design et al are delighted to announce that Oakley Moore Interior Design has been shortlisted for Glasshouse Award in The International Design & Architecture Awards 2019.
Oakley Moore Interior Design were enlisted to lighten up this Parisian property, create furniture layouts and decorative schemes, sourcing all items, and delivering a bespoke interior with personality. The clients had previously lived in a tiny garret Parisian apartment with few possessions, except for a library of books. She is an American academic originally from Boston and he, Pascal Collange, is an architect and set designer working in Paris’ Parc de la Villette. When they bought the house in 2016 it had not been touched for years, and the ground floor was dark and closed in, with the conservatory at the back, and needed complete gutting.
Oakley Moore Interior Design’s brief was to create a home in which the clients could live comfortably, entertain for anything from 6 – 60 with ease, and which had the feel of a cross between the Boston Gentleman’s club that the client’s father would take her to when she was a child, a boutique English hotel and all the while staying true to the Parisian architecture of the 15th arrondissement where there are hidden interesting and quirky houses. The staircase to the basement was moved to maximise the space creating a laundry room, and a man cave – a wine cellar and a unique office under the vaulted ceiling of the substructure of the property. The wall of the kitchen was opened up by inserting panels of glass to echo the verrière of the conservatory so that it looked on to the dining/living room and beyond into the garden.
Oakley Moore Interior Design worked with the clients persuading them that the main living areas should be open and fluid, using the conservatory as the drawing room, and creating, in the main house structure, the small fireside seating area. This area can be used in a flexible way for dining or sitting. Besides reading, opera and classical music are the passions of the clients who now regularly host Soirées Musicales in this space – the acoustics are amazing. In the library the designers worked with the client to create a bookcase which climbed the stairs to an office under the eaves with a view over the grey lead rooftops of Paris. The scale of the double height sloping ceiling, with strong wooden beams appealed to the sense of theatre of the clients, and Oakley Moore Interior Design added the globe pendant lights to give the room a thoroughly Parisian art deco and yet contemporary vibe.
The design of the house works so well as there are recurring themes throughout the property; the glass window panels in the kitchen, conservatory, master bathroom. There is the tight curved staircase with the directional stair runner which leads the way through the house. Decorative motifs and colours recur, and flow. But most importantly the house is comfortable and adapts to the various needs of the owners fulfilling all the requirements of the brief.