Tag: Paris

Rooftop Gardens, gardens, lauren santo domingo paris garden belle vivir interior design blog

Lauren Santo Domingo’s  Exceptional Rooftop Garden in Paris

Have you heard of “Harvesting Happiness”… I recently read an article about how hospitals and hospices are adding gardens or rooftop gardens as a form of therapy for well being. The belief is that gardens have strong restorative powers that promote healing and happiness. The idea being that Gardens enable us to get in the “zone” similar to the conscious state during deep meditation or after a good run while also providing the benefit of exercising by burning an average of 400 calories per hour. The benefits of gardening or being in a garden are seen not only at the physical level but also mental. “A garden lifts the heart, soul and spirit. Although those are quite ephemeral words, we know that when you put people in space with a view, it does something for their mood and anxiety levels.” Laura Lee, Maggie’s chief executive. It’s very comforting to see how over and over these psychological and environmental surveys often conclude on the simple fact that everything arises from and comes back to one main source, nature… beauty… all that comes from a higher source.

Read More…

Gilles and Boissier is a world renowned Interior Architectural firm with international recognition and success that mostly everyone in the Design world have heard of or seen one of their creations by now, I’m specifically referring to their more than famous 19th century apartment located on Boulevard Malesherbes in Paris, France.  The surprisingly young couple, Patrick Gilles and Dorothee Boissier, are also partners in life, they have two children and according to their website they use their differences in creative disagreements to create elegant and beautiful interiors, like that complementing one another.

Gilles and Boissier via belle vivir blogPatrick favors clean and straight lines in organic physical forms as wood and Dorothee elegantly and harmoniously fusions together all the elements.  The couple were once mentored by renowned Interior Designers Philippe Starck and Christian Liaigre.

Gilles and Boissier have created elegant and beautiful interiors worldwide from hospitality projects, restaurants and luxury boutiques like Monclair.  They also designed Remo Ruffini, Monclair’s owner’s villa in Lake Como.

From the successful design due came Gilles and Boissier Maison Label a bespoke furniture and lighting collection where the firm design philosophy ‘neither minimalist nor decorative’ is the inspiration behind their creations.  In this aesthetic point of view,
their vast experience and their extraordinary taste translate in many of their high-end designs which is perhaps more exemplified in their own Parisian apartment which the
couple renovated keeping their two children in mind.  Most of the furniture and lighting employed in the apartment were designed by Gilles and Boissier themselves.

Read More…

interior decorator writes about a classic and modern parisian apartment

I love to see classic interior structures decorated with more modern furniture, as I stated here.  The contrast is beyond exited and chic.  This Modern Parisian Apartment is gracefully decorated between classic and the modern.   The quintessential Parisian apartment with Haussmann Architectural Details is furnished with fabulous furniture from different
periods with common clean lines.  The apartment is designed by double g.  The walls with ornate moldings and boiseries were kept white – who needs a color-splash when you have ornate crown moldings like these!

Interior designer tour a parisian apartment

Keeping the furniture in neutral colors bring balance and tranquility to a very ornate room.  Keeping the wall in white adds to this.

Read More…

milimalist interior design, living room Joseph Dirand

If I was not an Interior Designer, Joseph Dirand would be the one designer who I would give complete authority to do my home.  But of course I don’t own an apartment in a 19th-century Haussmannian building on Avenue Montaigne, nor am I heiress to an Eastern European
fortune, so I could never afford such a talent.  Joseph Dirand’s latest project is a 6,500-square-foot abode with all the amazing details of French design such as perfectly restored moldings, parquet floors and 11-foot-high double doors.  Details that the talented Architect knows how to enhance without letting them take center stage to create the ultra-modernist/minimalist designs he is well known for.  Dirand was also in charge of assembling the art collection.  Everyone of Joseph Dirand’s projects display refinement and sophistication in a very restrain way, a style characteristic of French Designers.  As in this apartment can prove the attention to detail is in every space and furniture.

Joseph Dirand Latest Project living room design

A Francois-Xavier Lalanne sculpture in front of the marble fireplace.  The curves in the furniture harmonizes the square moldings and stone console and the soothing tones are elegant instead of chichi.

Read More…

This modern Parisian apartment was designed by Studio Razavi.  The clean lines throughout the apartment was an attempt to step away from the neo-classical features of the Haussmannian style, hence the use of geometric colorful murals on the entry walls and modern custom furniture.  The theatrical decor is a nod to the owners love for contemporary art and film.

colorful entryway in paris

The geometric murals in this entryway can be a great weekend project.

Read More…

Balmain Paris Store designed by Joseph Dirand via belle vivir

One thing is to decorate homes where families live but a whole different thing is to translate a Fashion brand into a commercial space.  The fabulous Balmain store in Paris was designed by Architect Joseph Dirand and the space, besides being one that translates French perfect art craft in the best way possible is one that I’m sure will inspire its clients and make them feel like royals.  The store design is impeccable and once again Dirand’s amazing Interior Design rests on pure architecture, symmetry, balance and neutral palette.  Immaculate architectural details as wooden parquet floors, ornate wall moldings, elaborate French door pediments are some of the exquisite decorating features in the Balmain store in Paris.

Balmain Paris Store designed by Joseph Dirand via belle vivir
Love the grey walls accented with gold molding in what appears to be the customization room.
Balmain Paris Store designed by Joseph Dirand via belle vivir

Read More…