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](https://images.dwell.com/photos-6691330331594723328/7136496401302667264-small/previously-a-disused-vestibule-now-the-heart-of-the-home-the-refreshed-dining-booth-now-serves-as-the-visual-crossroads.jpg?#)
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](https://images.dwell.com/photos-6691330331594723328/7136496401302667264-large/previously-a-disused-vestibule-now-the-heart-of-the-home-the-refreshed-dining-booth-now-serves-as-the-visual-crossroads.jpg)
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](https://images.dwell.com/photos-6691330331594723328/7136496398838177792-medium/bringing-a-new-modernity.jpg)
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.](https://images.dwell.com/photos-6691330331594723328/7136497743870799872-medium/before-an-eclectic-palette-of-cornflower-blue-tangerine-and-orange-red-recur-throughout-the-homes-charming-entranceway-including-a-tiled-floor-and-stained-glass-window-on-the-front-door.jpg)
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.](https://images.dwell.com/photos-6691330331594723328/7136496399066206208-medium/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.jpg)
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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