A Fashion Executive Turned Interior Designer Conjures a Paris Apartment with Spirited Colors and Vintage Treasures
Sarina Ogden creates a bohemian-chic pied-à-terre suited to a sophisticated, globe-trotting couple
Sarina Ogden is the kind of interior designer who cultivates a level of fealty that most in her field only dream of. “I call her my wife,” says one female client, who is happily married. “I don’t make a move—on an interior, the gardens, the window boxes—or even throw a party without Sarina,” she says. In other words, Ogden’s taste is impeccable, shot through with a Gallic-leaning sensibility and a resourcefulness honed over years in the fast-paced fashion business.
Ogden’s professional path—from accessories designer and ultimately a sales executive to interior designer—could be a blueprint for anyone itching for a change. “The key is to say yes,” she insists. Which is what she did when a friend suggested she meet a floral designer who needed help with his business. Taking on the role, she was unsatisfied with the vessels immediately available to her, so the committed Francophile took herself to the flea markets of Paris, where she made fast friends with dealers and quickly expanded her finds to vintage and handmade furniture, lighting, and accessories. “His clients would casually ask my opinion on paint colors, furniture, and art arrangement, and party plans,” she says.
One of Ogden’s family members introduced her to the client, who was looking to improve her New York apartment. That assignment led to projects styling the garden at her homes in East Hampton and Palm Beach. Then came the call about Paris. “I sent Sarina to look at it before I ever saw it in person,” says the client, who figured she could live with the furniture included in the rental. But Ogden knew otherwise. “Here was this fantastic apartment in the sixth arrondissement, flooded with light and wrapped in a terrace with incredible views but filled with Ikea furniture that was tired and falling apart,” she says. It was going to take more than a few throws and a rug or two to make the place habitable.
In just three months, Ogden created a bohemian-chic interior suited to a sophisticated couple as well as their college-age son. She tapped into her sprawling network of friends, including stylist and local design sourcing expert Lucas Alves; became proficient at finding gems on Selency, the European online design marketplace; and even got her Uber driver into the act—he sanded a vintage Robert Goossens Épi de Blé cocktail table found on the website to perfection. An auction in Versailles reaped the Louis XV–style bergères in the living room, while the Murano glass table lamps and the Lucite tables they sit on were finds at Les Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen, where dealer friends offered her access to their secret stashes.
“My son was skeptical of that pink sofa,” says the client with a laugh, referencing another Selency find. “He’s six feet four inches, and when he contorts his body in the shape of it, his feet hang over the edge.” But Ogden took care of that, too. She wedged the giant sofa that came with the apartment into a bedroom the family converted into a den and put a big-screen TV on the wall, perfect for a twentysomething.
Ogden summoned her inner Madeleine Castaing in the dining room, treating the leopard-print rug as a neutral. “A Paris apartment is not a Paris apartment without a bit of glamour,” she says. A cluster of handmade zinc sculptures by French artist Alex Bonnieux and a jewel-tone Murano glass lamp from Stanislas Reboul, one of her favorite vendors at Marché Paul Bert Serpette, keep company with a spray of Astier de Villatte ceramic plates hung on the wall.
It’s the kind of fearless use of color and print that makes Ogden’s work so unique. Indeed, current projects find her pulling old-world threads through new-world spaces. A ground-up build on Florida’s southeast coast will not be awash in Palm Beach pink and green. “There are mustards and browns but plenty of rattan and natural fibers inspired by the house’s surroundings. Alex is making special lanterns for the entry hall,” she says.
Word of Ogden’s European sensibility has also spread to the state’s west coast, where the designer recently completed a large-scale home in Naples, installing sculptures discovered at Serieye gallery in Paris and Dernier Cri in New York. “I love übermodern things and pieces that have been around forever. And I always gravitate toward artist- and artisan-made design,” she says. “Connecting the person to a chair, a lamp, a table, or a sculpture makes me feel like I know the piece better.”
It’s the ability to create just those kinds of connections, which translate into interiors rich with personality—an often intangible quality—that Ogden has quickly established as her calling card.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Summer Issue under the headline “French Twist.” Subscribe to the magazine.