Restored 19th century boulangerie
19th century decoration
Old shop frontage
Reading nook
Lacroix mural
The lobby
Cafe mural
The traditional French cafe bar
Vibrant bench seating
Pierre Paulin's "Little Tulip" chair
Polkadot staircase carpet
Bedroom mural
Sketches taken from the Lacroix sketchbook
Window screens
Bedroom mirror
Programme 5
Overview
Purchased in 2003 by Nadia Murano and her husband, Denis Nourry, the hotel's transformation took two years to complete. The coupling "design hotel" is at its most literal within this hotel. Fashion Designer Christian Lacroix has famously designed the internal decoration. The 17 rooms were conceived in a pastiche of styles, including Baroque, sci-fi and Scandi-modern. The hotel sits amid a burgeoning fashion and design scene in the Haut-Marais neighbourhood.
Interior Design
Hôtel du Petit Moulin has been dressed to impress by Lacroix in his first ever commercial interior design project. And although it could easily have become a "safely designed" boutique hotel in a bustling part of Paris, it has become a design institution.
History
The 1900 frontage is listed as part of French heritage and the shop signboard has been conserved. To create the 17-room, 7,500-square-foot establishment, architects Cabinet Vincent Bastie conjoined two old buildings, one of which housed the oldest bakery in Paris. Supposedly the bakery was Victor Hugo's bakery of choice! Lacroix also decorated the building next door, which had housed a dingy boarding house with minuscule rooms and a bar.
Features
17 different interiors, each personally designed by Lacroix. One room mimics a dressmaker's atelier with Lacroix's own sketches mounted on the walls, while other rooms convey a sense of Baroque Paris, '60s Pop Art or Zen. Lacroix intentionally mismatches fabrics and textures - think orange leather sofas, chocolate brown canvas walls, sequined drapes and lots of feathers, ceilings fitted with gemmed headdresses, 18th century French prints and mirrors. While the public areas of the hotel offer a chance to witness Lacroix's distinctive "handwriting", the rooms themselves can be "read" only by guests. With each room fashioned differently, each stay can provide guests with a different "chapter". Check-in has you craning to admire the vintage rustics painted on the ceiling. In typical Lacroix style, the lounge area adjacent to reception is a witty combination of materials, colours and furniture. Louis XIV armchairs are mixed with contemporary leather lounges and an Arco lamp from the '60s. Inside and out, the original 19th century fixtures of the former bakery have been retained and accentuated by dramatic contrasts of colour and texture.