For the renovation of a 1930s apartment near Parc Monceau in Paris, architect Jean-Christophe Petillault, of JCPCDR Architecture, wanted to bring "light and geometry" to the space. He accomplished this by preserving the space’s existing artful elements while adding openness and dashes of soft color.

The client Damien Fietta, a 33-year-old financier, commissioned Petillault to contemporize the 753-square-foot apartment, which previously existed as an artist’s studio. “Several famous French painters had studios in the building,” the architect says.

In reimagining a historical art studio as a contemporary-style apartment, Petillault’s first order of business was to flood the spaces with sunlight by removing a portion of the mezzanine, where he situated the bedroom and the bath. The new, angled mezzanine features glass walls and hovers above much less of the first-level open-plan kitchen, dining, and living area than it once did. “[Previously,] everything was dark,” Petillault says. “I cut the mezzanine at an angle to maximize the input of daylight.”

Natural light bounces around the revised double-height living area, where a white-painted brick fireplace and chimney add architectural interest. “I removed the plaster that covered the existing brick of the chimney and painted it white,” Petillault says. In addition to the fireplace and chimney, the architect maintained the living room’s extensive built-in bookshelves. He updated the space with a geometric element, painting the underside of the mezzanine and the edges of the bookshelves a shade of pale blue that creates a grid-like effect.

The living, dining, and kitchen area is also marked by parquet floors that feature oak laid in a chevron pattern. “The floor is a typical Parisian floor—parquet en Point de Hongris—that was inspired by Paris’s historic Haussmann apartment buildings,” Petillault says. In the kitchen, a black marble backsplash and counters and a built-in dining table with a black marble top offset the white walls, the pale blue shelving trim, and the pink velvet upholstery of the dining chairs. “I chose materials and colors that enhance the apartment’s new features,” Petillault says. “The white walls contrast with the wood floors and the marble in the kitchen; the blue of the shelves and the pink velvet on the chairs are fun, surprising splashes of color.”

On the mezzanine level, Petillault employed darker colors that create a calm, soothing sensibility for the private areas. The architect dressed the bedroom windows with navy-blue drapery fabric and painted an accent wall with a shade of deep blue. In the spa-like bathroom, slate walls and flooring in the tub-and-shower area is offset by white marble that covers the counter and the walls in the vanity area.

“I wanted to integrate the old and the new,” Petillault says. “I wanted to play with the historical aspect of the artist’s studio while also making it contemporary, and it was important to create continuity between those two things.”

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Project Credits:

Architect: JCPCDR Architecture / @jcpcdr

Builder: SCJ Renovation

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A Historic Paris Apartment Is Revived Using Sunlight and Bursts of Color