Paris Best Interior Designers style and French country décor get the furniture to impact a flowing feel to a living space. Lines are curved, while there is no hint of ornamentation or opulence, as natural materials, like wood with carvings and a low key finish, are used. Let’s discuss some aspects of French-style interior design that stand out, talking about different kinds of Parisien interior design styles, and then moving on to elements design styles in different kinds of living spaces.
Alberto Pinto Studio was one of the biggest Icons of French Interior Design that during his life built his works on a mixture of styles. Pinto developed several interior design projects, not only residential but also in hospitality, businesses, and even yachts. Used to take challenges that would scare others away, he particularly appreciated transforming gigantic spaces in which he would put together different styles and always in perfect harmony. Today the Alberto Pinto Studio is considered one of the Top Design Studios in France and by maintaining this status, it has honored Alberto Pinto’s memory and legacy.
Charles Zana is a passionate French Designer and architect who combines art and technique in every one of his projects. Zana designs the best spaces for his clients by establishing systems of habitation that they can easily appropriate. His interiors are structured around people, taking every aspect of their lives into account, and he never imposes a style.
Christian Liaigre was born in La Rochelle, France in 1943. He studied at the Paris Academy of Fine and Decorative Arts and taught drawing at the Academy Charpentier. After spending 10 years as a horse breeder he decided to open a studio in 1987, focusing on interior architecture and furniture design. His first project to win acclaim was the refurbishment of the Hotel Montalembert in Paris in 1988. The designer is known due to the fact that he designed private residences for such notables names as Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, Rupert Murdoch, and Bryan Adams. Christian Liaigre has made himself known by his refined and high-quality work. Through good use of space and light, focus his design on local cultures, traditions, choice of materials, and a special love of arts and crafts. According to the words of the designer, comfort does not lie in trivial affluence but in delicacy and rareness. Only this designer is able to combine certain modesty with great elegance.
According to Didier Gomez, he practices an art design dedicated to well-being. Through his agency DGID, the designer has completed some of the most iconic projects all over the world, including the Café Roset in Moscow, La Coupole restaurant in the Printemps store in Paris, the Asia Lounge restaurant in Almaty, and the Méridien Montparnasse in Paris and Joël Robuchon’s Yoshi restaurant in Monaco. Didier Gomez began his career as an opera singer before office, into the world of interior and product design in 1985 with his association and with the architect JJ Ory. Winner of numerous design awards, he has designed boutiques, large stores, restaurants, apartments, houses, and head offices all over the world.
François Catroux’s client list is definitely one of the best in the business and his successful career granted him fame and recognition. François Catroux is an innovator and explorer in interior design, who has always been a master of contemporary style. His trademark for contemporary design is mostly the result of being confronted with old interior designs. He has been the decorator of choice for aristocrats, moguls, royals, and oligarchs alike. For his designs, Catroux also uses nothing but the best materials: marbles, fine woods, and opulent upholstery are part of his definition of luxury. From his experiences during his several trips around the world, the designer uses inspiration and passion for art as an input.
François Champsaur was born in Marseille but has been based in Paris since the late ’80s. His Mediterranean roots have influenced his work. Diploma in Fine Arts in Marseille and Arts Decorative in Paris (ENSAD), François Champsaur created his interior design office and furniture design in 1996. Since then, he accumulates prestigious achievements in the restoration area, Café de l’Alma, in Paris, hotels, Hôtel Montalembert, in Paris, and fashion, Nina Ricci. Between design and decoration, his work seduces by its ability to thrill while passing the image of an optimistic world. With both vision and discretion, François Champsaur steps back, allowing the space to become a living creature.
Gerard Faivre, recognized as one of the best contemporary interior designers, created the concept Gerard Faivre Residence, apartments, and luxury properties completely renovated, furnished, and decorated with fully integrated hotel services. To create an original work of art, Faivre imbues himself with the soul of each property. For him, each site is both a blank canvas and a source of inspiration.
Gilles and Boissier are a team of interior designers and architects based in Paris and working together since 2004. Over the years they have had projects in some of the world’s top capitals and cities. From restaurants to hotels, commercial spaces, and homes, the pair is responsible for a variety of Hakkasan restaurants, La Villa and Mini Palais in Paris, Chachamoon in London, Buddakan New York, some of the top Moncler stores around the globe, the Baccarat Hotel in New York and as far as residences go, recently they designed the second home in Paris. The project that they have entitled L’Ature Apartment Paris (The Other Paris Apartment) was recently featured in the Italian Elle Décor, which showcased also some of their own furniture and lighting. Patrick Gilles and Dorothée Boissier are partners in life and in design, each one has a specific role and style, but together they form a unified team. If strict lines and a distinctive taste for fine woods can be attributed to Patrick Gilles, Dorothée, on her end, has a way with spatial fluidity, colors, and intuitive elegance. It’s this unique approach that has paved their road to success, with commissions all over the world.
Born in 1947, Jacques Garcia showed a talent for drawing objects of art at a young age. At the age of eight, he built his first structure furnished at his grandparent’s home. Later on, he attended a school of interior design and completed his education in the applied arts. When he finished his education, he began working for a firm of contemporary architects and created a concept for the interiors of the Tour Montparnasse in Paris, Le Méridien hotels, and the Royal Monceau à Paris. He was also the interior architect for the Hôtel Costes and Costes restaurants, the Hotel Majestic, and the restaurant Fouquet’s. In 2006, he redecorated the Hôtel Odéon Saint Germain in Paris, and he purchased and restored the Château du Champ-de-Bataille in Normandy and undertook to recreate and update the large French formal garden. He also became an avid collector of furniture and royal art objects dispersed after the French Revolution. For his achievements, he was named commander of the Order of Arts and Letters and a Chevalier in the order of the Légion d’honneur.
Jaques Grange is, without doubt, one of the best interior designers and decorators in the world. Known for his exquisite style, characterized by a harmony between traditional and contemporary tastes, Grange is one of the very few interior designers who received a strict classical education in the field. Thanks to this background and early experiences that Jacques Grange is able to effortlessly mix the style and elements of different times – from rococo opulence to contemporary minimalism. He decorated and designed interiors for some of the biggest and most respected personalities and tastemakers. His main customers included Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, for whom he decorated the Château Gabriel, in Benerville-Sur-Mer.
From a family of architects passionate about design and contemporary creations, Jean-Philippe Nuel graduated as an architect from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and quickly made a name for himself by winning several competitions, including an international competition presided over by Kenzo Tange. Very quickly, before turning 30, he had designed a hotel in Paris, its architecture and interior decoration, which would orientate his work towards this sector of activity. A design that is more than just decor, that creates an atmosphere, will become the true identity and the true personality of an establishment.
Featured on the ELLE Decor and AD 100 lists of the best interior designers in the world, Jean-Louis Deniot has long been in the business of creating atmospheres. Jean-Louis Deniot has lived and breathed interior design from an early age. His décors are his playground, spaces where spontaneity and magic are present. Recognized worldwide for his eclectic and emblematic interiors, Jean-Louis Deniot plays in a multiplicity of repertoires, never sticking to the purity of style. If he does contemporary, it’s always with a weighty dose of history and references infused into it, to produce a timeless scenario. Deniot uses his travels for inspiration, for nodding to past time periods and refined color palettes, turning into the reason why he has been booked for an endless list of impressive projects.
Joseph Dirand has built a career incorporating a quintessentially French style of design into otherwise minimalist interiors. He emphasizes strong lines, classic elements, lighting, rich materials, particularly marble, and the telling detail that brings life to an interior. Amongst his main projects are shop interiors for Alexander Wang, home, hotel, and restaurant interiors in Paris, New York, and Beirut.
At the forefront of the international design scene, Mathieu Lehanneur is one of the few designers of his contemporaries who can embrace as many different fields beyond furniture. He innovates with objects and magic architectural structures that breathe design, science, art, and technology. Air, water, sound, and light are his favorite materials to work on. His diploma project at ENSCI – Les Ateliers entitled “Therapeutic objects” – is a project on the ergonomics of medicine, which was immediately integrated into MoMa’s permanent collection.
Patrick Jouin is a designer whose creativity finds an expression in industrial design for the decorative arts. With the top manufacturers, Cassina, Kartell, Alessi, Puiforcat, JC Decaux or Fermob, and for exceptional projects, Patrick found a place in the landscape of international design where only a few know how to evolve with both ease and strength as he does. Patrick Jouin was born in Nantes, France, in 1967. After graduating from the École Nationale de la Création Industrielle (ENSCI) in 1992, he started to design for Thomson multimedia under the Art Direction of Philippe Starck. The designer founded his own agency in 1998, in the 11th arrondissement in Paris, in 1999 he met Alain Ducasse with whom he collaborated to design many restaurants such as the Alain Ducasse au “Plaza Athénée”, “Be boulangerie-epicerie”, in Paris, and Mix New York restaurant.
Pierre Yovanovitch is an artist that uses traditional french craftsmen to create unique interiors and pieces made of noble materials such as marble, stone, metals, or copper. The Architectural Digest qualified his work as purely “Made in France” and was named on the 100 best interior designers list and on the prestigious AD100 list in 2010. Pierre Yovanovitch was born in 1965 in Nice on the French Riviera. He did not start his career in design but in fashion and worked for the studios of Pierre Cardin between 1990 and 2000 both in Brussels and Paris. His own agency was opened in 2001 under the name of “Pierre Yovanovitch, Interior designer” and worked in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Great Britain, Israel, and the USA. In 2016, the agency moved into a private Hotel in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris and opened an office in Madison Avenue in New York in 2018.
Pierre-Yves Rochon (PYR) was founded in Paris in 1979 to create interior design solutions for luxury hospitality and residential environments. Every aspect of the guest experience is enhanced by the seamless integration of each property’s location, culture, and history with its design.PYR has been entrusted with iconic historic landmarks as well as cutting-edge developments around the world as a direct result of the creative integrity, authenticity, and craftsmanship they bring to every project. Their design achievements deliver award-winning results for major international hospitality brands such as Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Waldorf Astoria, Fairmont, St. Regis, Peninsula, Shangri-La, Sofitel, InterContinental, and numerous boutique hotels. In addition, PYR has created restaurant environments for some of the world’s most innovative chefs, such as Joël Robuchon, Alain Ducasse, Paul Bocuse, Gérard Boyer, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
Designer Ramy Fischler’s firm RF Studio has recently completed the refurbishing of a duplex apartment in a listed building on Place de Colombie, in Paris’ 16th arrondissement, France. Like a skillful magician, Fischler’s artful transformation combines traditional elements with forward-thinking design interventions, creating a multi-layered interior that reinvents the apartment’s history and original aesthetic, firmly rooting it into the present day, as a result.
When it comes to interior design, Sarah Lavoine uses similar principles as she does while dressing herself. In her design projects, Sarah Lavoine never tries to look vulgar and she works the total look. The designer does her best and knows how to mix and combine different items. According to her opinion, there is nothing worse than when an entire room – or worse, an entire house – is designed with one theme all over. Being the ultimate ambassador of a new «art de vivre à la française», Sarah Lavoine has a brand new project: an amazing book titled «Chez Moi: Decorating Your Home and Living Like a Parisienne», where she shares her knowledge in the design field, and teaches us how to get the Parisian style in our own interiors.
Tristan Auer is a prevailing force in the interior design world who came of age under icons like Christian Liaigre. He is an entrepreneurial interior architect who founded his own studio in 2002, which specializes in ultra-high-end residences, boutique hotels, and retail, as well as bespoke furniture design. A couturier, Tristan’s signature panache can be found across the globe. As Principal of Wilson Associates’ Paris atelier, he will oversee the firm’s “hautest” design projects across Europe. The designer says: “I like to embark on adventures with my clients. The goal is to let design and decoration soften their lives.”
