Designer Anne-Sophie Pailleret Conceives a Whimsical Paris Residence for a Fashionable Collector
An apartment with an enviable Eiffel Tower view proves how chic living with color can be
For French interior designer Anne-Sophie Pailleret, the notion of chic is very personal. “Everyone has their own perception,” she says. “Mine is that it should be joyful and not too conventional.”
She certainly took an audacious, free-spirited approach to her recent revamp of a 2,475-square-foot Paris apartment owned by an entrepreneur in the luxury goods industry. “The client is very decisive and likes to take risks,” says Pailleret. “She supported us in making bold choices.”
The reimagined rooms burst with rollicking high style, animated by creative combinations of sumptuous materials, eye-catching patterns and pops of color, and sculptural furnishings. Exuberant artworks from the client’s collection add pizzazz throughout.
Before Pailleret could let loose, however, serious structural work was required. Located on the top floor of a 1980s building, the apartment had its distinct appeals, not least a private roof terrace with a striking view of the Eiffel Tower. At the same time, numerous issues needed to be addressed. The unit had low ceilings and a host of small rooms. “It was quite dark,” says Pailleret, who trained with designer Jean-Louis Deniot before starting her own firm in 2010. “My aim was to open everything up to let light flow in from both sides.”
To that end, she knocked together four different rooms to create an expansive living and dining space. She also managed to raise the ceilings some ten inches and applied decorative elements to them. Above the main sitting area, for example, she installed a large plaster disk detailed with the same motif resembling thousands of tiny feathers that embellishes the room’s fireplace surround. “When ceilings are low, the last thing you should do is leave them plain,” she says. “If you liven them up, it gives them more grandeur.”
The starting point for the overall decoration was the art collection. The first step was to decide which works would be placed where, and that in turn informed the color palette. In the living area, Pailleret installed a Jeppe Hein sculpture, a trio of mirrored balloons in bright green, magenta, and mauve that float along one wall. “It’s amusing and almost childlike,” notes Pailleret, who played off the work’s hues, largely adopting the pink and purple tones for the space’s upholstery fabrics while inserting sunny splashes of yellow.
A Thea Djordjadze metal wall sculpture that hangs in the dining area helped to inspire the distinctive mottled-copper cabinet fronts in the nearby kitchen. The panels were created by one of Pailleret’s most steadfast collaborators, French decorative artist Solène Eloy, who also applied the coppery confetti-like splatters to the sliding glass partition between the kitchen and dining area. A Damien Hirst “Spot” painting in muted hues, meanwhile, gave rise to the bedroom’s soft blush tones and the adjacent bath’s pale greens.
Pailleret also took cues from the client and her trove of “amazing clothes, jewelry, shoes, and bags,” she explains, prompting luxurious, feminine touches. She points to the bespoke cabinet in the primary bedroom, whose Japanese ash doors are woven with golden thread.
The two women had particular fun selecting fabrics. “I really like creating connections between what you might wear and what you put on your couch,” recounts Pailleret. “When I’d present a textile to her, she’d wrap it around herself and note how it would make a great skirt.” In the designer’s mind, the upholsteries on the sofa and armchairs in the living room are reminiscent of Chanel tweeds, while the Dedar jacquard on the stool in the primary bath is perfect for a kimono.
More than anything, Pailleret wanted to inject a spirit of fun. She compares the legs of the living room’s custom glass-and-colored-ceramic cocktail table to marshmallows, a frosted-glass lamp in the primary bedroom to “an iced candy,” and the Pierre Gonalons pendants in the bath to lollipops. She also went to town with a combination of riotous, geometrically patterned wallpapers in the family room; installed a ropy, lasso-like chandelier in the dining area; and hung a life preserver on one of the kitchen walls.
About the only thing that didn’t make the cut was painting the kitchen ceiling in yellow and white stripes à la artist Daniel Buren. “I wanted to bring a touch of Miami Beach to Paris, and it would have been like a parasol,” explains Pailleret, with slight regret.
Still, the apartment is hardly wanting for personality. “As in all my work, every detail tells a story,” the designer says. “There’s never anything left to chance.”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Spring Issue under the headline “Parisian Panache.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Designer Anne-Sophie Pailleret Conceives a Whimsical Paris Residence for a Fashionable Collector
