The living room of a Paris apartment conceived by Damien Langlois-Meurinne, who also designed.
Photo: Stephan Julliard
Tour a Breathtaking Paris Triplex Conceived by Damien Langlois-Meurinne
The designer enlivens an apartment off the prime Avenue Montaigne with a sophisticated mix of classical elements, luxe Deco details, and contemporary rigor
In the family room of a Paris residence renovated by designer Damien Langlois- Meurinne, photographs of African masks by Thierry Fontaine are mounted on cerused-oak paneling above a Collector sofa grouped with custom lounge chairs. Photo: Stephan Julliard
For Damien Langlois-Meurinne, Paris is a place where you can’t ignore the past.
“History is omnipresent here,” says the designer, whose office is a short walk from the Place de la Concorde and the Tuileries. “I always want my projects to reflect that.” His distinctive interiors typically reference not just one style or era but several layered with his own contemporary touch.
An elegant case in point is the living room of a triplex off Avenue Montaigne that Langlois-Meurinne designed for a French industrialist and his wife. It features Louis XVI–style wall paneling topped by cornicing that harks back to the Renaissance, a chevron parquet floor typical of the late 19th century, and a fluted marble chimney breast that nods to the 1930s. Then there are the low, clean-lined sofas, asymmetrical wavy-patterned rug, and minimalist bronze door casings, all very much of today.
In the living room, an elegantly fluted marble fireplace surround is flanked by Nicolas Moulin graphite drawings, which surmount cabinets by Langlois-Meurinne, who also designed the red velvet stool and rug. Photo: Stephan Julliard
An elegant enfilade frames a sculpture by Agnès Debizet. Photo: Stephan Julliard
Even before Langlois-Meurinne brought his sophisticated stamp, the residence was exceptional. In addition to its enviable location is its uncommon size, which spans nearly 7,000 square feet across three floors. “Apartments like this don’t really exist here,” says the designer, who worked in tandem with his project manager, Brieuc Le Guillou. “Anything larger than 4,500 square feet tends to be an hôtel particulier.”
Previously, the three floors were separate, serving as offices for one of France’s best-known radio stations. The spaces had been stripped of all their architectural elements, leaving Langlois-Meurinne and Le Guillou with more or less a blank canvas. Given the fashion-forward neighborhood, they wanted the new decor to embody a modern-day notion of luxury. That meant low-key elegance tailored with a sense of rigor.
An artwork by Gregor Hildebrandt hangs on a fluted plaster wall in the dining room, which is crowned by a Glustin Luminaires Murano glass light fixture. The table, chairs, sideboard, and rug are all by Langlois-Meurinne. Photo: Stephan Julliard
A geometric- patterned floor in marble and granite lines the entrance hall, where a painting by José Loureiro is displayed above a Langlois-Meurinne marble table. Photo: Stephan Julliard
“Precision is something I associate with contemporary chic,” says Le Guillou. “When you look at Versailles, the patterns of the parquet floors don’t line up exactly with the walls. There was a certain imperfection to even the greatest buildings in the past.”
Helping to set the tone, the entrance hall’s marble-and-granite floor is laid in a strict geometric pattern, while all of the passageways and openings between rooms are finely aligned. As in most of Langlois-Meurinne’s projects, doors are kept to a minimum. “I prefer to leave spaces as fluid as possible,” he says. “It creates glimpses from one room to another and allows light to permeate into the heart of the apartment.”
A seascape photograph by Nicolas Floc’h hangs above a Porta Romana lamp and a marble table by Langlois- Meurinne on a stair landing; on the other side of the plaster columns, a Maarten Stuer ceramic sculpture rests beneath a Lisette Rützou sconce. Photo: Stephan Julliard
Allusions to Art Deco abound, from the entry’s alabaster sconces, designed by Hauvette & Madani as an homage to Pierre Chareau’s iconic Mouche model, to the living room’s ebony chests and the primary bedroom’s nightstands in burr walnut. The dining room has a contemporized Deco feel, with its fluted plaster walls, a Glustin Luminaires Murano glass light fixture, and a mix of custom furnishings and pieces from Langlois-Meurinne’s line for the Invisible Collection. A suite of his Sam chairs surrounds a marble-top version of his You da One table on an asymmetrically shaped oval rug of his design.
“History is omnipresent here. I always want my projects to reflect that”
Damien Langlois-Meurinne
An important touchstone for the decor was another Parisian triplex—one that Louis Suë decorated for beauty entrepreneur and art collector Helena Rubinstein in the 1930s. Her wood-paneled study, which famously featured African and Oceanic statuettes, helped to inform Langlois-Meurinne and Le Guillou’s choices in the family room. Lining the space in warm cerused oak, they added accents such as a travertine cocktail table with legs that recall traditional Senufo stools from Burkina Faso as well as a series of Thierry Fontaine’s photos of African masks, in which the eyes appear to be filled with tears of wax. Equally striking is the ceiling’s vibrant green paint color—“almost like a billiard table,” quips Le Guillou—a hue that is echoed in the barrel-back lounge chairs’ nubby upholstery, which Langlois-Meurinne compares to “an oversize Chanel tweed.”
In the primary bedroom, Langlois-Meurinne devised the scalloped screen behind the Treca bed as well as the nightstands. Photo: Stephan Julliard
Inspired by Rubinstein, the owners of the apartment were keen to put together a collection of their own, and they enlisted Nicolas Beutler of the art advisory firm Noûs to help. The focus is largely on works in black and white, with gestures toward nature, such as the dramatic underwater seascape photograph by Nicolas Floc’h that overlooks the middle-floor stair landing and the pair of graphite drawings of planetary moons by Nicolas Moulin that flank the living room fireplace.
In the living room, an elegantly fluted marble fireplace surround is flanked by Nicolas Moulin graphite drawings, which surmount cabinets by Langlois-Meurinne, who also designed the red velvet stool and rug. Photo: Stephan Julliard
Beutler also hunted down pieces that create a strong dialogue with the decor. For example, in the entry foyer, a grid-like painting by José Loureiro picks up the geometric pattern of the floor. Then there is the dining room’s Gregor Hildebrandt canvas, its abstract lines acting as a perfect counterpoint to the richly veined marble of the table. “The work is made with tape on which music has been recorded,” explains Beutler. “So, in a way, it represents a form of musical memory.”
In a home filled with elements and references to the past, it’s another layer of history added to Langlois-Meurinne’s enchanting mix.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Fall Issue under the headline “Paris Match.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: The living room of a Paris apartment conceived by Damien Langlois-Meurinne, who also designed.
Photo: Stephan Julliard
