This glamorous apartment in Paris's Marais district is full of 'functional sculptures'

The property

A first-floor apartment located in Paris’s Marais district. The modern home has a living room, kitchen-diner, study, three bedrooms (one en suite), a family bathroom and a WC.

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Living room

As co-founder of the cutting-edge Carpenters Workshop Gallery, the owner here is in the habit of taking his work home with him. It’s proved a fail-safe method of testing out the gallery’s highly regarded, very limited-edition pieces by luminaries such as Marc Newson, the Campana Brothers, Robert Stadler and Wendell Castle.

As a result, each lamp, coffee table or chair makes the trip up the stairs to the apartment to ensure it not only resonates as art, but also works in a domestic setting.

The owner likes his furniture as visceral as an artwork. So, in his family’s living room (shown at the top), buckled strips of metal erupt from the surface of a storage cabinet, twisting it into a dynamic, deconstructed sculpture.

A few feet away, a dark bronze table lamp mutates into a tree of human figures. The artistry of these pieces by Vincent Dubourg and Atelier Van Lieshout sums up the ethos of this couple’s lofty Parisian home – a place where the boundaries between art and furniture are blurred in the most beautiful way.

DINING ROOM

The couple were keen to free up the rigidity of the archetypical Haussmann architecture by removing walls, including one between the kitchen and dining room.

The dining area has an easy-going vibe, with a vintage table and café chairs mixed with limited edition designs.

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kitchen

The modern kitchen is designed to not feel too much like a kitchen.

study

The flat’s Haussmann-era proportions provide plenty of space for an artwork that doubles as a crash course in art history – and was the first significant piece the couple bought.

The gallery owner is a devotee of what he calls ‘functional sculptures’ – items that are ‘as thought- provoking as an artwork, but still remain useful for everyday life’. So furniture is free to challenge as many artistic preconceptions as it likes – as long as it still works as a place to sit, read the paper or rest your morning coffee.

Master en suite

The metal shower enclosure and encaustic tiles make for a smart modern bathroom update on classical style.

Master bedroom

The couple can't decide whether this is a bedroom that's like a bathroom, or a bathroom like bedroom. Either way they say it's good for how they live.

Visit carpentersworkshopgallery.com to see the full limited-edition collection of design art

Photography / James Merrell

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