Interior designer Marianne Evennou, our French doyenne of color, composition, and small-space living, has just published her first book.
Photography by Grégory Timsit, courtesy of Éditions de La Martinière.
Set in an 18th century building in the Marais, the 35-square-meter (approximately 376-square-foot) apartment was completely reorganized: “we removed all the small, dark rooms to open the kitchen and bedroom to the living room thanks to interior windows.”
Marianne puts tight quarters to work: the pink tiled floor defines the kitchen, and the bedroom is on the other side of the glazed wall.
A triptych collage by artist Franck Evennou, Marianne’s husband and a frequent contributor to her projects, hangs over a linen-upholstered bench with a pleated skirt.
The two-color walls are painted in a gray called Bauhaus and Léger Cumulus, a pale blue, both from Ressource, a French line with a showroom in New York’s D&D Building.
Full-length curtains of a heavy Pierre Frey linen called Craft (in Armande edged in black) frame French doors that open to a window box planted with moss and ferns.
A half-glazed wall divides the kitchen from the dining area. Note the black light switches by THPG of Germany.
The dining table, a Finnish classic by Ilmari Tapiovaara, and the 1940s Polish chair by Wladyslaw Wincze and Olgierd Szlekys were sourced from online vintage marketplace Selency.
Marianne designed the kitchen’s carpet of “candy pink” Mosaic del Sur cement tiles. Just right for a solo occupant who often eats out, the space has a compact oven by Candy over a tiny fridge.
Marble counters rise to form a ledge.
“Even if it has no window to the outside, this room still has a view,” says Marianne of the lone bedroom, which has pale blue linen curtains should Sabine want to enclose the space.
A pastel apartment doesn’t require a frilly bed: Marianne layered it in a black and white gridwork.
The bedroom opens to Sabine’s dressing area (with two wardrobes) and bathroom, unified by the same custom tiles that set off the kitchen.
Mosaic del Sur zelliges and pink trellis-patterned tiles are “soberly balanced by black,” notes Marianne.
Floor Plan
Marianne’s approach to tiny apartment living:”I design each space like a tailor-made garment” and “never neglect the smallest square centimeter.”
The Book
Un Intérieur à Soi, €38, is available from publisher Éditions de La Martinière and booksellers throughout Europe.