A trend for creamy, rusty, natural palettes has gripped the design world and shows no signs of abating. Last year, an autumnal filter seemed to colour interiors everywhere, from corner cafés to private homes. Lately, however, some designers have been experimenting with spirited colour — in more than just ‘pops’ on cushions and rugs. This look-at-me style is most prevalent in Paris and specifically in its hospitality sector. The city has imported designers from abroad and cultivated its own talents who take big, brilliant swings. Here are a few of our favourites.
Le Magnifique
Six months ago, fashion veteran and designer Vincent Darré brought us Hôtel L’Aventure, with its hand-penned murals and glossy red ceilings. This month he unveils Le Magnifique, a hotel in a Montparnasse theatre that takes its inspiration from the art heritage of the neighbourhood. He’s crafted distinctive donut-hole takes on the Louis XVI occasional chair, fashioned an odd new headboard silhouette and had everything hand-painted in majestic watercolours, from the fabrics curtains and bedroom wall frescos to the tiling around the heated indoor pool and the ceiling of the velvet-seat bar, named for local hero Francis Picabia, who hung out in the area with his friends Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and, yes, Kiki de Montparnasse.
La Fantaisie
Everyone was meeting on the Fantaisie rooftop after it opened a few years ago near the historic Folies Bergère. It has that bonkers maximalist fantasy decor that makes a late night cocktail feel even more buzzy, and it was all conceived by Martin Brudnizki, the patron saint of contemporary carnivalcore (see the Broadwick Soho in London). Botanicals from neighbouring gardens are an inspiration, and Brudnizki uses them in spades: on ceilings, upholsteries, custom wallpapers and ceramics. He also makes use of classic circus graphics, like circus-tent sunrays in vibrant yellows. He designed the terrace floor to look like a chequered carpet made from grass.
Hôtel Beauregard
Studio Chloé Nègre is much in demand in French hospitality for taking tastefully lowkey interiors and throwing joyful colour at them in the form of lipstick-red slipper chairs, glossy sconces and graphic abstract artwork. This three-year-old hotel is in a Haussmann block in the Rive Gauche, painted out in stripes and laid with trellis-patterned rugs in the designer’s trademark blues and greens. Nègre collaborated with the textile house Ateliers Pinton on a range of flamboyant tapestries to hang as bed heads. And her custom banquettes are a master class in colour-blocking.
Hotel Les Deux Gares
The Touriste collection that launched Hôtel Beauregard also claims this tasseled, tiled candy-box beauty near Gare du Nord. And they hired London darling Luke Edward Hall to wash it in striking, glossy primary colour. Against monochrome stripes and checks, the reds, yellows, greens and preppy pinks bring to mind Belle Epoque taverns and also suggest this could be the defining look of the future — indeed, the look has been described as ‘nowstalgia‘. Even the weight room has bold floral wallpaper and a pillar-box red chequered floor.
