boxes under the beds, integrated chipboard desks and large wardrobes are perfect for boys of their age.
In one of their rooms, a little sink was added (connected to the piping of the toilets on the other side of the wall) to avoid bathroom congestion when the time comes to brush their teeth.
The daughter’s bedroom is the smallest and required the most imagination and time. ‘It was a true headache. First, we needed to claim some of the kitchen to make room for it. Then, we had to work around the constraints of the different pipes, columns and cables that were in the way. In the end, while the rest of the apartment was ready to welcome the family, this room was still far from completion,’ says Claire. The space was planned to allow room for a full-sized bed in time, and the designers were able to also fit shelves and storage in the room.
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What do you think of this Parisian apartment? Tell us what you liked about it in the Comments below.
TELL US…
What do you think of this Parisian apartment? Tell us what you liked about it in the Comments below.