A Haussmannian apartment with a thousand and one influences
In the living room, Sarah Chirazi mixed a number of influences: wall lights by François Dimech, the textile work Boredom by Rosanna Lefeuvre, a coffee table by Charlotte Perriand, Italian rococo chairs, Zanuso armchairs covered in Bonvallet blue wool satin, an Art Deco oak side table and plaster floor lamp by Hélène Lalbaltry, a wooden lamp enamelled stoneware by Hervé Rousseau and Victor Bonnivard (Aurélien Gendras), a second side table Camp by Denis Castaing (Aurélien Gendras), the carpet I’m fucking by S2G design. On the coffee table, a German ceramic from the 1970s, and a French ceramic dish from the 1930s. On the fireplace, a gray François Eve vase and an enameled stoneware vase from Accolay (Aurélien Gendras).
© Alice Mesguich
Born in Dakar to Lebanese and French parents, Sarah Chirazi stands out for her diversity: cultural, artistic, artisanal… her references are multiple and give her work a very particular roughness. For a Lebanese family expatriated to Congo, the interior designer renovated a large Haussmann-style apartment, in the very exclusive 7th arrondissement of Paris. The place is bourgeois, but the original splendor has been degraded by previous work. Sarah Chirazi thus worked to create a family pied-à-terre, in the elegant spirit of the construction period, but with a twist « arty », as she describes it.
“No more jambs or moldings… My clients wanted to rediscover the Haussmann spirit, so we redid cornices, carpentry and moldings with staffers”explains the interior designer, who also took the original plan to fully reconnect with the Parisian aesthetic. “They wanted an apartment suitable for family life, but also a ‘wow’ effect when discovering the apartment. »
From the entrance, the staging calls out, with the works unearthed by Aurélien Gendras, like the mirror Solstice de Mart Schrijvers et les vases de Jean-Pierre Bonardot (1990).
© Alice Mesguich
The detailed work of fitting out the entrance continues with the work Braiding by Anne Barrès (1970-1980), selected by Aurélien Gendras and a wall lamp 7 cocos by Sarah Chirazi.
© Alice Mesguich
From the entrance, Sarah Chirazi has focused on theatricality: an ultra graphic stained glass window to blur the unpleasant view of the courtyard, a bench chunky designed for other clients in Dakar, wall lights originally installed in a house by the sea in Senegal… “To create an architecture in this entrance, I worked this lamp in seven modules”, she specifies. To temper the bourgeois side of the cornices, works unearthed by the artists’ agent Aurélien Gendras were placed on the wall. “When I presented this wall sculpture to the owners of the place, they didn’t understand. But as soon as I put one of his works on, it adds a little quirk that makes the place immediately more edgy. When they saw the entire entry, they finally loved it. »
On an antique console, a ceramic mirror by Studio Biskt, the porcelain sculpture Solctic by Mart Schrijvers, a bowl by Gisèle Buthod-Garçon (1980-1990) and a vase by Accolay, all three unearthed by Aurélien Gendras.
© Alice Mesguich
François Dimech’s candlestick sconces, which can be lit on the wall, were selected by Sarah Chirazi for their theatrical aesthetic.
© Alice Mesguich
Attached to the aesthetic of the 1940s, Sarah Chirazi’s client wanted to find her in her Parisian pied-à-terre. Most of the furniture was thus found, found in a gallery or custom designed to combine the vintage spirit with “a sharper side” — the spearhead of the interior designer in this project. She cites in particular the candlestick sconces, sculpted like women’s bodies to provide, again, the necessary theatricality. In the same approach, Sarah Chirazi designed a large mirror draped in plaster. “I like to believe that in the evening, this piece creates a somewhat dramatic universe. »
