An apartment floating above the Parisian streets, filled with art, sculpture and antiques is the wildest dream of any romantic. For architect Maxime Bousquet, designing this apartment was his chance to show himself to the world.
“This project marks a new era in my work,” says interior designer Maxime Bousquet with a smile, standing in front of a large window that opens up to the Parisian sky. The space is framed like a grand theatre, with five metre-tall floor-to-ceiling velvet curtains.
This jewel-box top-floor apartment is home to a collector couple and their many artworks. “They really live with their art; they didn’t want their home to feel like a museum,” explains Bousquet, who name-drops legendary figures such as Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso and American artists, Sterling Ruby and Bill Viola as among those that make up the couple’s collection.
In the entrance hall, Viola’s video Bodies of Light plays next to a staircase that twists upwards like a ribbon. The metaphor of ascending towards the heavens is seen throughout the apartment. “I’m very interested in the period from the 1920s to the 1940s, which I then combine with other references,” Bousquet continues. “Here, there are many nods to the 1940s, such as pieces by Serge Roche, an André Arbus armchair (1935), and Jean Després silverware (1930), composing a refined mix of French Modernist design and decorative plasterwork elements.”
Bousquet designed the entire structure of the 280-square metre flat, which was assembled from separate spaces on the building’s top two floors, including a row of former service rooms. Over two-and-a-half years, the interior designer connected the spaces into a cohesive whole. A green “island” floating above the city, reminiscent of Helena Rubinstein’s rooftop gardens at her penthouse on Paris’s Île Saint-Louis and her apartment on Park Avenue, New York. This summer, the urban garden will come to life with a myriad of sculptures, a dining area, and an outdoor fireplace – the ultimate accessory for those who love to entertain.
Beyond the hazelnut travertine that winds through the apartment and is repeated on the skirting boards, there are also Taj Mahal marble and glowing Iranian onyx elements. Everywhere, the interior is punctuated with refined pieces that provide almost surreal touches, and stone finishes rub shoulders with more delicate items. The carved-stone fireplace in the living room, for example, sits next to a pair of blown crystal lamps found in Milan. They are unique objects, like many of the pieces acquired from the Galerie Jacques Lacoste, which include bronze wall lights with a natural patina that’s the result of their having previously been installed in a swimming pool.
These sit on a wall leading to the dining room, which is undoubtedly the most striking space in the duplex. Covering every square inch of its walls is a fresco by Elvira Solana, depicting the four seasons alongside images related to markets and cooking. The artist has portrayed the faces in the fresco in a more angular way than she typically does, embracing the spirit of the 1940s that was central to Bousquet’s design. He’s even designed a rug with celestial motifs which is also inspired by that era – a joyful jumble of Surrealist motifs that he is about to have produced.
Located right under the roof of the building, the principal suite also embodies a refined Surrealism, notably in the way it uses images of faces – they are often distorted and fragmented, like those found in artworks by artists such as Salvador Dalí and André Breton. Here, the La Bocca della Verità bed by the Italian sculptor Mario Ceroli features a wooden face mounted on a carving that emphasises the dramatic portrait.
The walk to the bathroom takes you through the dressing room, its walls covered by a Nadine Hautrive painting that was inspired by Eileen Gray’s Le Destin, a four-panel screen created in 1914 for designer Jacques Doucet. Gray’s work is reinterpreted here in shades ranging from midnight blue to bright red.
In addition to a monumental basin carved from a single block of stone and a double shower decorated with an antique sculpture, the bathroom features a heart-shaped stool by Bousquet. “It’s like my signature: a little love letter that I leave to each of my clients,” he says. He reflects on the freedom given to him by the owners when designing their home, which was fuelled by conversations and a shared love of beauty. “I took so much of myself and of them to create all of this,” Maxime Bousquet says, concluding with a laugh: “This interior is me offering myself to the world.”
