Bespoke furniture and luxurious materials come together to create a stylish pied-à-terre on a fashionable Parisian street.

French interior designer Stéphanie Coutas’ signature style blends neoclassical and contemporary aesthetics with art de vivre romanticism. Passionate about bespoke furniture and craftsmanship, she uses plenty of one-of-a-kind furniture and textiles to ensure each of her projects is unique and remarkable.

As a connoisseur of clean lines, who draws inspiration from the French decorative arts and her childhood experiences in Asia, she develops elegant “ready-to-live” spaces that exude all the luxury of five-star hotels.

She enjoys combining precious woods, luscious velvets, unique marbles and glassware to create a complex interplay of patterns and textures. Working with a talented team of architects, designers and stylists at her interior design agency SC Edition, she designs most of the furniture and decorations that she uses for her projects.

Different cultures serve as an inspiration for Coutas’ work. As the child of French expatriates, she grew up in Vietnam before moving to a seaside apartment in Hong Kong with her family.

“My mother always paid attention to details in both our Vietnam house and our Hong Kong flat. We would always have fresh flowers in our homes, and the decoration of the living room would change in spring and autumn,” she says.

“It was my mother who taught me to always be curious about the world, and to be sensitive to good design and the culture and heritage of the cities I lived in.”

Today, although Coutas is based in Paris, she travels frequently to Asia, the Middle East, England and Spain where she finds inspiration for her designs.

Her most recent project was a 2,691 square-metre three-bedroom apartment in Paris, which she created for a businesswoman who loves fashion. Her client wanted a pied- à-terre with the atmosphere of a high-end hotel suite, so Coutas used an earthy, neutral colour palette and luxurious materials such as marble, bronze, leather and silk to create a truly sumptuous concept.

“The apartment is located in the 8th arrondissement in Paris on Avenue Montaigne – the most famous avenue in Paris for hotels, and especially the exclusive boutiques and shops. The apartment was really designed around the idea of this avenue, for someone who would enjoy Paris as a luxury shopping destination,” she says.

The floor plan consists of a large open plan social space with two living lounges, and a private zone that includes three bedrooms and three bathrooms. In the living area is a large reception area where the client can host dinner gatherings. This space includes two social zones, including a large open plan lounge overlooking the River Seine.

“The concept was to have different areas to host lots of different people and to have the bedrooms completely separate in a different section of the apartment,” she explains.

Throughout the apartment, bespoke hidden cabinets and storage units free up floor space and create a clean, minimalist layout. Brass home accessories and lavish silk fabrics complement objects d’art placed around the apartment.

Coutas used stingray dark wood for the door frames, a light- coloured wood for the floor in the living areas, and carefully selected marble for the bathroom floors and counter and tabletops.

All the door frames were crafted from Chêne des Marais – a very special wood with a tone-to-tone effect – to frame each of the spaces. One of the bedrooms is the commodious master suite which

includes an elongated walk-in wardrobe and dressing room that simulates the appearance of the Avenue Montaigne shopping strip. This wardrobe and dressing area includes glossy built-in cupboards, an integrated seating area and glass drawers that display the client’s beautiful jewellery.

Most of the furniture items in the apartment were custom designed and made by SC Edition to meet the client’s brief for a fashionable home with five-star hotel-grade luxury.

“I wanted to create a very refined, impressive apartment. The open spaces feel important and lively, yet they also allow for an element of casual relaxation. The sophisticated luxury of Avenue Montaigne is reflected in the gold-coloured section of the living room and the long dressing room in the master suite,” Coutas says.

Some of Coutas’ favourite pieces are the patterned marble floor in the bathroom, the golden straw marquetry coffee table in the living room with black-stained sawn wood legs, and the straw marquetry tabletop by Valérie Colas.

She has also included a stunning Annie Leibovitz SUMO book presented on a Marc Newson lectern in the living room, which has been carefully placed below a harmonious wall sconce with a black finish and gold powder coating by DelightFULL.

“SC Edition’s signature material palette, which includes a lot of bronze, gold and high-end glossy wood is perfect for an apartment located in this part of the city. The sophisticated colour scheme and intriguing materials create a mood that is cheerful, chic and elegant,” she says.