Belle

GOLDEN GLOW

Accents of gold in textured and shiny finishes elevate the subdued palette and reflect the abundant light in this elegant and sophistica­ted Paris apartment.

- Photograph­s STEPHAN JULLIARD Words IAN PHILLIPS

The rst email the owner of this apartment on Paris’s Left Bank sent to decorator Anne-sophie Pailleret was something of an entreaty. It was simply entitled ‘Help’. She had previously hired two other interior designers, neither of whom had worked out. Then, she came across a publicatio­n featuring Anne-sophie’s own apartment and recalls that it was a case of love at rst sight. “I found it chic, serene and harmonious,” she says. “In her choice of objects and furniture, there was nothing obvious or banal.”

Anne-sophie came to her current profession via a slightly circuitous route. She initially worked in marketing for Cartier and then began a job creating ephemeral settings for a Parisian catering rm. Among the events she worked on were the 60th anniversar­y of the Christian Dior fashion house and the wedding of a member of the Qatari royal family. “We spent three months building a sort of palace for Marie-antoinette in the middle of the desert,” she recalls. Then, she studied interior design at the prestigiou­s École Boulle in Paris and worked for leading French decorator Jean-louis Deniot before setting up her own rm. Among her aesthetic in uences are the art deco movement and Jean Royère. “I remember carrying around photos of his work in my purse at the age of 13,” she says. She also loves the slightly “crazy, over-the-top” design of the 1970s.

For her client, a Florence-based artist, this 168sqm top- oor apartment serves as a pied-à-terre and a midway point where she can meet up with her husband, who works in nance in London. Initially, the couple hesitated before buying the property. True, they were attracted by the typically Haussmanni­an building, the profusion of south-facing windows and the quality of the architectu­ral mouldings. “As a sculptor, it would be dif cult for me to live without any decoration on the ceiling,” says the wife. Yet, they were put off by a number of rather crookedly-shaped rooms and “a very eerie corridor – long, high, narrow and extremely dark”. Anne-sophie remedied the problem by enlarging

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