A Paris Pied-à-Terre Designed Around a 1960s Novel

Giampiero Tagliaferri was reading Françoise Sagan's 1965 novel La Chamade (published in English as That Mad Ache) at his home in Los Angeles when his American client's Paris pied-à-terre project first came up. He never shook off the book. "The book describes nights in Paris and the decadence of moving from one apartment to the next," Tagliaferri explains. "There's a passage where the protagonist says how much she loves the silence, the warmth, and the freedom of the night. That initial thought was the catalyst for all the other ideas about what this apartment should look like."

The apartment sits in the Triangle d'Or among the grand boulevards of Paris's 8th arrondissement. When Tagliaferri and his young client first stepped inside, it was move-in ready — but stripped of character. "Unfortunately, many of the original historic elements had been removed over the years. There were no Haussmann-style details like decorative moldings or arches," the designer recalls. "For us, it was out of the question to artificially recreate these elements. Instead, we took advantage of the stripped-down shell and treated it like a blank canvas, infusing it with characteristics from various eras."

Why the 1970s?

Tagliaferri turned to the 1970s to give the apartment character without building a time capsule. Despite the bygone references, the interior reads as contemporary and unmistakably Parisian.

The client comes from a hospitality dynasty, and the pied-à-terre was designed for entertaining. "Perhaps even the final stop of a long night," Tagliaferri muses. "A place where everyone returns to and stays up until the next morning." He framed the plan around the idea of a French salon — an homage to Paris's bohemian culture.

To evoke that feeling, Tagliaferri immersed himself again in the world of Lucile, the novel's protagonist, imagining Yves Saint Laurent and his muse, model Betty Catroux, returning home in the 1960s after a long night out.

What materials define the interior?

"I used materials that date back to that era," Tagliaferri says. The choices include:

• Sofas upholstered in light suede
• Lacquer surfaces and stainless-steel paneling wrapping the entire living room, creating tension and contrast
• Light-colored natural stone, typical of Paris, for the floors
• Accents of Cipollino marble in the bathroom

"An elegant apartment doesn't have to be austere or formal," he insists. Relaxed moments remain central to his aesthetic, which he shapes with a California mindset.

The bedroom is the apartment's aesthetic highlight. Rounded corners envelop guests like a cocoon. The upper part of the room is lined with cream-colored suede, and the bed stands on a dark-brown lacquer platform that, like the wall paneling, contrasts with the velvety ceiling. "The bed is upholstered in leather," says Tagliaferri. "We've gone all out here to create a sensual, hedonistic space where anything goes."

Which vintage pieces and artworks made the cut?

Alongside built-in and custom-made pieces, Tagliaferri sourced a curated selection of vintage furniture:

• A daybed and armchair by Osvaldo Borsani
• A table by Pierre Chapo
• A Gabriella Crespi wall sconce above the bed
• Chicago chairs by Angelo Mangiarotti — "I'm particularly fascinated by the Chicago chairs by Angelo Mangiarotti," Tagliaferri says

For the art, he brought in Milan-based, Norway-born art advisor Truls Blaasmo, who curated a collection spanning ancient, modern, and contemporary works. A photograph by Wolfgang Tillmans hangs in the bedroom opposite a Roman torso of Dionysus. Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q. Rasée and a late work by Man Ray evoke 20th-century Paris.

What anchors the living room?

Tagliaferri, an art collector himself, created a floor-to-ceiling ceramic mural in the living room in collaboration with Milan-based manufacturer Fondazione Officine Saffi. The work revives a nearly forgotten tradition of ceramics as an architectural design element. "In the 1950s and '60s, this was a major trend in Milan and Paris. Artists including Lucio Fontana created many site-specific installations then," Tagliaferri explains. "In this room, especially at night, the streetlights cast reflections on the glazed surface."

His custom built-ins — including a sofa and a desk — blend with the vintage objects, collectibles, and artworks. The result: an apartment that carries a novel's atmosphere into a real Paris night, one where guests might wish the story never ended.