Rooms with style

Situated in a neo-Haussmannian complex, the renovated Mercure Opéra Bastille Hotel brings together timeless design cues in a new hospitality concept. For this complete renovation project, Laurent Maugoust’s practice drew inspiration from the Victorian style and devoted maximum attention to every detail with a spirit of elegance and eclecticism. With its unique design elements, striking patterns and unusual combinations of high-quality materials, the project is a veritable jewel of hospitality. Savoir-faire, craftsmanship and beautiful materials took centre stage, while great importance was also given to the history of the location along with references to historical figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais.
From the entrance and reception area through to the bar and lounges, the spaces create a sensation of openness and fluidity. Every room in the hotel is designed to offer views reminiscent of an art gallery, where guests are invited to take note of every detail and the light has been shaped to create trajectories. The project adopts a harmonious colour palette in which each room is designed as a colour block, with shades ranging from matt colours through to velvet finishes. “In keeping with its elegant and eclectic spirit, the hotel has been reinvented down to the smallest detail, its various spaces and atmospheres revisited. Rather than style, it is this art of living that we wanted to express in terms of volume and substance. We opened up the spaces, enhanced the volumes, altered the perspectives and exploited the light,” says Laurent Maugoust.
The hotel has 49 rooms available in three different colour schemes: deep black, pale aqua green and terra di siena, all of which reveal a certain audaciousness in terms of colour selection and research. Laurent Maugoust drew inspiration from the Château de Malmaison for its impertinence and avant-garde decor. The existing wood panelling underwent an original makeover that included the use of Italian ceramic wall tiles from Marca Corona. The three-dimensional Victoria wall tiles are used in all the private suites, chosen by the designer to add character and sophistication to the bathrooms. With its palette of saturated colours and elegant wood panelling effect reliefs, the wall tiling epitomises the eccentric and exclusive style of this Parisian hotel. The white-body wall tiles, chosen in a 40×80 cm size and in the three colours Obsidian, Gypsum and Carnelian, create a striking 3D pattern inspired by the restrained elegance of Victorian London.
Interior designer Laurent Maugoust custom designed several of the items of furniture and the carpets, drawing inspiration from the neoclassical lexicon of Serge Gainsbourg’s private residence in Rue de Verneuil. The result is a sophisticated interior in grand Parisian style.