The kitchenette’s oak marquetry sits alongside vintage cherry tree timber Art Deco chairs around a sculptural, white lacquered-timber dining table by Maxime Bousquet.
An 1870s Parisian apartment renovation pairs Art Deco and 1970s detailing with graceful volumes, creating spaces capable of committing travel’s ephemeral moments to enduring memory.
In the opulent company of Paris’ Neo-Baroque Palais Garnier and the Madeleine church’s iconic neoclassicism, sits hospitality group Pied A Terre’s new residence, Madeleine: a series of one, two and three-bedroom accommodation apartments.
Designed by Maxime Bousquet, the project represents Bousquet’s first hospitality design, translating his holistic residential approach. “I design complete environments where it’s not only the architecture of the space but also the lighting, furniture, textiles, art and decorative objects that give a strong sense of identity,” he discusses.
Elements of Marc du Plantier and Paul Dupré-Lafon’s Art Deco and 1940s design lexicon link the ornate Haussmann-style exterior, to contemporary furnishings that nod to Paris’ playful 1970s spirit—collectively distilling a resonant personality across place and time. “More recent references give a feeling of Art Deco remembered rather than reconstructed. A more intimate feeling, softening the glamour that is sometimes very theatrical in Art Deco interiors,” Bousquet says.
A black and white marble-tiled entryway greets guests with the three apartments organised around it. Each apartment’s topology composes modern proportions considering, “Geometry, symmetry and arches as codes that become ways to organise the atmosphere rather than just decorate it,” Bousquet explains. Sculpted volumes include curved walls of an oval living space and recessed wall panels that embed furnishings into the reinterpreted architecture.
A vintage cavalcade bas relief from Paris’ Saint-Ouen market, hangs in pride of place above a Maxime Bousquet-designed, mosaiced-mirror fireplace that Bousquet notes draws on an Andrée Puttman apartment design. Bousquet-designed, geometries of black and white lacquered timber and fabric screens contrast a vintage armchair’s curves, reupholstered in purple velvet. An assembly of Bousquet’s designs including a white onyx Icon heart stool, sofa and cork and timber coffee table form gathering zones under the Bousquet-designed brass ceiling light. In the background stands a black mini bar, designed by Bousquet with a 1930s Pol Chambost lamp.
Soft drapery, hanging from arched ceiling detailing, reveals the view through ceiling-height casement windows. A Bousquet-designed table and striped sofa is accompanied by a circa 1950s, reupholstered armchair. A 1962 Picasso and Atelier Jacomet phototype artwork hangs on the mirror panelled wall beside a black-lacquered timber and polished brass lamp by Bousquet.
Although each apartment holds individuality, Bousquet-designed furnishings are motifs throughout—tracing the custom-made shapes of bedheads, bespoke sofas and bedside tables. Bold stripes and animal printed-sofas happily juxtapose floral rugs inspired by the Les Pavots or gilded poppies carpeting of Serge Gainsbourg’s Rue de Verneuil home. Glinting gems of a jewellery box, sapphire, smoky quartz and amber-hued bathroom tiling provides restrained colour stories that expand these cosier spaces.
“I try to think of the feeling the space should produce rather than it just being visually striking,” explains Bousquet—a sentiment evident in quieter, textural detailing of wood marquetry, white-washed walls, polished brass and velvet materiality. Pied A Terre founder, Andrea Bokobsa reflects, “What I appreciate most is the level of detail, especially the kind that is not immediately visible. The spaces are not trying to impress through scale or gesture, but through alignment. It’s about creating places that feel familiar after a few minutes, yet are never generic.”
The devastating thing about holidays is that they inevitably end. However, combatting the transience of travel’s joy, the bonhomie of Bousquet’s uniquely layered design provides for the finest souvenirs, indelible memories.
A foyer of black and white marble tiling welcomes guests to the apartments, flanked by Bousquet-designed lacquered timber and silver leaf sideboards. Patinated plaster wall lights, also designed by Bousquet, frame the entry.
A bespoke bedhead by Bousquet sits flush against mirror panelling, below a vintage brass wall light with an Art Deco-style bedroom bench, reupholstered in golden velvet.
Backdropped by a faceted, fixed mirror wall, a custom-designed basin by Bousquet is wrapped in golden tiling, illuminated by Bocci, cast-glass sconce wall lights.
