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While it wasn’t love at first sight when Lucie Socrate first visited her new project in a Paris suburb, the interior designer immediately recognized the potential of the 650-square-foot two-room apartment. Just four months later, it had been transformed beyond recognition. With a new floor plan and a high-contrast color concept, the rooms shine with a warm look that reflects Lucie’s source of inspiration, the tropical palette of Rio de Janeiro. She turned the spotlight on the kitchen, staging it like a work of art in which bright tones and sunny optimism are paired with vintage charm. Before the interior designer swapped the rooms around in her updated floor plan, this space actually belonged to the bathroom. By breaking through the wall into a neighboring room, she created an eat-in kitchen with a spacious feel. Lucie also played with perspective in order to take full advantage of the potential of the relatively large kitchen. One charming highlight is a geometric zigzag detail painted around the entrance to the colorful kitchen, framing the view.
In the adjoining living and dining area, the interior designer opted for dark wood antique tables and chairs fitting the Brazilian-inspired design in which bold colors accentuate the distinct areas. “White walls bring light into play, while pink blush highlights details in the ceiling and it also works wonderfully with the khaki of the bookshelves,” Lucie says. She designed the living room bookshelves, which float above cabinets that stretch across the entire width of the room. They offer an ideal place for books, decorative objects, a TV, and even a workspace. “We integrated niches for two small desks into the cabinet unit,” Lucie explains. A detail on the cabinet fronts is clever and eye-catching: Elegant wooden rosettes are painted in the same khaki green as the walls.
The bedroom appears larger thanks to a room divider that serves both as a headboard and to conceal an open closet. “The room has storage space behind the bed and allows for open circulation at the same time,” Lucie explains. “And a mini projector also turns the bedroom into a home movie theater.” There’s another detail here that stands out in this room, the sparking jewel-like brass handles on the wardrobe doors.
Lucie’s renovation is environmentally friendly thanks to choices like restoring the parquet flooring and keeping the original radiators. A light blue in the hallway balances the bold colors found in the rest of the apartment and helps the exposed conduits to blend in seamlessly. Vintage furniture offered a way to combine style, authenticity, quality, and sustainability. The designer’s favorite sources for finding antique design pieces include the French website Selency, various other secondhand websites, and Belgian flea markets. Light fixtures and furniture from her finds, along with warm woods and graphic color accents, are the decorative DNA of the project and allow for a marriage of cosmopolitan elements with the vintage characteristics of the apartment.
This home tour was first published by AD Germany. It was translated by John Oseid.
