Cover Step inside the Paris apartment of Patrick and Lorraine Frey, where decades of interior design expertise meet a deeply personal home filled with art, heirlooms and objects chosen purely for love
Step inside the Paris apartment of Patrick and Lorraine Frey, where decades of interior design expertise meet a deeply personal home filled with art, heirlooms and objects chosen purely for love
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At home in Paris with Patrick and Lorraine Frey, the visionary force behind France’s celebrated textile house Pierre Frey, a life’s worth of objects, memories and passions finally finds their place
Patrick Frey has spent more than 50 years shaping how the world’s most discerning people live. As president and artistic director of Maison Pierre Frey, the legendary French house of fabrics, wallpapers and furniture founded by his father in 1935, he has dressed palaces and châteaux, counselled the world’s finest decorators and built one of the most important private textile heritages in existence. Patrick Frey’s Paris apartment is, by any measure, extraordinarily beautiful. But what sets it apart from the interiors he has spent a lifetime creating for others is something harder to define. Nothing here was put together for anyone else.
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Above The living room, where the sofa, armchairs, coffee table and rug are all by Pierre Frey, curtains in Funambule embroidery, and miniature sculptures by Sandrine Courau on the Louis XVI marble fireplace
Above Patrick and Lorraine Frey at the Gaveau piano, beside a beaded Yoruba headdress from Nigeria, with curtains in a Pierre Frey print from the rounded entryway that connects all rooms of the apartment
The living room, where the sofa, armchairs, coffee table and rug are all by Pierre Frey, curtains in Funambule embroidery, and miniature sculptures by Sandrine Courau on the Louis XVI marble fireplace
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The Freys had, in Patrick’s words, been living there for more than twenty years before they bought it four years ago. Ownership, when it came, unlocked something. They gutted the layout, reworked the volumes and rebuilt the circulation around a central rotunda that now connects every room. “Calling it our last home gave us a great sense of freedom,” Patrick says. “There was no desire to impress, no trend to follow, only to create something deeply personal and lasting.”
A fresh start
Above The TV room featuring a Pierre Frey sofa, a painting by Léon Texier, a Gae Aulenti glass coffee table on wheels and a Pierre Frey rug designed by Louise Bourgoin
Above This room opens into the rounded entryway
The TV room featuring a Pierre Frey sofa, a painting by Léon Texier, a Gae Aulenti glass coffee table on wheels and a Pierre Frey rug designed by Louise Bourgoin
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The renovation took just over a year and was, by Patrick’s own account, a substantial undertaking. Working with architect Jérôme Bouet and two longtime collaborators, Roland Le Bévillon and Maurice Savinel, the entire layout was rethought from scratch. For Patrick, the choice of collaborators came down to trust. “They’ve known me for a long time, so there was already an understanding,” he says. They also helped mediate between differing ideas, keeping the design balanced.
Above The central rotunda is the heart of the apartment’s redesigned layout, where the Ingo Maurer chandelier and Gaveau piano lend a sense of whimsy
The central rotunda is the heart of the apartment’s redesigned layout, where the Ingo Maurer chandelier and Gaveau piano lend a sense of whimsy
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The apartment now feels both open and contained, with rooms that flow into one another. “It wasn’t about making it bigger,” Patrick adds, “but about improving the flow and coherence.” At the heart of it all sits the rotunda, a circular room that anchors the entire plan and gives the space its sense of calm connectivity. It was, Patrick says with characteristic warmth, like starting the whole thing from scratch together. “It was almost like getting remarried.”
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A life collected
Above Above a Louis XVI chest of drawers, The Red-Haired Girl by Kisling sits alongside a sculpture by Nathalie Decoster
Above A Louis XV marquetry dresser beneath a painting from Axel Vervoord
Above a Louis XVI chest of drawers, The Red-Haired Girl by Kisling sits alongside a sculpture by Nathalie Decoster
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If the architecture gave the apartment its bones, it is the objects that give it its soul. The mix is genuinely eclectic: African art alongside heirloom pieces by René Prou, Patrick’s grandfather and one of the great French interior designers of the Art Deco era; a chandelier by Ingo Maurer beside ceramics by Johanna de Clisson; paintings and textiles chosen for their beauty rather than their trendiness.
The René Prou pieces are particularly close to his heart. “There are several pieces by my grandfather integrated into the apartment,” he says. “They are part of our daily life, not treated as museum pieces. It is not about nostalgia, but about continuity.”
Above The bedroom, clad in Pierre Frey’s aged linen Craft, with bookshelves by Savinel and Le Bévillon
The bedroom, clad in Pierre Frey’s aged linen Craft, with bookshelves by Savinel and Le Bévillon
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Above Achoka curtains by Pierre Frey flanking an antique column with sculptures by Titou Malbec and Sandrine Courau
Above Lorraine’s bathroom sees walls covered with Au Bord du Lac panoramic wallpaper by Pierre Frey
Achoka curtains by Pierre Frey flanking an antique column with sculptures by Titou Malbec and Sandrine Courau
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Lorraine, an artist herself, plays an essential role in keeping the space alive, constantly shifting and recomposing objects with an instinct that Patrick clearly admires. The creative tension between their two sensibilities, he insists, is a strength rather than a compromise. “Through dialogue, and sometimes through contrast, that tension is actually very positive. It brings richness and prevents the space from becoming too uniform or predictable.”
Above The kitchen features a black Empire-style pedestal table displaying ceramics
Above The dining room dressed in Pierre Frey’s black-and-white Palazzo print
The kitchen features a black Empire-style pedestal table displaying ceramics
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As for the Pierre Frey pieces scattered throughout, they are there entirely on their own terms. “Many elements do come from Pierre Frey, but never as a statement,” Patrick says. “They are simply pieces we love, chosen for their presence rather than for what they represent.” It is, in the end, his mother’s maxim made manifest. “An object you never move becomes invisible,” Patrick says. “In our home, things are always on the move.”
Lucky like this
Above Patrick’s office, with Pierre Frey Beau Monde curtains embroidered with life-size figures
Above The Palazzo wallpaper with Native American headdresses
Patrick’s office, with Pierre Frey Beau Monde curtains embroidered with life-size figures
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For a man who has spent his career creating interiors for others, Patrick is remarkably clear about what his own home is not. “A home should remain personal, free and independent from professional demonstration,” he states simply.
Above Lorraine’s studio features La Smala curtains by Pierre Frey
Above Studio shelves in a constantly renewed emotional composition
Lorraine’s studio features La Smala curtains by Pierre Frey
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The duplex apartment reflects this with quiet confidence. There are two offices: a cosy cocoon for Patrick and a spacious studio for Lorraine where her artistic practice has room to breathe. Up in the duplex, the grandchildren have their own independent space, and their visits give the apartment a rhythm and energy that Patrick clearly cherishes. “That presence brings a great deal of life and energy,” he says.
Above The landscaped balcony by Horticulture et Jardins, where Lorraine’s watercolours wait on the table above Parisian rooftops
Above The long balcony running along the street-facing side of the apartment
The landscaped balcony by Horticulture et Jardins, where Lorraine’s watercolours wait on the table above Parisian rooftops
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Beyond the windows, Paris arranges itself with almost unreasonable generosity: rue de Verneuil, rue du Bac, a crossing of the Seine, the Tuileries in the distance. It is a view that has not lost its power.
“There is no longer the need to prove anything, or to follow trends,” Patrick reflects. “We simply choose what we truly love.” And this apartment? He never wants to leave it. “I never tire of how lucky we are.”
Credits
Photography: Philippe Garcia
Jakarta-born, Bandung-raised and Singapore-based, Asih Jenie trained in Visual Communication Design at Bandung Institute of Technology and Architecture at Parahyangan Catholic University. She brings both rigour and heart to design journalism, infused with a distinct Southeast Asian voice.
As a child, she doodled on the edges of her schoolbooks and never outgrew her fascination with all things well-made and well-told. Her 15-year career spans editorial roles and bylines in Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Australia, across spatial design titles such as Dwell Asia, Cubes, Design Anthology, Habitus Living, and Home & Decor.
After a brief stint in public relations, she returned to publishing in 2023 to lead Tatler Homes Singapore, where she continues to tell stories about how we shape the spaces that shape us.
