Budget Breakdown: A Diner-Style Booth Is the Beating Heart of This Refreshed Family Home in France

The cherry-red banquette is wrapped in glass, allowing the parents and their kids to keep in touch from across the updated 19th-century residence.

Budget Breakdown: A Diner-Style Booth Is the Beating Heart of This Refreshed Family Home in France

The cherry-red banquette is wrapped in glass, allowing the parents and their kids to keep in touch from across the updated 19th-century residence.

Previously a disused vestibule, now the heart of the home: the refreshed dining booth now serves as the "visual crossroads

Wanting more space for raising their four children and hosting extended family, doctors Paul-Louis and Elena Evrard found a mid-nineteenth century two-story home situated in Asnières-sur-Seine, a suburb about five miles from the center of Paris. With abundant space and a modest garden, it offered a serene context for family life without sacrificing city living, thanks to a seven-minute commuter train journey that provides quick access to Paris’s Grands Boulevards district and its belle époque charm.

Bringing a "new modernity

Looking for a new space for their young family, and one that could accommodate visiting relatives and guests, a doctor couple purchased a tired two-level home outside Paris and had architect Pierre-Louis Gerlier adjust the plan to enhance sight lines throughout.

Photo by Ercole Salinaro

Built in 1850, the semi-detached house—typical of weekend homes for the 19th-century Parisian bourgeoisie—was full of charming historical features, from delicate moldings and stained-glass windows to flowered floor tiles. Yet it was visibly time-worn; a trait that the couple saw as both a challenge and an opportunity.

Before: An eclectic palette of cornflower blue, tangerine and orange-red recur throughout the home's charming entranceway, including a tiled floor and stained-glass window on the front door.

Before: An eclectic palette of cornflower blue, tangerine and orange-red recur throughout the home’s charming entranceway, including a tiled floor and stained-glass window in the front door.

Photo courtesy of Pierre-Louis Gerlier

After: The original tiles remain amidst a refreshed palette that brings light and levity back into the home, opening up its ground-floor living spaces completely.

After: The original tiles complement a refreshed palette that brings light and levity to the home, giving its ground-floor living spaces a more open feel.

Photo by Ercole Salinaro

See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: A Diner-Style Booth Is the Beating Heart of This Refreshed Family Home in France
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