5 Thoughtful Design Choices Behind This Paris Apartment’s Calm, Hotel-Inspired Feel

Created by interior designer Mariana Casagrande as her own home, this 42sqm/452sqft apartment sits on the upper floor of a 17th-century building in Paris’s Haut Marais. Formed by combining two former studio apartments, the renovation reworked a fragmented layout into a single, fluid home. Casagrande approached the project as both a personal residence and a testing ground for ideas drawn from her hotel design background, favouring soft transitions, reflective surfaces, and carefully detailed joinery over hard divisions. In a space this compact, comfort comes from precision rather than excess. Here are five design details that show how the apartment balances its sense of history with warmth and contemporary flexibility.

1. A Kitchen That Blends and Amplifies Light
2. A Modular Sofa That Shifts with Use
‍3. Storage That Disguises Itself as Architecture
‍4. Hotel-Inspired Switches That Simplify Use
‍5. A Wrap-Around Mirror That Expands the Bathroom

1. A Kitchen That Blends and Amplifies Light

Rather than setting the kitchen apart, Casagrande designed it to blend seamlessly into the living space. The cabinetry is built using IKEA carcasses, combined with large custom-made fronts to achieve a continuous, wall-to-wall composition. Gold-toned mirrored panels wrap the kitchen and extend beyond the backsplash onto the side return of the cabinetry, so the mirror reads as a continuous surface rather than a flat backdrop. This detail eliminates visual breaks at the cabinet edges, amplifies natural light, and creates a soft, luminous glow that allows the kitchen to sit serenely within the room.

2. A Modular Sofa That Shifts with Use

Casagrande chose the Anagram Sofa by Vitra for its flexibility and modular design. Created as a system of platform-like modules that connect on all sides, it can be reconfigured over time with backrests, side panels, and small tables as needs change. Rather than fixing the living room around a single function, the sofa shifts between everyday seating, a generous daybed, and a guest bed when friends stay over. Its curved form softens the white interior, while removable fabric covers and fully separable components make the sofa easy to maintain, adapt, and recycle over its lifetime.

3. Storage That Disguises Itself as Architecture

Deep drawers run beneath the windows, wrapped in vertical wooden slats that transform storage into an architectural element. Inspired by Alvar Aalto’s work, the slatted surface adds texture and depth to the otherwise white interior. The slats double as integrated handles, allowing the drawers to remain visually clean while staying easy to use. The result is seating and storage that feels integrated into the room rather than added onto it.

4. Hotel-Inspired Switches That Simplify Use

Casagrande designed the bedroom the way she would a hotel room, prioritising comfort and ease of use. From the bed, a set of hotel-inspired switches controls all the lighting in the space, removing the need to get up or navigate multiple controls. It’s a small detail that often goes unnoticed, but it makes everyday routines feel smoother and more intuitive. Paired with integrated storage, a restrained palette, and carefully placed lighting, the room feels calm and deliberately considered.

5. A Wrap-Around Mirror That Expands the Bathroom

Drawing on her experience designing hotel bathrooms, Casagrande wrapped the walls in mirrors to visually expand the space and amplify light. The continuous reflective surface blurs edges and depth, making the bathroom feel far larger than its footprint. Combined with soft lighting, pale materials, and a carefully detailed custom vanity, the mirrors create a bright, composed atmosphere that feels both practical and indulgent, much like a well-designed hotel suite.

While these five design choices shape how the apartment functions day to day, much of its character emerges in surprising moments. Light moves across mirrored surfaces, the water closet’s unexpected wallpaper adds contrast, and preserved timber elements ground the space in its history. The photographs below, taken by Casagrande herself, offer a closer look at the materials, details, and proportions that give the apartment its hotel-like sense of home.