apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I dream of living in a place like this.....what a great location!

Beautiful. Thanks for the tip.

These apartments are likely bigger than any resident of Paris can actually afford. I lived there for two years and I had to downsize from New York City sizes (which we all know can be quite small).

Cheers,
Fabienne

I see turkish rugs everywhere ;-)) beautiful.

I was just planning to ask when there might be an AT for Europe. You've already got the attention of at least one person in Paris.

That's what the french is all about - Algeria it's neighbour is a very big influence on France. It has never been spoken or written . Since Algeria was a colony of france rich in cultural heritage France its neighbour couldn't help but appropriate its influence without acknowledging them for years

I have to agree what "An Eye" said above.

I am currently studying French and go through french interior design magazines at the FIAF in the city.

The deisgns appear to be very Algerian influential. But never mentioned about its influence. They take all the credit for themselves. But France has always been that way -
Extremely masterful in its technique and craft and make it quite their own. Design never comes without influence. It is up to designer to acknowledge it otherwise people will start saying , it looks like this and that

You may be totally correct, but just wondering what is particularly Algerian about this apartment? I see the rug and an Ottoman, but are there other influences?

This site is just great! and i can confirm that you GET the Parisian's online attention, i'm one of them :-)!!
So if you could really open a AT here, it would be just great and i'll be your first fan!!

I agree with that unacknowledged Algerian influence. In the Larousse Gastronomie, there are all these recipes, typically given for particular vegtables or meats -- carrots with olives, eggplants with spices, stews flavored with lemon or dried fruit -- most of which are excellent, but most of which also turned out to variations on recipes in another cookbook I have, Cafe Morocco. The spices typically give it away: ginger, cumin, cayenne were banished by haute cuisine and made their way back in through the backdoor of colonialism.

So, wait, this place smells like which... ginger or cumin?

I think it goes beyond Algeria to the whole of North Africa, Tunisia and Morocco included. I see so many decorative choices here--curtains, bedlinen, rugs, accessories. not to mention furniture--obviously influenced by those countries.

And yes, I would say that apartment is larger than the average--love that library! I think my place is about 29 square meters, less than half what I had in Australia. I'd LOVE for an AT to start up here. I just started the book and will be working on my apartment soon--it'd be great if people pitched in and gave some good resources for furniture that's not too expensive but goes beyond Ikea ;-)

First we have Edwin in Switzerland (from good question post), and now we have Bonjour and Poppy51 from Paris.

Maxwell, I simply can't wait for AT to expand to Europe and beyond (let's jump over both the Atlantic and Pacific puddles).

Oh oh, please open an AT in Europe! I'm English but live in Nice in the South of France and I loooooooove this site. Come on over, we'll make you feel at home with an expresso and a pain au chocolat :)

A few notes.
1)Algeria is not a neighbor of France, look at the map.
2) I doubt Algerian cookbooks, if they have any of their own, mention any French influence on their food and culture.
3)How do you know people who advertise this apartment don't give credit to North-African theme they so tastefully incorporated into their design? After all, this is a rental site they advertise in, not a design magazine. May be they do. May be they are even of North-African heritage themselves - why to rush with conclusions?

How did this turn into an argument?

But I think if we saw the interiors, and it wasn't labelled as being in Paris, people would be more critical of the space and its decor.

P(2), it turned into an argument by victimhood-seekers. You know, some people make search for reasons to be offended their pastime.

To repeat: this apartment didn't enter in any contest, or was advertized as a model design case. The owners simply want to rent their property for income; they didn't ask for opinion on their decorating skills.
Besides, if you're interested to see more of the decor - there is a link in the post that leeds you to the rental site with many more pictures. And yes, it is a beautifully designed apartment, with taste, sense of proportion, respect for tradition as well as innovation, excellent space planning and color choices.

I would gladly rent it if the price (deservedly so, I'm sure) wasn't a hefty 800 euros for a week plus 100 euros and 18% of the rent due to the rental agency. Out of my range, sadly.

There are several reasons that "The eye" and all the others have addressed the topic other than the design. Following is what I read between the lines :

A "vow" space is a mixture of different influences.

Design is always influenced by psycho-social-economic factors.

Every design can be given a single or multiple dimension.

Each eye treats a design in a perspective with regard to the tacit knowledge.

Psychological factors can treat every design differntly. The distance can be range from n.... to n+1+x. ie to say - that red can be treated as rich and elegant to someone while the same red can be treated as a feeling of being dark and dingy in a small room as some one who is very depressed