A Paris Pied-à-Terre Designed Around a 1965 Sagan Novel

Los Angeles-based designer Giampiero Tagliaferri designed a Paris pied-à-terre in the Triangle d'Or of the 8th arrondissement around the world of Françoise Sagan's 1965 novel La Chamade (published in English as That Mad Ache).

Tagliaferri was reading the novel at home in Los Angeles when his American client's project first came up. Because the book takes place largely in Paris, the idea of translating its atmosphere into an interior took hold.

"The book describes nights in Paris and the decadence of moving from one apartment to the next," Tagliaferri explains. "There's a passage where the protagonist says how much she loves the silence, the warmth, and the freedom of the night. That initial thought was the catalyst for all the other ideas about what this apartment should look like."

How do you give a stripped-down Haussmannian shell character?

When Tagliaferri and his young client first entered the apartment, it was move-in ready but lacked character. Decades of alterations had erased the historic fabric.

"Unfortunately, many of the original historic elements had been removed over the years. There were no Haussmann-style details like decorative moldings or arches," the designer recalls. "For us, it was out of the question to artificially recreate these elements. Instead, we took advantage of the stripped-down shell and treated it like a blank canvas, infusing it with characteristics from various eras."

He turned to the 1970s to give the apartment character without building a time capsule. The client comes from a hospitality dynasty, and the pied-à-terre was conceived as a place for entertaining — "perhaps even the final stop of a long night," in Tagliaferri's words, and an homage to the French salon and Paris's bohemian culture.

What materials define the interiors?

Tagliaferri immersed himself in the world of Lucile, Sagan's protagonist, imagining Yves Saint Laurent and his muse, model Betty Catroux, returning home in the 1960s after a long night out.

"I used materials that date back to that era," he says. The material palette includes:

• sofas upholstered in light suede
• lacquer surfaces and stainless-steel paneling wrapping the living room
• light-colored natural stone floors typical of Paris
• Cipollino marble accents in the bathroom

"An elegant apartment doesn't have to be austere or formal," he insists, describing a relaxed sensibility shaped by a California mindset.

The bedroom is the aesthetic highlight. Rounded corners envelop guests like a cocoon; the upper part of the room is lined with cream-colored suede, and the bed stands on a dark-brown lacquer platform beneath a velvety ceiling. "The bed is upholstered in leather," says Tagliaferri. "We've gone all out here to create a sensual, hedonistic space where anything goes."

Which designers and artists made the cut?

Alongside built-in and custom-made pieces, Tagliaferri assembled a vintage selection:

• a daybed and armchair by Osvaldo Borsani
• a table by Pierre Chapo
• a Gabriella Crespi wall sconce above the bed
• Chicago chairs by Angelo Mangiarotti, which particularly fascinate him

For the art, Tagliaferri brought in Milan-based, Norwegian-born art advisor Truls Blaasmo, who curated a collection spanning ancient, modern and contemporary work: a Wolfgang Tillmans photograph hangs opposite a Roman torso of Dionysus in the bedroom, while Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q. Rasée and a late work by Man Ray evoke 20th-century Paris.

Tagliaferri, a collector himself, also created a floor-to-ceiling ceramic mural in the living room with Milan-based manufacturer Fondazione Officine Saffi, reviving a mid-century tradition of architectural ceramics. "In the 1950s and '60s, this was a major trend in Milan and Paris. Artists including Lucio Fontana created many site-specific installations then," he explains. "In this room, especially at night, the streetlights cast reflections on the glazed surface."

The custom sofa and desk, the vintage collectibles and the commissioned mural operate as one ensemble — an apartment designed, like Sagan's novel, to make the night last.