As the in-demand architect for art institutions such as Hauser & Wirth and an ever-constant slew of private commissions stretching from Majorca to Mexico, it took Luis Laplace and his partner in life and business, Christophe Comoy, 15 years to find the time to fully renovate their own home, in Paris’s 9th arrondissement. The couple moved into the 2,000-square-foot apartment on the elegant Place Saint-Georges in 2007 and worked from here until they expanded their offices to the twin building next door, where their AD100 firm is now spread over three floors.
Constructed in the Haussmannian style, much of their two bedroom home retains its original flamboyance with a series of bombastic reception rooms decked out with herringbone floors, wainscoting, and soaring 11-foot ceilings with elaborate moldings. It’s in step with its neighbors on the historic square: Next door is an ornate neo-Gothic meets neo-Renaissance mansion that was once home to the infamous French courtesan known as La Païva, and opposite is a grand hôtel particulier rebuilt in 1873 for the first president of the Third Republic, Adolphe Thiers, and now housing the Dosne-Thiers Foundation, a resource library on French history.
“The apartment has a lot of personality. The reception rooms are very ornamental, almost vulgar—but it would have been a shame to impose ourselves or create something contemporary,” Laplace says of the existing trappings, which the couple have juxtaposed in their typical elegant and engaging style, mixing antiques and contemporary furniture by Laplace with artworks by friends like Cindy Sherman, Keith Tyson, Martin Creed, and Rashid Johnson.
To create more intimacy and highlight the four distinct living and entertaining areas that flow off the hallway, Laplace and Comoy chose to forgo the original enfilade layout between the rooms and block the doors. The largest of these rooms now serves as a welcoming salon that highlights their collector sensibility with the kind of antique gems—the type collectors wait decades to snap up—their clients seek them out for. (Sourcing such special antiques for clients is a growing aspect of their interior business).
“In this room, we wanted to display important things, but we wanted to install them casually—not to make not too much noise about them,” says Comoy, citing the oak Aragon cocktail table by legendary designer Jean-Michel Frank that they chose to position perpendicular to the sofa Laplace designed, rather than front and center. On the opposite side of the sofa sits a Jacques Adnet column light from 1934, which once had pride of place in Andy Warhol’s Left Bank Paris home. Above, a graphic tricolor triptych by Johnson, Anxious Painting Triptych “Dreams Come True,” is superimposed on the wall moldings and across the blocked doorways. “We did something more contemporary and radical by not following the space within the moldings,” Laplace says of the off-kilter approach to hanging art.
The living room, too, shows the couple’s devotion to earlyand mid-20th-century ceramics, which are on full display at varying heights. The deep blue-green hues of an enormous 1960s ceramic vessel by Cécile Dein on a table near the window echo those of the earthenware pitcher by Les 2 Potiers on the fireplace and the Bela Silva hexagonal ceramic table on the floor. “We sit on the floor a lot, so we have books, ceramics, and sculptures on the floor,” says Laplace. “Having objects around is like being surrounded by friends, and you always get a different point of view and observe things closely.” On one side of the salon is the cozy TV room painted in a cocooning deep gray-blue, and on the other, a well-appointed study. Next to the study is the dining room, which is cast in moody, nighttime shades—deep chocolate brown walls meet the gilded ceiling in an effect that evokes a decadent block of chocolate. Intimate dinner parties happen here under the glow of a flashing pink Martin Creed neon and around the Laplacedesigned red-marble-topped dining table. Lunch is often taken in the work studio in the adjacent building, where there is another fully equipped kitchen and a spacious dining area that opens onto a sunlit garden.
With that second area for entertaining, the couple made peace with a small galley kitchen at home and decided to allocate more space to their private quarters, where they have a bedroom and en suite overlooking the back courtyard. This is where they carried out the most significant work: removing a fireplace and stripping back cornices and ornaments in favor of pure finishings. “It was important for it to feel laid-back, so we made these spaces more generous and welcoming,” Laplace says. He designed a bed and headboard to sit in the center of the room and concealed the wall-to-wall closet with deep green curtains instead of installing doors. Colorful glazed lamps and a series of works by the British artist Phyllida Barlow, whose drawings have an architectural quality, punctuate the space.
Next door there is a modern 130-square-foot bath. Even here, with a blank canvas, the couple married the best of today with treasures of yesterday. Pieces include a bespoke patchwork marble-clad shower designed by Laplace in “Mondrian style” and another of their rare acquisitions: a century-old, gilded-wood openwork suspension light by Armand-Albert Rateau that was once owned by couturier Jeanne Lanvin and later by designer Karl Lagerfeld. This room, specifically the large freestanding tub, is Comoy’s happy place. “In the beginning, Luis thought the bathroom was a bit exaggerated because the kitchen is small, but I love it, ” says Comoy, adding: “We don’t always agree, but we agree on how to get there.”