{"id":203646,"date":"2022-12-06T11:05:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T16:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_project&p=203646"},"modified":"2022-12-06T11:05:13","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T16:05:13","slug":"claude-cartier-french-apartment","status":"publish","type":"id_project","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/projects\/claude-cartier-french-apartment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Founder of Claude Cartier Studio Dreams Up Her Own French Apartment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The living room of the Claude Cartier Studio founder\u2019s apartment in Lyon, France, features an Erwin Olaf photograph, Gianfranco Frattini\u2019s Sesann sofa, and Studiopepe\u2019s Pluto cocktail tables on a rug of her own design, all capped by a Serge Mouille pendant fixture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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December 6, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Sara Dal Zotto<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography: <\/span>Guillaume Grasset\/Living Inside<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Founder of Claude Cartier Studio Dreams Up Her Own French Apartment <\/h1>\n\n\n\n

For centuries, Lyon, France\u2019s third-largest city, has been famous for the sumptuous silk textiles it produces. Located in the center of the town, near where legions of artisanal looms once hummed, designer Claude Cartier\u2019s apartment evokes the spirit of those fabled fabrics\u2014their luscious colors, bold patterns, and rich textures\u2014but in breezily modern form. Cartier founded her business in 1981, opening a home decorating store that soon led to extensive residential-design commissions and the establishment of her eponymous studio in 2010. Although now a qualified interior designer, Cartier still prefers to define herself as a \u201cdecorator,\u201d and the ebullient theatricality of her apartment shows why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 1,300-square-foot two-bedroom flat occupies a Haussmannian building<\/a> in the same historic area as her businesses, a charming district of antiques dealers, galleries, and design shops that she readily admits is \u201cmy favorite neighborhood.\u201d She bought the apartment two years ago and immediately embarked on an extensive renovation in collaboration with her studio\u2019s in-house architect Fabien Louvier. \u201cWe completely modified the layout, the distribution of spaces,\u201d she reports. \u201cI worked on each part as a scenario with necessarily common threads of architectural character, materials, and color.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having worked in the profession for 40 years, Cartier<\/a> approached the makeover with expected savoir faire. \u201cOf course, my experience as a decorator could only influence this job,\u201d she acknowledges, but adds that the personal nature of the undertaking brought something different to it. \u201cI think I wanted to allow myself even more creative freedom, to consider the project a real playground that would express my personality as closely as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two senses of play\u2014as a staged performance and as fun and games\u2014are built into the apartment\u2019s DNA. Cartier created her distinctive mise-en-sc\u00e8ne not simply by arranging furnishings and applying finishes in the set of spaces she devised with Louvier but also by inviting a trio of other actors to participate in the production: the Italian furniture maker Tacchini<\/a>, the French fabric house M\u00e9taphores, and the Lyonnaise art consultant C\u00e9line Melon Sibille, founder of local gallery Manifesta\u2014all players with strong identities. So, the question for Cartier became how to achieve her own exuberant aesthetic vision through them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Beneath a silver-leafed soffit, Jonas Wagell\u2019s Julep sofa is upholstered with an abstracted-floral jacquard, and India Mahdavi\u2019s Marbles vase sits on the cocktail table.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Cartier Showcases Her Sense of Style Throughout the French Apartment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInevitably, each piece of furniture was chosen because I had an absolute crush on it,\u201d Cartier begins, \u201cthough often it was customized.\u201d A case in point is Jonas Wagell\u2019s Julep sofa, its curving minimalist form dominating one corner of the living room but transformed into some sort of exotic vegetation by M\u00e9taphores\u2019s upholstery of abstracted-floral jacquard. The botanical theme is echoed in the opposite corner, which is entirely draped with pale-green velvet curtains that conceal wall shelving and a TV. The fabric\u2019s delicate color is picked up in the dress of the woman in an Erwin Olaf photograph, one of the many striking artworks curated by Sibille; it hangs above Gianfranco Frattini\u2019s iconic Sesann sofa, its voluptuous contours clad in bottle-green velvet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The living room exemplifies the audacious color palette Cartier uses throughout the apartment: \u201cDark hues that are a bit dramatic, like the entrance,\u201d she says, referring to the latter\u2019s burnt-saffron and inky-blue ceiling and walls, which set off black-and-white checkerboard tile flooring, \u201cthen mint-green pastels with watery shades, earth tones, pearly whites, finished with strong colors underlined with games of stripes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bold Patterns Meld With Subtle Hues<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The living room of the Claude Cartier Studio founder\u2019s apartment in Lyon, France, features an Erwin Olaf photograph, Gianfranco Frattini\u2019s Sesann sofa, and Studiopepe\u2019s Pluto cocktail tables on a rug of her own design, all capped by a Serge Mouille pendant fixture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stripes, a recurring motif, are used with maximum impact in the main bedroom and bathroom. In the latter, they run up the walls in the form of yellow and white tiles, joining with a colorful patchwork curtain and striped-cotton toilet skirt to create a space that\u2019s \u201clike a beach cabin,\u201d Cartier suggests. In the bedroom, a sunburst of broad bands of yellow and white paint explodes across the ceiling, an homage to the dazzling effect Gio Ponti<\/a> created in the Villa Planchart in Caracas, Venezuela. Both rooms have the vivid immediacy associated with interiors in Provence, Andalusia, or the Mezzogiorno, a reference that\u2019s entirely intentional. \u201cI love the South,\u201d she enthuses. \u201cIt was important for me to have Mediterranean accents and influences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all the furnishings are from Tacchini, of course. A multi-leg white-lacquered cabinet by Jaime Hay\u00f3n is a glossy presence in the bedroom, while a black marble console from Angelo Mangiarotti\u2019s 1971 Eros interlocking system of tables serves as a glamorous key-drop in the entry. In the second bedroom, which doubles as a study, a showstopping inlaid-oak cabinet by the Swedish studio Front is backed by a dado made of Cristina Celestino<\/a>\u2019s earth-tone Gonzaga clay tiles, another evocation of the South that Cartier so adores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same room, a desk by Pietro Russo sits on a narrow rug that runs up the wall all the way to the ceiling, its bold colors\u2014terra-cotta, rose, cream, black, white\u2014arranged in an equally bold geometric pattern. The runner is but one in a series of eye-popping rugs that populate the residence, all of them Cartier\u2019s design. The hand-knotted-wool collection\u2019s irrepressible brio encapsulates the apartment\u2019s aesthetic perfectly, as does its name: So Much Fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside Cartier’s Eclectic Abode\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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A self-portrait by South African artist Zanele Muholi dominates the entry hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The main bedroom\u2019s painted ceiling is inspired by Gio Ponti\u2019s Villa Planchart in Venezuela, while Jaime Hay\u00f3n\u2019s lacquered Showtime cabinet, Martin Eisler\u2019s Revers\u00edvel chair, the custom headboard and bedcover, and a sunflower print by Fran\u00e7oise P\u00e9trovitch all add to the Mediterranean atmosphere. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In the dining room, a Pigreco chair by Tobia Scarpa pulls up to a Jupiter table by Studiopepe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The kitchen and entry hall\u2019s checkerboard flooring is Chymia ceramic tile by Laboratorio Avallone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Studiopepe\u2019s Unseen sconces flank a painting by Kevin Ford in the bathroom corridor, where the oak-herringbone flooring is original.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Ceramic-tile stripes festoon the bathroom, while a patchwork curtain by Belgian atelier Les Crafties hides a large porthole opening onto the main bedroom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In the entry hall, a\u00a0wall of storage is covered in a custom finish of polished plaster and silver-leaf squares by Roseyma Marion. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The adjacent niche is graced by Angelo Mangiarotti\u2019s Eros console.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
PROJECT TEAM<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n
claude cartier studio<\/span><\/a>: fabien louvier<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
manifesta<\/span><\/a>: art consultant<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
PRODUCT SOURCES<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n
FROM FRONT<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n
serge mouille<\/span><\/a>: pendant fixture (living room)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
bisson bruneel<\/span><\/a>: lamp shade<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Gubi<\/span><\/a>: white armchair (living room), bench (dining room)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
india mahdavi<\/span><\/a>: vases, ashtrays (living room, bedroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Mutina<\/span><\/a>: floor tile (entry, kitchen)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
collection particuli\u00e8re<\/span><\/a>: vases (dining room)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
bulthaup<\/span><\/a>: cabinetry (kitchen)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
ceramica bardelli<\/span><\/a>: wall tile<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
moroso<\/span><\/a>: ball pillow (living room), chair (study)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
fornace brioni<\/span><\/a>: dado tile (study)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
flos<\/span><\/a>: lamp<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
petite friture<\/span><\/a>: mirror (study), sconces (corridor), pendant fixture (entry)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
bernard<\/span><\/a>: wall tile (bathroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
moustache<\/span><\/a>: mirror<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
les crafties<\/span><\/a>: curtain<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
olivades<\/span><\/a>: toilet skirt fabric<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
MADE IN\u00a0GOLD<\/span><\/a>: CUSTOM WALL COVERING (ENTRY)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
agapecasa<\/span><\/a>: console<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
bd barcelona design<\/span><\/a>: cabinet (bedroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Studiopepe<\/span><\/a>: custom headboard<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
THROUGHOUT<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n
tacchini<\/span><\/a>: furniture<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
m\u00e9taphores<\/span><\/a>: upholstery fabric, drapery fabric<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
cc-tapis<\/span><\/a>: rugs<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Ressource<\/span><\/a>: paint<\/span><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n