Place Dauphine
Our clients, an American couple who were married in Paris and posed for their wedding photographs on Place Dauphine, were dreaming of a pied-à-terre in this special central spot for their frequent visits.
During the initial project meeting, the clients—who work in the sciences—said that they imagined for their apartment the feeling of a ‘cabinet of curiosities’. Two references immediately sprung to mind: The ‘Spectrum of Life’ in the Natural History Museum’s Hall of Biodiversity and the famed Deyrolle taxidermy shop in Paris, self-described as a ‘temple to the observation of nature.’ Interestingly, both references featured a soft, robin’s egg blue backdrop. Very early on in the project the design team found and purchased an ornate glass front cabinet from the same century as the apartment and the ‘cabinet of curiosities’ request was granted.
In the apartment, dark, rough timber beams remained one of the home’s last original features and similarly beckoned for a bright, fresh color to juxtapose the visually heavy dark wood. The tender robin’s egg blue of the Natural History Museum and Deyrolle became the inception point for establishing the apartment’s color palette, repeated throughout the home in different ways.
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Architectural Digest
Photos by LAURE JOLIET