This Outrageously Gorgeous Paris Apartment Is the Perfect Maximalist Mix
Designer and illustrator Tatiana de Nicolay‘s life is simply dream-like. She’s the talent behind collections with brands like Diptyque, Lobmyer, and a new array of rugs through Jaipur Rugs sold at the Invisible Collection. Known for her whimsical style of tropical flora and fauna motifs, Tatiana created the ultimate collaboration when she blended her signature style to this three-bedroom apartment in a Hausmannian building in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
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It was the dining room — and its jaw-droppingly stunning colorful wooden wall panels — that first made Tatiana and her husband fall in love with this apartment and ultimately purchase it three years ago. “We visited about 35 flats before having a crush on this one,” Tatiana explains. “No one had occupied the flat for 10 years and it hadn’t been renovated for over 50 years.”
But while there were plenty of architectural charms that made the couple fall in love with the space, Tatiana also describes the neglected space pre-move-in as old-fashioned, with dated ’70s-era bathrooms. She writes that it was frankly a bit “ugly and needed refurbishment and a fresh new start — no vibe, no soul … just empty and sad.”
The entire renovation took eight months (Tatiana describes it as a “very long process” that sometimes felt like it was “never going to end”) and included a total reno of the kitchen and en suite bathroom, combining two small storage spaces into another bathroom, and opening up the living areas by replacing a wall with a custom trellis-inspired room divider. They also added cabinets in the entryway for a ton more storage.
Tatiana has also made smaller (but still as impactful) changes to the space, including reupholstering and painting dining room chairs to better match the dining room’s gorgeous painted wooden wall panels.
An extremely dark, narrow, and super-long hallway in the apartment got a redo with mirrors installed along one wall, and some of Tatiana’s own designed wallpaper on the other. A custom 52-foot rug spans the entire hallway. The end result is a corridor that feels much bigger and brighter than it actually is.
Tatiana and her husband share their home with their young son, Amedeo, and their poodle, Chewy. And after all the personality she’s added into the home in the past three years, she describes her space as having lots of prints and patterns.
She uses words like “tropical, eclectic, maximalist, happy, and young” to describe the home’s style. There’s an intoxicatingly mix of contemporary details and old vintage furniture. And of course, there’s color.
“For me a happy home is a place where there is first a lot of love, laughter with good friends, family, and good energy,” Tatiana exclaims. “And a lot of color! Of course. What else? Color is life anyways. Without color, nothing happens.”
Thanks, Tatiana!
This tour’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity.
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