House tour: the Parisian apartment merging tradition with the best in new design

In the living room of this home in Paris’s 16th arrondissement, bespoke Bryan O’Sullivan Studio coffee tables by Rupert Bevan; Faye Toogood Roly Poly table and chairs; Fortuny Icaro pendant lights; Tom Kemp vessel (on table) from Henry Saywell; rug from Tovine Sellers; artwork by Abigail O’Brien. 

A long-term client approached Irish-born, London-based interior architect Bryan O’Sullivan asking him to transform a grand Beaux-Arts mansion in the chic 16th arrondissement of Paris into a comfortable, good-looking family home. The architect’s biggest challenge? To avoid turning the house into a pastiche of its glamorous architectural past. Previously owned by LVMH fashion mogul Bernard Arnault, the home was bought by the current owners about eight years ago.

By the time O’Sullivan came onboard three years later — after the owners had tried unsuccessfully to kickstart the renovation a number of times — the traditional rooms were still in place, but many of the original details had been stripped out. “The floors weren’t great quality, and the plumbing was all shot, but it was still an amazing canvas to work with,” says O’Sullivan.

In the kitchen, bespoke Bryan O’Sullivan Studio kitchen by Doig Furniture Makers; wideboard oiled oak flooring; bespoke ironwork by Van Cronenburg; photograph by Eoin Moylan. 

The interior expert’s first rule was to ensure that any architectural interventions stayed true to the original building. “We didn’t want to mess with such a masterpiece of a house,” he says of echoing the early 20th-century age of the home in the redesign. “We wanted it to feel authentic.” So O’Sullivan and his team conducted extensive research into period details at Paris’s nearby Musée Nissim de Camondo, a once-lavish mansion that was built around the same time as this house. Here, he found inspiration for the new decorative stucco, stair runners, stone floors and Versailles parquetry flooring reinstated on the ground and first floors, as well as the thinner, longer boards of the chevron parquet on the top floor. O’Sullivan also drew on the talents of dozens of independent craftsmen including Irish stonemasons, Belgian timber specialists and British furniture makers, as well as French gilders, ironmongers, painters and polishers.

In the dining room, bespoke Bryan O’Sullivan Studio dining table and chairs by Jonathan Sainsbury; Christopher Butterworth Italian console with banded onyx top from the Battersea Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair; bespoke Bryan O’Sullivan Studio chandelier by Francis Russell Design; 1960s Zugasti Spanish gilt-metal wall lights from the Battersea Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair; Les Lointains wallpaper from Zuber; rug from Tovine Sellers. 

Click Here: Germany Football Shop

New structural additions included arched-fanlight doors to divide the dining room and grand salon from the main entrance hall. “They provide a really nice vista all the way through the ground floor and out to the garden,” says the designer.

More natural light floods through an oblong skylight and top-floor light well down into the gallery on the first floor. “Before, it was a really underwhelming space. Now, it really feels kind of wow.” That same wow factor also comes from the impressive scale of the rooms, originally designed by Grand Palais architect Henri Deglane.

“They are extraordinarily generous, even for Paris,” says O’Sullivan. With his own impressive architectural pedigree, O’Sullivan was the perfect man for this job.

In the main bedroom, bespoke Bryan O’Sullivan Studio bed by Dudgeon; antique chairs upholstered in Clarke & Clarke Alvar Mist velvet from Gallery 25; pendant and wall lights by Josef Hoffmann and Wiener Werkstätte for Woka; Fontana Arte floor lamp from Gordon Watson; Phi Phi Flycatcher rug from Sinclair Till. 

Having worked with major architects including Annabelle Selldorf in New York and Luis Laplace in Paris, and interior designers David Collins and Martin Brudnizki in London, O’Sullivan founded his eponymous practice in 2013. Today, he has projects traversing high-end residential projects from New York to Ibiza, superyachts and destinations such as Ballynahinch Castle Hotel in Galway, Ireland, and The Tamburlaine Hotel in Cambridge, UK.

This house’s eclectic aesthetic mixes traditional gilded edging and Louis XV-style sconces with vibrantly patterned marble fireplaces, Fortuny pendant lamps and curvaceous Pierre Paulin sofas. Italian floor lamps and shell-shaped cocktail chairs from the 1950s team with contemporary woven leather, wool and raffia rugs by Toyine Sellers and 19th-century antiques sourced from London’s decorative-arts fairs and the Marché aux Puces in Paris.

In the bathroom, Jean Royère chair; walls, floor and vanity in Calacatta Retro marble; Reda Amalou Mat Dot side table from The Invisible Collection; vanity wall lights by Ercole Barovier; La Chapelle deck-mounted basin bridge mixers from Lefroy Brooks.

Giacometti-inspired gesso-finished chandeliers in the dining room and hallways provide a modern contrast to the ornate black-and-gilded wrought-iron balustrades. Bedrooms showcase special bespoke pieces, such as fluted headboards and a walnut and bouclé sleigh bed inspired by the work of mid-century architect Jules Leleu that cleverly conceals a pop-up TV.

“I try to hide televisions as much as I can — they are my absolute pet hate,” says O’Sullivan. In the bathroom, there’s a lively juxtaposition between the floor, which is predominantly green with white stripes, and the wall, which is predominantly white with green stripes. “This was the trickiest room to get right because you see it from the bedroom. Everything had to be spot-on,” says the interior designer. The result is a house that feels grand but not intimidating. “Nothing feels too far away or disconnected,” says O’Sullivan. “What we tried to do was balance the house’s past with the right contemporary mix of colour, texture and playfulness so the owners felt instantly at home.”