DEBELLEYME

In the Marais, a stone’s throw from the Marché des Enfants Rouges — the oldest covered market in Paris — Maxime De Campenaere Studio undertook the complete transformation of a 34 m² apartment in an early 19th century faubourg building.

The project explores a fundamental tension: how to amplify space and light in a small Parisian apartment while preserving its character and soul?

The project starts from a blank slate: existing partitions are removed to create a through-apartment, from courtyard to street, drawing light from one end of the home to the other.

This defining decision frees up the living area and gives the whole an unexpected generosity for 34 m²: a double-window living room facing the street, a courtyard-facing bedroom with a bespoke stainless steel dressing room, a separate laundry room and a shower room.

The wide-plank floor, in the spirit of early faubourg buildings, anchors the space in the history of the place.The exposed ceiling beams, characteristic of this type of pre-Haussmann faubourg building, were painted in the same tone as the walls, preserving the architectural charm of the space without letting them dominate.

The material palette is deliberately sober yet assertive: wood, stainless steel, Forest Brown leather-effect stone. The stainless steel, present in both the kitchen and the dressing room, animates the space through its continuous play of shifting reflections throughout the day — a material with an urban, nocturnal quality, weaving an invisible thread between Paris and Marrakech.

The bathrooms function as small, intense cells, entirely clad in red zellige tiles. A nod to Morocco, to the colours of the neighbourhood and to the Paris-Marrakech axis dear to Yves Saint Laurent, they create rhythm and sharp contrast with the calm of the living spaces. This approach to sequence and contrast is a signature of Maxime De Campenaere Studio.

The furniture blends collectible pieces with contemporary designs: Triangolo coffee tables by The Socialite Family, Dialog coffee table by Belgian designer Alain Gilles for Milla&Milli, Jean Prouvé 1936 shelf, vintage Daumiller oiled pine chairs, USM TV unit, Merlot Baus dining table. The rug is a bespoke creation by the studio, designed to fit the volumetry of the space perfectly.