In the hidden heights of Montmartre, an Art Deco residence is reborn under the pen of the CLAVES studio. With a musical memory, plastic illusions and a sensory narrative, the Villa Junot becomes an inhabited theatre where every detail conveys a story.
In Montmartre, some addresses seem suspended outside of time, concealing true metamorphoses behind their apparent calm. The 18th Avenue Junot is a perfect example. It is here, on this cobbled street steeped in history, that Iconic House entrusted Studio Claves with the mission of reinventing an exceptional artist-in-residence residence. The result: a masterpiece of interior architecture where design, art, and memory merge in an intimate and fluid composition.
Built in the 1920s for the composer André Mauprey, the Villa Junot carries within its walls the memory of an artistic and vibrant Paris. Intimate recitals, literary dinners, improvised melodies… so many invisible traces that Claves – a duo formed by Soizic Fougeront and Laure Gravier, both former students of Pierre Yovanovitch – has chosen to bring back to life, rather than erase.
"We didn't want to renovate, but to resonate.", says Soizic. "The house needed to rediscover its inner voice."
A voice that the two interior designers translate into delicate materials and narrative harmonies. From the moment you enter, the tone is set with a trompe-l'œil spiral staircase by Mauro Ferreira: a vibrant emerald green drape, a textile illusion, a surreal echo. The curtain motif becomes a recurring theme, echoed in a fireplace crafted by Southway Studio, in a plaster ceiling with floating volumes, and in the theatrical undulations of the fabrics.
"We don't decorate, we suggest.", Laure slips in. "Each line is a breath, each space, a response."
An opera house
The entire building has been completely redesigned: it now includes five bedrooms, a chef's kitchen, a screening room, a panoramic rooftop terrace, a library, and a suite with an original Art Deco bathroom restored to its original state. Far from a simple juxtaposition, Claves has composed a truly continuous score where each room plays its own note.
The color palette is bold: deep reds, captivating blues, English greens, velvety browns. The materials—lacquered wood, velvet, polished brass, mosaic—invite touch. Sensuality is always imbued with meaning.
At Villa Junot, contemporary art integrates into the space like a second breath. In the dining room, Maldo Nollimerg has created a cosmic fresco. In the stairwell, stained-glass windows by Atelier Toporkoff transform light into shimmering fragments. In the library, Garance Vallée has written a pictorial dialogue between structure and sensation.
Nothing is simply tacked on; everything is conceived in situ. Far from being a mere insertion, each intervention extends the architecture. "We offered words, moments of respite. The artists allowed themselves to be inhabited by the house. They didn't decorate a place: they continued it."
Nods to André Mauprey's musical past punctuate the journey: a bass clef carved into the ironwork, musical staff lines in the stained glass, a spatial rhythm that guides the visit. The main bathroom retains its original mosaics, meticulously restored, while other floors have been custom-made in a neo-Art Deco style.
This is the story of a place that unites past and present in a single pulse. Not simply a setting of beauty, but a space that thinks, breathes, and remembers. Here, aesthetics become language, and emotion, a raw material. Villa Junot is not merely contemplated: it is experienced, like a multi-part musical score, to be listened to with your fingertips.
