#09 PARIS
THE BLOG - curated by Antonella Dedini
DESIGN ITALY IN THE WORLD
PARIS
Here we are in Paris, a favourite destination for incurable romantics and perhaps the most idealized and recounted city in the world because it has always been celebrated by all the arts. It is rich and controversial crossroads of cultures, fashions, styles, literature, cinematography, painting, museography, proportions and architectural balance, in a mighty momentum that, passing from the Gothic, reaches the sublime expressions of Art Nouveau. A hotbed of continuous experimentation, today it dominates the contemporary scene because it is among the world's most representative places for avant-garde architecture.
Furnishing a home in Paris pushes you to know how to play with contrasts perhaps through retro stylistic references in shapes and colors, often in an ironic and modern key. Exotic and somewhat dreamlike references can create a welcoming space that is at once classic, yet very modern and elegant.
How could a Parisian apartment be furnished?
THE LIVING ROOM
The living area gathers in free arrangement sofas, stools and armchairs that can offer all the comforts that the occasion requires depending on the moment. For relaxation or conversation, for reading or careful listening, it is nice to mix shapes and suggestions of different materials. The historic Mac Gee Black bookcase by Philippe Starck for Baleri Italia has cantilevered tops that recall the essentiality of a staircase. A very theatrical object, it observes the scene.
In the centre, there is Maurizio Galante & Tal Lancman's Luis XV Goes to Sparta sofa for Baleri Italia, which is not what it seems ... because it is made of plywood and polyurethane foam, and the outer covering is printed silk to resemble Carrara marble.
"Imagine Louis XV transforming the Spartan austerity of marble into a soft, comfortable French feel." Starck's Marquina Lord YI marble coffee table for Driade enhances the ironic composition. The 9, Tabouret stools designed by Charlotte Perriand in 1927 and now produced by Cassina, with black leather or rattan seats, are the classic counterpoint, the learned quotation for this informal, yet highly refined environment.
Everything is enhanced by a Sicis mosaic "carpet" dedicated in color and composition to the 19th-century French painter Ferdinand Delacroix.
On the walls are mirrors that duplicate space and light, as is the French tradition, and then large paintings and photographs.
THE DINING ROOM
THE BEDROOM
Even the walls of the bedroom are painted the same seductive dark red. The atmosphere is that of a dream where the room's furniture and sculptures are the protagonists of a somewhat retro yet playful comedy. The iron sculpture "Little Prince" by la Fucina di Efesto sends us subliminal positive messages because it is meant to be a bow to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's great tale. Zanotta's famous Sacco armchair is nonconformist and panders to our shapes and our desire for freedom.
The bed is important, but minimal, for "flying or sailing" in dreams and could only be called Oniro, by Missoni Home Collection.
There are no abat-jours on the bedside table, but geometric floor lights that look like Art Deco architecture complete the bed. They are the Palm lamps by Angelo Orecchioni for Marioni all made of ceramic.
The small console table that the eclectic architect Carlo Mollino designed in 1938 and now re-issued by Zanotta, is the refined yet functional detail to the bedroom.
This room could not be without a piece by the great French architects Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. 
