A wonderful game

Adapting old spaces to new needs, using color, objects, history. A designer allergic to beams

Usually a person buys a dilapidated old house, and the first thing they do is to tear everything out. No more partitions, bigger volumes, more air and light. And no more romantic charm. But in Paris, right next to the Grands Boulevards, that didn’t happen. Laurent Di Benedetto runs the design gallery TeoLeo and is open to everything «from Biedermeier to the barbaric Eighties». He likes many things, in fact, except for one: beams. Which is why he absolutely didn’t want to see this property. Only the great location changed his mind. «The previous owners had made the flat into a loft with earthenware floors. Nevertheless, I immediately felt good in this place».

The house was built in 1789, which plucked Di Benedetto’s revolutionary strings: «It was a sign. So we have done an architectural revolution, transforming the rooms into something both historic and graphic. All those vertical and horizontal lines worked perfectly». Instead of hiding the despised beams, he has made them into decorative features thanks to color. Ignoring the current Zeitgeist, a partition now separates the kitchen from what was once an open living-kitchen area. The rest of the layout is fluid. «Interior design», says Di Benedetto, «is a wonderful game. I can put my aesthetic ideas into practice, because I know my rhythms and needs».

Objects come and go in the space of just 60 square meters. «I’m not interested in filling up rooms. The apartment is a reflection of my life: I’m Parisian, but also a citizen of the world». Hence the range of striking presences from around the world: Moroccan slippers, Colombian masks, a bedspread from Uzbekistan, plates from Tuscany and California, Ethiopian and Japanese baskets, avant-garde creations.