PARISIAN PALACE

Located in Paris’ famous golden triangle, this apartment on the very chic Avenue Montaigne – known as the epicentre of high fashion and luxury – is all about bespoke furniture and furnishings and a blend of traditional French elegance with contemporary style

We asked for an apartment in Paris, and you’ve given us a palace,” said the homeowner to London-based South African-born interior architect Louis Henri Buhrmann. For their home away from home, the multi-generational family who works closely with French manufacturers and wanted a central base in Paris, required nothing but the best. They requested for an ultra-glamorous interior that displayed a mix of traditional French style, modern elegance and high-tech performance, with clearly defined entertaining and personal spaces. Without any restrictions of budget, Buhrmann then went about remodelling and modernising the apartment, located in an 1850s Haussmann building. He was given carte blanche to use the best possible materials and craftsmen to create a completely bespoke design concept that is the very picture of French sophistication and 21st-century comfort.

TABULA RASA

Stripping down the apartment to its bare bones, Buhrmann rebuilt practically every room from scratch. He says, “The architecture in Paris rarely disappoints. With ceilings over four metres high, the apartment is a true gem. Having worked on listed buildings in London’s Mayfair, I have a real respect for the history of a building. I kept the wooden panelling in the dining room; it was too good to remove. We applied a translucent pearlescent finish to give the wood lustre without distracting from it.” For this apartment’s design, Buhrmann was partly inspired by Art Deco, especially the designs of French architect ArmandAlbert Rateau – one of the most exclusive designer-decorators of the 1920s known for his Art Deco furniture.

A COMPLETE VISION

The new residence comprises four bedrooms, five bathrooms, four reception rooms and a high-tech media room disguised as a formal French library with silk-covered walls and fake leather books, which conceal

top-of-the-line built-in speakers and home cinema equipment. Incorporating highend technology throughout, the apartment is equipped with an intuitive, customdeveloped programme that controls climate, audio, lighting and security via ipods that dock discreetly behind each door. Guests entering the home are welcomed by a freestanding stained glass window in the entrance hall depicting a colourful, statement-making peacock feather motif, paying tribute to the Belle Époque, an era of peace and prosperity when the arts flourished. The result of the combined efforts of skilled tradespeople on three different continents and craftsmen in London, it also serves as a room divider for privacy, separating the public and private areas of the apartment, while enhancing the amount of light in the entry. “We spent over a year selecting each piece of glass. When we finally put the pieces together, the hallway came to life within a day.” In fact, assembling different pieces on-site proved to be a major challenge. “Various components arrived from different specialists, often from different countries; we had to hope that everything fitted together,” he discloses. “Only one or two pieces out of a hundred needed adjusting, so it was a success in the end.”

MASTER CRAFTSMAN

As Buhrmann designs one-off and limitededition furniture, which is manufactured by his brother Balthasar, a master cabinetmaker, almost everything in the apartment is custom-designed and made to suit the space, including furniture, rugs, chandeliers and door handles. Balthasar crafted the main pieces of furniture in his workshop in South Africa, such as the sitting room’s massive three-tiered walnut bookcase inlaid with églomisé and finished with solid walnut detailing, while the other elements were built primarily by family firms founded in the early 19th century. Buhrmann spent six months searching for the right craftsmen. For example, the in-house designed lighting was created using the combined expertise of artisans from Murano, London,

Guests entering the home are welcomed by a freestanding stained glass window in the entrance hall

Paris and the US, including the 200-part chandelier in the sitting room. The door handles were developed over the course of eight months by a foundry in New York from a Buhrmann sketch, and the large pots in the dining room’s alcove were fashioned by potter Kate Radford to suit the apartment’s proportions. Buhrmann notes, “For construction, we often try to work with local craftsmen. On this project, they were multi-generational artisans, with the joiners working in Paris since 1880 and the plasterers since 1862. My brother manufactures most of my furniture in Johannesburg; I’m there a lot and can work out the finer details with him.” The walls in the breakfast nook are covered in hand-painted silk, the adjoining corridor features four deep-etched LEDlit glass panels that illuminate the kitchen, the marble floor is similar to the flooring found in the iconic George V hotel lobby, a mirrored wall hides the entrance door and doubles the room’s size, and the guest cloakroom features a solid, aluminium- framed marble door that merges seamlessly with the wall. Buhrmann purchased artwork from galleries in the UK and South Africa and commissioned art from Guido de Costanzo for the drawing room. He even worked with another artist on a couple of paintings in the media room. He adds, “If I wasn’t an interior designer, I would have been a full-time artist for sure.” Fabrics were sourced from Pierre Frey, Donghia, Turnell & Gigon and Lelievre.

THE BOUDOIR

Much like a sanctuary, the master bedroom features a private balcony with a view of the Eiffel Tower. The colour palette is cool with silver, grey and royal blue highlights. The storage space is hidden within the upholstered panelling, and bespoke rugs and table lamps adorn the space. Buhrmann reveals, “My favourite room in the apartment is the master bathroom; it’s the client’s too. It was transformed from an awkward, splitlevel space into a perfectly symmetrical, spalike room with four-metre high ceilings.”