This Transformed Parisian Loft Is Full of Light and Smart Storage

By Eva Morell

Photography by BCDF Studio

For the owners of this Parisian loft, its unusual design and layout—carried over from its previous life as a garment workshop—was a dream come true. Yet, after a year living in it, they realized that some adjustments were needed to make it more functional and better suited to their lifestyle.

The designer and architect Isabelle Heilmann, founder of Épicène studio, was entrusted with the renovation of the space. Her goal was to meet the needs of the owners by creating a more rational layout—and one suited to remote work—while maintaining the unique essence of the space. The final result is a bohemian loft filled with light.

The green door, lamp, and plants complement the surrounding neutral tones.

The apartment's different rooms have been reconfigured while playing with their unusual shapes and volumes. The various areas are separated—and connected—by glass walls that allow light to carry throughout. The office and the bedroom are separated from the dining area with half walls, while the space's tall ceilings are preserved throughout the apartment. The design creates a cube embedded within the living room. The bedroom's interior window brings in light and adds to its distinct charm.

A ladder leads to the lofted space.

Isabelle kept the original industrial-style glass partition wall as a nod to the history of the workshop. She turned the kitchen into a room that fits the homeowners's needs while nodding to the unit's past. For the mounted cabinets along the windows, the combination of birch with the white color that is dominant in the apartment results in a feeling that is warm and deliberately restrained.

Both the architect and the clients wanted to keep the former tailor's office, which now serves as a guest room. The bathroom designs come as a surprise, full of color that contrast with the apartment's omnipresent white. Behind a green door, the powder room's pink tiles and porcelain stoneware floor are especially striking.

The bookshelves in the office space add depth to the apartment as a whole.

In a typical French, and especially Parisian, way there is a meticulous attention to every last detail. The white color palette of the floor and walls makes the interior design elements stand out, including vintage pieces like the dining table and lamps and more contemporary design objects such as Achile Castigiloni's classic Snoopy lamp.

Isabelle kept the original glass partition wall, which now separates the kitchen from the rest of the rooms.

The unusual volumes of the old workshop were used to create new storage and sleeping spaces.

Natural materials were used throughout the apartment, like the birch in the kitchen. A white weathered Corian was used for the countertops.

The living room plays with the apartment's different levels, creating a fun social space that is also practical. A glass wall separates it from the bedroom.

By Erika Owen

By Rachel Davies

By Blake Bakkila

The combination of vintage and contemporary design objects, like the Snoopy lamp in green, gives the space a personal touch.

The office is at a different height, which helps to define it as a separate space, though it is open to the rest of the apartment.

The essence of the Parisian loft, as a former garment workshop, was preserved when it was renovated.

By Erika Owen

By Rachel Davies

By Blake Bakkila

The final result of Isabelle's renovation is the homeowners’ dream apartment.

Colorful accents are introduced through the apartment's doors, painted in vibrant tones.

The bedroom is separated from the rest of the apartment by an interior window, which provides both light and privacy.

By Erika Owen

By Rachel Davies

By Blake Bakkila

A masonry headboard was built to act as a bedside table and a place for the owners’ books, pictures, and objects.

From the bedroom, the large open dressing room is a geometric and colorful composition with its yellow painted door, green bedspread, and the cubic element of the wardrobes.

The bathroom gives a pop of color to the space with materials that provide an appealing variety of different textures.

By Erika Owen

By Rachel Davies

By Blake Bakkila

In the primary bathroom, the play of volumes and cubes of the loft is transferred in the form of a tiled washbasin with rounded edges and a colored ceiling.

By Melissa Grustat

By Eva Morell

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