Le Marais: A Luminous Apartment in Paris by Studio Haddou-DuFourcq.

‘Le marais’, in French, literally translates to ‘swamp’, but there’s nothing remotely swamp-like about Le Marais, an apartment in Paris recently redesigned by Studio Haddou-DuFourcq. Mind you, the same can’t be said about its state a few years ago. “Everything was dark,” recalls Kim Haddou, one half of the Paris-based interior design practice. “It looked like a dilapidated dollhouse.”

There was one small pink room, one small green room, one small brown room, and a small blue kitchen. Nothing, it seemed, was people-sized. Or, for that matter, people-worthy. For Kim and the studio’s other half, Florent Dufourcq, admitting more light meant expelling what was blocking it—in this case, wallpaper: here, there, and everywhere, even on the ceilings, where it had a particular knack of swallowing the sun.

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Light woes notwithstanding, there was lots to love about the home. Kim and Florent were taken with the late 1970s architecture, defined by sharp lines and clear volumes. “We don’t find many buildings of this period in the centre of Paris. Most apartments here are Haussmanian, with old mouldings and classic fireplaces. When we entered the building for the first time, we were reminded of Milan,” shares Florent.

The exterior sowed the seeds for the interior, which took on a life of its own with soft materials, glimmers of metal and mirror, and Italian vintage novelties from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The living room, in particular, is a scene straight out of a classic motion picture. “We added the white carpet to recreate the cosy atmosphere that we sometimes see in old movies—everybody barefoot on the floor, a nice big sofa in the corner,” muses Kim. In a bid to expand the layout, she and Florent also added travertine tiles on the walls to connect the kitchen to the living room.

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What they could keep, they did. Example(s)? The parquet floor on the upper level and the 1960s doors with moulding. The pink marble bathroom, original to the home, made the cut too.

“We loved it the moment we saw it,” says Kim, and Florent adds, “We made some minor changes to make it more comfortable but retained the bathtub and washbasin to keep the original spirit of the room.” The finished version has one foot in Milan and the other in Paris. It’s a balancing act that keeps on giving.

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[Images courtesy of Haddou-Dufourcq. Photography by Ludovic Balay.]