Though Amélie Colombet is an interior designer, her Paris apartment is anything but an overly designed space. With coats on hooks, toys within reach, and unfussy linens on the beds and upholstery, the home is a charming, thoughtful backdrop to the story of her and her son’s everyday lives.
Colombet, who founded her design firm, ÂM DECO, in 2010, is the first to acknowledge that designing for her clients and designing interiors for herself are two entirely different processes. “Whatever the space, you have to enjoy it and not try to make it something that it isn’t,” she says. “I live in a smaller flat than my customers, but I’m not playing with minimalism to make it bigger.” Instead, she created bold focal points throughout the home, such as a landscape-inspired mural wall covering in her living room and vivid paints throughout. These arresting gestures distract from the apartment’s somewhat diminutive scale.
Though it might not have the budget or square footage of her clients’ homes, the architecture of Colombet’s Paris flat is by any standards lust-worthy. “My number-one priority was to live in an old building with wooden floors and high ceilings,” she says. “Above the living room, I have an office and a third bathroom—it’s a great argument to work on my own but not too far from my son, Auguste. I seduced the real estate agent! I needed this flat!”
The home seems to be working out well for Auguste, whose walls are adorned with his artwork and favorite books. Watching over him in his built-in, cabin-like bed is a forest-themed wall covering. “I think children’s wallpapers are very interesting,” Colombet says. “They provide color and boost the imagination. I love when my son tells himself stories when he’s looking at the animals on his mural.”
She also knows that the key to this imaginative fun, especially in a small space, is some tidiness and organization. Storage beneath Auguste’s bed conceals whatever items are not on the docket for the day’s play. Auguste did, however, have one design request that unfortunately went unanswered. “He wanted red carpet! I couldn’t put in without damaging the floor by sticking,” Amélie says, but she plans to grant him his wish if they ever move. “It will be for the next one!”
For interior design ideas, explore our Pinterest boards where you can find inspiration about the City of Light and also about Paris events, arts, and design.
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