Living Room Bookcase Wood Burning Fireplace Pendant Lighting Design Photos and Ideas

Sometimes all it takes is a little luck. For a young married couple, it came in the form of this rare find: a 19th-century, three-story, single-family home in the heart of Paris. The building was a charmer with good bones, but was in need of some serious care. In a vibrant retrofit by architect Pierre-Louis Gerlier that includes structural reinforcements, the reimagined design is set off with a new floor plan. The lower level now serves as a space for the couple’s children, with the public areas—including an open-plan living/dining room and kitchen—on the floor above. Upstairs, the attic has been transformed into a very large primary bedroom with a green-and-white bathroom suite. The living room (pictured) showcases the firm’s bespoke carpentry work with a beautiful, mossy-green built-in bookcase that frames a new fireplace, and a staircase surrounded by arched doorways that hold hidden storage. “We created visual breakthroughs in order to connect the different spaces,” says Gerlier. “The rounded arches are there to help magnify these moments.”
An entrance hall leads to the living/dining area, where the architects used old bricks to make a fireplace, stairs, and built-in benches feel as though they were always there.
Chimney corner and floor-to-ceiling bookcase
View to the Entrance
"A steep or unstable site can make it difficult and costly to seismically retrofit a structure, or stabilize the site,” says Thomas Schaer at SHED Architecture and Design, a Seattle-based firm with extensive experience in adaptive reuse, as well as midcentury remodel. “There also may be land-use code provisions that limit or prevent development on the lot."
Wood tones and earthy textures warm the reimagined living room. Much of the art were gifts that the couple bought for each other or pieces by mutual friends; the Mickey Mouse painting is by New Jersey–based artist Dylan Egon. "We like to bring some of the city into the country," says Lauren.
Anchored with an ash accent wall with a built-in daybed, the midcentury-inspired living room features a Living Divani modular sofa and Tech Lighting pendant lamps. On the left is the custom double-sided bookshelf covered with acid-etched glass that divides the living space from the bedroom hall.
Morten Bo Jensen, the chief designer at Vipp—whose headquarters are located in Islands Brygge—and his partner, graphic designer Kristina May Olsen, bought a loft space in the former Viking pencil factory in 2011. They bought the loft from its previous owner, one of five investors who purchased the circa-1910 factory building, roughly a decade ago, in a very raw state.
The energy-efficient Dickerman Residence by Richard Pedranti Architect boasts warm wood ceilings, midcentury-inspired furnishings, and a stately stone fireplace.
Jon's living room is anchored with a double-faced concrete masonry chimney with indoor and outdoor functionality. The steel stairs on the left lead up to a mezzanine study area.
Living Level
The living room is anchored by a sofa and lounge chair, both by Børge Mogensen, as well as a Conoid bench by George Nakashima. An Isamu Noguchi pendant lamp casts a warm glow onto the Brasilia coffee table, designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Swedese.