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A splash of color, an abundance of light, and a generous helping of creativity: these are the key elements of the renovation project undertaken by Julien Dufresne Architecture for Julie and Vincent.
After living in Paris’ 12th arrondissement for some time, the couple decided to look for a larger apartment in anticipation of their first child. Julie and Vincent’s search led them to Boulevard Barbès in the 18th arrondissement, where they discovered a one-of-a-kind property: a 75-square-meter, single-story apartment located in the courtyard of a residential building.
“The space was rather disjointed, comprising a small ground-floor apartment and two small side courtyards that had been enclosed and covered without any overall planning. It was cramped, dark, and verging on squalor,” recalls architect Julien Dufresne. Faced with the scale of the task, Julie and Vincent immediately turned to a professional.
Tasked with designing two bedrooms and a spacious living area, Julien Dufresne decided to keep only the load-bearing structure. “We completely gutted it! We broke everything that could be broken to completely rethink the floor plan,” he explains. One of the courtyard’s former façades was demolished and replaced by two posts, allowing the architect to create a large living room by combining the former bedroom and living room.
Combining what were once separate spaces resulted in the spacious L-shaped living area featuring varying ceiling heights. This is a feature that Julien Dufresne decided to take full advantage of: “We decided not to try to optimize the almost 5 meters of ceiling height in part of the living room so that we could enjoy the interplay of light and shadow created on the walls by the sun’s rays filtering through the skylights installed above the former courtyards.”
The former dining room has been split in two to accommodate the entrance hall and the primary bedroom. To foster interaction between the different spaces and improve flow, the architect suggested to his clients that they open up the thick wall separating the living room from the rest of the apartment. Two arches of different widths now provide access to the living room from the entrance. “Their cheerful color harmonizes them, while at the same time making us forget the windowless back of the room”, explains Julien Dufresne. Used as a diversion in the entrance, color, applied in small touches throughout the apartment, contributes greatly to the charm of this new cocoon.
