When the owners of the Paris apartment fell in love with it they say it was because they “were struck by the brightness of the rooms, although we thought the space had to be reorganized”. So Codebò and Vergnano, interior designers from Turin who had already worked on Le Due Matote, in Bossolasco, in the Langhe district, were given a free hand for designing a space on several levels. The result was an utterly Parisian apartment with a view over the rooftops and all the bedrooms leading off a distinctive sitting room, some exotic touches, an tongue-in-cheek nod to chinoiseries, and outsize defining walls clad in lacquered mandarin tapestries.

The large kitchen was fitted with a long workbench recovered from an old grocery store, restored and redesigned for use here. It skirts the dining room, which has a fireplace and lit candles that usher us into a 1930s’ Parisian mood. The light of Paris streams through orange and purple silk curtains, glancing off antique kilims and the owner’s collection of photography books. The apartment is furnished with vintage items, found in antique shops, at auctions, or in the city’s flea markets. Every piece is part of a creative whole, respecting the spirit of the dwelling but not without humour.

“If I really have to express how I design and seek to breathe life into interiors, I’d say that I’m keen to respect the spirit of the place and repurpose it for contemporary use,” says Andrea Codebò