The White Page

Small apartment design meets sculptural interior in artist Paul Sibuet's landmark Paris pied-à-terre renovation. 

Lyon-based sculptor Paul Sibuet has completed one of the most refined small apartment renovations in recent Paris interior design — transforming a 43-square-metre pied-à-terre in the Haut-Marais district into a luminous, material-led interior that functions simultaneously as artist's residence, private gallery, and sculptural living laboratory. Located in an 18th-century building near Arts-et-Métiers, the Paris micro-apartment renovation demonstrates with exceptional precision how small space interior design can achieve spaciousness, warmth, and personal depth through material intelligence rather than square footage.

The renovation began with a complete structural overhaul: full thermal insulation, updated electrical systems, and the replacement of outdated PVC windows with traditional small-paned wooden frames faithful to the building's historic character — a key consideration in Haut-Marais heritage apartment renovation. Sibuet then undertook the painstaking unification of the apartment's highly irregular walls and floors, compensating for structural variances of up to twenty centimetres with millimetre precision throughout. The result is a spatially coherent, continuous interior surface — the essential foundati
on for the material palette that defines the project's aesthetic identity.In forty-three square metres, the boundary between home, gallery, and sculpture is not a compromise — it is the entire point.

That palette rests on two protagonists. The first is a luminous ivory paint applied throughout, selected to visually recede the walls and ceiling and amplify the natural light entering through five east- and south-facing windows — a passive small apartment light maximisation strategy of considerable effectiveness. The second is lacquered Tanganica walnut — a rare, silky-blonde hardwood applied across floors, feature walls, cabinetry, and the full bathroom interior — creating a warm material thread that unifies the apartment's spatial sequence while producing a refined interplay of light and reflection against full-height mirrored wardrobe doors and a mirrored kitchen splashback.

The furniture and object selection reflects a collector's interior design approach rooted in personal biography and vintage design curation. Key pieces include a 1970s Romeo Rega coffee table, two 1960 Charles Pollock Sling Chairs, 1983 vintage Bermuda chairs by Carlos Miret, a custom red onyx dining table top on a brushed metal base, and a 1987 stool by Japanese designer Teruaki Ohashi. The custom stainless steel bed — designed as both functional piece and sculptural object — exploits the room's ceiling height with bespoke bedroom furniture design of exceptional precision. A seven-metre professional-grade stainless steel kitchen, designed in homage to Italian brasserie kitchens of the 1970s, completes the domestic programme with both material rigour and personal narrative.

Throughout, Sibuet's own sculptural works — including Flow Chrome and Compression — occupy the space alongside vintage and family heirloom objects, erasing the boundary between collector's interior, private gallery, and artist's home. In the competitive landscape of Paris small apartment design, Haut-Marais interior renovation, and artist-led residential projects, Paul Sibuet's pied-à-terre stands as a masterclass in spatial economy, material depth, and emotionally charged design.

Forty-three square metres. One very precise vision. The boundary between home, gallery, and sculpture, entirely dissolved.

Key takeaways

• Sibuet began by correcting the apartment's highly irregular structure — compensating for wall and floor variances of up to twenty centimetres with millimetre precision — creating the continuous interior surface that underpins the entire material scheme.
• The palette of luminous ivory paint and lacquered Tanganica walnut does the spatial work that square footage cannot: the ivory recedes walls and amplifies light from five east- and south-facing windows, while the rare blonde hardwood unifies floors, cabinetry, and the full bathroom into a single warm material thread reflected and multiplied by mirrored surfaces throughout.
• Sibuet's own sculptural works — including Flow Chrome and Compression — occupy the space alongside a precisely curated selection of vintage design pieces, including a 1960 Charles Pollock Sling Chair, a Romeo Rega coffee table, and a custom red onyx dining table, erasing the boundary between collector's interior, private gallery, and artist's home.