Above the Seine: Paris apartment
The staircase was custom-designed by Olivier Lempereur. It is made from gloss-painted concrete with marble treads.
The warmth of the fireplace can be enjoyed from the comfort of two blue Marco Zanuso Lady armchairs.
The kitchen countertop is made from enamelled lava stone and the stools are from the Spine collection, designed by Space Copenhagen for Fredericia; throughout, the Lempereurs decorated the walls with framed original cartoon drawings from the owners’ collection.
The home has five different terraces.
A painting by Michel Nedjar hangs above the kitchen countertop; the designers Olivier and Hélène Lempereur.
On the table, the White Wave S ceramic sculpture by Helle Damkjaer echoes the sinous lines of the stair.
In the family room hangs a cartoon strip from Tarzan by Burne Hogarth. The coffee table is the DOO model from Christophe Delcourt. The bronze-coloured stool was designed by Rodolfo Dordoni for Minotti. Ceramic and metal vases are by Sophie Dries.
The wall at the back of the living room was opened up in order to access views across the internal courtyard.
The master bedroom features white sculptures on the bedhead from Aurélien Gendras, and the lacquered bedside table is from Christophe Delcourt; a bath-tub from Badeloft acts as an elegant focal point in the master bathroom. Foussana Grey marble features throughout.
The flat has an immediate view of the Seine, the Île de la Cité and the two towers of Notre-Dame. If a room doesn’t look onto these surrounds, it is bathed in light nevertheless.
This renovated Paris apartment bridges three buildings from two different centuries through impeccable décor and a hefty comic book collection.
The acquisition of this triplex at the heart of Paris required something of a leap of faith. Its owners, Guy and Emmanuelle, admit to having experienced “a certain apprehension”.
Fortunately, they entrusted its renovation and transformation to very safe hands – the husband and wife duo, Olivier and Hélène Lempereur, who originally met in the offices of one of the grandes dames of French interior design, Andrée Putman, before setting up their own Brussels-based practice in 1998. That experience stood them in good stead. For, this was a project that was anything but obvious.
Olivier still clearly recalls his first visit. “The former layout defied all logic,” he states. “It was impossible, complicated and unliveable.” “It had been done in a slapdash fashion,” adds Hélène. “There were parts that were tricky to reach because the ceilings were so low.”
What made things extra-difficult was the fact that the unit not only stretches over three different levels but also is made up of what were, initially, three separate apartments in three distinct 17th and 18th-century buildings. The floors and ceilings of each were not aligned, and one of the flats was not even connected to the other two. You previously had to step outside to access it!
Still, it did also come with significant advantages, the most obvious of which is its location directly on the Seine; it has a quite spectacular view of Notre-Dame. It also has five different terraces. “It feels like a little house perched up high,” notes Guy, a publisher of comic books. “It was so charming, we couldn’t resist. Its exceptional character overrode our fears.”
The 300m2 triplex has something of a colourful history. Its former owner is a producer of adult films, who kitted it out in a very 1970s spirit. There was a bar in the middle of the living room, lots of shiny walnut panelling and a large Jacuzzi in what is now one of the guest rooms. It doesn’t take much imagination to envision the latter as a set for one of his movies!
The Lempereurs decided to completely gut the space. “At one stage, the only thing that was still in place was the front façade of the building,” asserts Olivier, whose expertise lies in the field of architecture and space planning (the soft furnishings and decoration are Hélène’s domain).
His most dramatic gesture comes by way of a striking spiral staircase that deftly links the three floors, its ribbon-like shape chosen because it occupies the least-possible space. “It’s very simple, efficient and elegant,” he delights. Elsewhere, he enlarged the kitchen, fitting it with a glass roof, and opened up the wall at the back of the sitting room to make way for airy floor-to-ceiling windows.
Moving things in and out provided the Lempereurs with a further headache because of the challenging accessibility of the apartment. Not everything could be brought up via the building’s narrow staircases. So, they had to ask for authorisation to install a crane on the bank of the Seine – something that is permitted only on Sundays. As if lifting elements in over the top of the building was not already hair-raising enough, their first attempt had to be aborted because of gusty winds. “Absolutely nothing was easy!” sighs Emmanuelle, the owner of a model agency.
Both she and Guy were attracted to the Lempereurs’ sober, yet warm aesthetic. “Our goal is always to create timeless interiors, which don’t follow fashions,” declares Olivier. “That way, they’ll still be relevant in 10 or 20 years.”
The DNA of their aesthetic is very much based on natural materials, subtle colour palettes and largely rectilinear lines. Here, Guy and Emmanuelle already had a number of mid-century modern pieces they wanted to integrate, such as the pair of Marco Zanuso Lady chairs in the sitting room and the rosewood sideboard by French designer Roger Landault in the dining area.
Throughout, Hélène added a number of furniture creations by Christophe Delcourt, whose work she particularly admires. “I love the lines, the materials and the way everything is so impeccably made,” she enthuses.
Guy had a number of other requests. The first was for shelving space to house as many comic books as possible. Although some 2000 made it into the apartment, that still represents only a third of those he possesses. He also has an important collection of original illustrations, which had long sat in storage. With Hélène’s encouragement, several dozen were framed and hung on different walls. “I liked the way she didn’t advise us to be really selective,” recounts Guy. “On the contrary, she adopted the idea that it would be good to integrate lots of them.”
But then, by the time it came to install the art, an incredibly strong bond of confidence had already been established. “Throughout, both Olivier and Hélène were extremely reassuring,” affirms Guy. “Thank God because, otherwise, I don’t think we would have made it to the end of the project.”
For Olivier, the commission marks something of a watershed in his career. “Guy and Emmanuelle provided the conditions for us to create something exceptional,” he acknowledges. “I’d like all our future projects to be in a similar vein, with the same atmosphere, means and technical prowess!”
This article first appeared in Urbis magazine.
