A 60sqm apartment renovated in Paris by Atelier Compostelle
Discover the Gaeta project, a 60sqm apartment renovated in Paris’s Cité de Trévise by L’Atelier Compostelle using a palette of blues
Some projects start out as investments and end up as love stories. That’s exactly what happened with this 60sqm apartment renovated in Paris. It’s nestled in the Cité de Trévise, one of the most discreet enclaves in the 9th arrondissement. The owners had commissioned Atelier Compostelle to create a rental unit. Four months of work later, they decided to keep the apartment for themselves.
The 9th arrondissement is a multifaceted neighborhood. Behind the major shopping streets lie hidden private passageways and cobblestone courtyards. The Cité de Trévise is part of this side of Paris, quiet and slightly timeless. Its fountain, adorned with three nymphs and attributed to the influence of the Renaissance sculptor Germain Pilon, is one of its defining features.
Amandine Maroteaux, artistic director of Atelier Compostelle, took this context seriously. She developed the project with the common areas’ cabochons, the fountain, and the filtered light on the street-level ground floor in mind. All of this fueled her creative process. Oxygen blue became the guiding thread of the design, consistently applied room by room.
The apartment’s main challenge? Its location. A ground-floor apartment facing the street in Paris often means dark spaces, less-than-ideal lighting, and a feeling of confinement. Atelier Compostelle focused on three key elements: perspectives, mirrors, and the color palette.
In the living room, a large custom bookcase spans the entire back wall. It combines open shelves, low storage units, and a multimedia area. The lower panels are lacquered in that famous sky blue, while the upper compartments remain light sand. This contrast is elegant. The white pendant light with a copper interior in the center of the room adds a warm, golden glow.
Opposite it, a String bookshelf system runs along the wall perpendicular to the window. The natural oak drawers, the glass display cabinet, the built-in desk top… Everything is designed to maximize functionality in a compact space.
The open kitchen, accessible from the living room through a large archway, takes the blue theme even further. Fronts of the base cabinets feature a deep, vibrant shade of blue. The veined white quartzite countertop provides balance and the necessary contrast. Its backsplash is the real standout: tiles designed by Atelier Compostelle itself, with a blue geometric pattern on a white background that evokes Mediterranean ceramics without falling into Provençal clichés.
On the floor, the same graphic tile defines the kitchen area, creating a clear transition to the oiled oak hardwood floors of the living room. This choice makes the open floor plan immediately clear.
The velvet bar stools provide a soft contrast to the color of the furniture. This idea of pairing a deep blue with seating in a nearly opposite shade works very well. It prevents the overall look from becoming monotonous. The white cylindrical pendant lights with copper interiors echo the same lighting aesthetic as those installed in the living room.
Chosen shade of blue changes in the bedroom. The headboard is the entire wall, covered in textured, embossed wallpaper featuring floral motifs in a powdery blue. This material creates an unexpected visual depth and gives the room an almost hotel-like atmosphere, in the best sense of the word.
Opposite the bed, a long, custom-made storage bench runs the full width of the wall. It echoes the sandy hue of the living room’s woodwork, with sky-blue niches that complement the headboard. Wicker baskets, books, and a few carefully chosen objects fill these shelves.
A white pendant light, a pleated paper saucer, light and matte, contrasts with the rich texture of the headboard wall.
The bathroom is small, but it has everything you need. A wall-mounted vanity in solid natural oak is flanked by two open wooden columns that rise to the ceiling. The backs of these niches are tiled with fine vertical stripes in a delicate powder pink, a choice that warms the room’s atmosphere.
On the floor, graphic tiles in shades of petrol blue and white form a repeating pattern that brings the surface to life. In the shower, the same graphic style is carried through with small, elongated tiles on the floor and white vertical strip paneling on the walls. The matte black faucets stand out sharply against the white and give the whole space a contemporary look.
L’Atelier Compostelle practices a lived-in minimalism, if one must label it. Objects have their place because they make sense within the whole, not because they were needed to fill empty spaces.
The blue-sand-oak color palette found in many renovated Parisian interiors takes on a personal touch here thanks to custom-designed tiles and woodwork conceived as true pieces of furniture.
One question remains. Can you really live in such a meticulously maintained apartment without fear of damaging it? Undoubtedly yes, because the chosen materials, oiled oak, quartzite, and cotton velvet, are materials that age well. And besides, the fact that the owners chose to keep this apartment for themselves rather than rent it out is proof that the renovation was a success. Photo: ©Julien Pépy
The Cité de Trévise as a starting point
The 9th arrondissement is a multifaceted neighborhood. Behind the major shopping streets lie hidden private passageways and cobblestone courtyards. The Cité de Trévise is part of this side of Paris, quiet and slightly timeless. Its fountain, adorned with three nymphs and attributed to the influence of the Renaissance sculptor Germain Pilon, is one of its defining features.
Amandine Maroteaux, artistic director of Atelier Compostelle, took this context seriously. She developed the project with the common areas’ cabochons, the fountain, and the filtered light on the street-level ground floor in mind. All of this fueled her creative process. Oxygen blue became the guiding thread of the design, consistently applied room by room.
Bringing new life to a ground-floor apartment
The apartment’s main challenge? Its location. A ground-floor apartment facing the street in Paris often means dark spaces, less-than-ideal lighting, and a feeling of confinement. Atelier Compostelle focused on three key elements: perspectives, mirrors, and the color palette.
In the living room, a large custom bookcase spans the entire back wall. It combines open shelves, low storage units, and a multimedia area. The lower panels are lacquered in that famous sky blue, while the upper compartments remain light sand. This contrast is elegant. The white pendant light with a copper interior in the center of the room adds a warm, golden glow.
Opposite it, a String bookshelf system runs along the wall perpendicular to the window. The natural oak drawers, the glass display cabinet, the built-in desk top… Everything is designed to maximize functionality in a compact space.
The kitchen
The open kitchen, accessible from the living room through a large archway, takes the blue theme even further. Fronts of the base cabinets feature a deep, vibrant shade of blue. The veined white quartzite countertop provides balance and the necessary contrast. Its backsplash is the real standout: tiles designed by Atelier Compostelle itself, with a blue geometric pattern on a white background that evokes Mediterranean ceramics without falling into Provençal clichés.
On the floor, the same graphic tile defines the kitchen area, creating a clear transition to the oiled oak hardwood floors of the living room. This choice makes the open floor plan immediately clear.
The velvet bar stools provide a soft contrast to the color of the furniture. This idea of pairing a deep blue with seating in a nearly opposite shade works very well. It prevents the overall look from becoming monotonous. The white cylindrical pendant lights with copper interiors echo the same lighting aesthetic as those installed in the living room.
The bedroom
Chosen shade of blue changes in the bedroom. The headboard is the entire wall, covered in textured, embossed wallpaper featuring floral motifs in a powdery blue. This material creates an unexpected visual depth and gives the room an almost hotel-like atmosphere, in the best sense of the word.
Opposite the bed, a long, custom-made storage bench runs the full width of the wall. It echoes the sandy hue of the living room’s woodwork, with sky-blue niches that complement the headboard. Wicker baskets, books, and a few carefully chosen objects fill these shelves.
A white pendant light, a pleated paper saucer, light and matte, contrasts with the rich texture of the headboard wall.
The bathroom
The bathroom is small, but it has everything you need. A wall-mounted vanity in solid natural oak is flanked by two open wooden columns that rise to the ceiling. The backs of these niches are tiled with fine vertical stripes in a delicate powder pink, a choice that warms the room’s atmosphere.
On the floor, graphic tiles in shades of petrol blue and white form a repeating pattern that brings the surface to life. In the shower, the same graphic style is carried through with small, elongated tiles on the floor and white vertical strip paneling on the walls. The matte black faucets stand out sharply against the white and give the whole space a contemporary look.
What we love about this renovated 60sqm apartment in Paris
L’Atelier Compostelle practices a lived-in minimalism, if one must label it. Objects have their place because they make sense within the whole, not because they were needed to fill empty spaces.
The blue-sand-oak color palette found in many renovated Parisian interiors takes on a personal touch here thanks to custom-designed tiles and woodwork conceived as true pieces of furniture.
One question remains. Can you really live in such a meticulously maintained apartment without fear of damaging it? Undoubtedly yes, because the chosen materials, oiled oak, quartzite, and cotton velvet, are materials that age well. And besides, the fact that the owners chose to keep this apartment for themselves rather than rent it out is proof that the renovation was a success. Photo: ©Julien Pépy
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