The remarkable 17th-century Paris house of renowned collector Melissa Ulfane
The owner of this triplex in Paris is the first to admit she got a little carried away. Her initial intention was simply to buy a pied-à-terre in the French capital. She ended up not only acquiring a whole building, but also spending some 10 years renovating it. 'I certainly didn't mean to take on such a huge project,' she says, 'especially in a city in which I don't live full time. It just seemed a real honour to restore this historic building.'
The edifice in question is part of a 1630s town mansion located in the elegant Place des Victoires. It has three levels of cellars, the lowest of which has a well. It also has spectacular views and lofty interiors. 'I'd never seen volumes like this,' the owner enthuses. Other pluses included its slightly 'bohemian feel' and historical literary associations. It was once inhabited by Marguerite de la Sablière, whose salon was attended by Molière and Racine. Poet and fabulist Jean de La Fontaine is said to have lived in the attic.
'It had only a short moment of glory,' explains Melissa. 'In the eighteenth century, the smart set of Paris moved to the Left Bank. Then, after the revolution, the Place des Victoires was occupied mostly by workshops and offices.' A Parisian friend recalls cycling past the building during the Second World War, then in a state of dilapidation. 'It was like a Sleeping Beauty castle,' she says.
In order to resuscitate it, Melissa consulted a number of French architects. 'A lot wanted to do something very modern,' she recalls. 'But, I wanted to restore it rather than impose a new aesthetic on it.' Eventually, she chose the highly respected Laurent Bourgois, who was assisted by Patrice de Turenne. 'Her obsession was that nothing look new, cheap or badly restored,' notes Laurent. Instead, they worked with some of France's finest craftsmen and salvaged what they could. They replaced the roof, removed rendering from the façade to reveal the original golden coloured stone and reinstated the stone balustrade above the entrance. To the rear, a glass structure was installed to house a winter garden.
Inside, the first undertaking was to fit out a duplex at the top to allow the owner to live comfortably while the work on the apartment below was being completed. The configuration of the main apartment proved complicated. It stretches over the first, second and third floors of the build-ing, and though it is connected via the grand, main staircase, there is also a tiny spiral staircase within the apartment and a lift, whose interior was inspired by one created by the Italian decorator Renzo Mongiardino for the Palazzo Brandolini in Venice in the Fifties. As the owner explains, 'The building was designed as a house and we wanted to keep the possibility for it to be turned back into one.'
The first floor houses the main sitting room, library, kitchen and office. Above is the winter garden and a main bedroom suite, whose highlights include the dressing room with its painted-glass panels and the bathroom with its Mauny wall-paper, Meissen chandelier and claw-foot bath. On the upper floor is a room referred to as the 'gym', although it lacks any fitness equipment. Instead, it is home to the television and a quantity of shoes.
As for the rooms off the spiral staircase, the ceiling height is much lower than in the rest of the building; confusingly you may find yourself at the door to a bedroom or laundry halfway between the main floors. At one point, I wondered whether I ought to have contacted a modern-day Ariadne for a ball of thread. 'What floor are we on now?' I asked the apartment's genial decorator, Hugh Henry, from the London office of Mlinaric, Henry & Zervudachi. 'I'm not sure,' he replied, unreassuringly. 'At least the third.'
For Melissa, Hugh was the obvious choice to oversee the interiors. She had first met him when he worked with David Mlinaric on her parents' houses and praises both his way with colour and the unpretentiousness of his designs. 'His aesthetic is not about money at all.' she says. 'He may suggest something from a top antiques dealer or something found in a junk shop.' In return, he enthuses about her attention to detail and 'very, very finely tuned' taste. Here, her goal was to create the feeling of a country house in the city. 'She wanted it as a place to live; nothing ostentatious,' notes Hugh. In his task, Hugh was aided by Michèle Thurnherr, a former colleague, who has recently set up Lambert & Thurnherr Interiors. Together, Hugh and Michèle started by cataloguing the possessions the owner had accumulated over the years. With few exceptions, almost everything was incorporated either here or into her main home in London. 'There may be two or three basket chairs in the cellar,' surmises Hugh. Only a handful of other pieces needed to be acquired, among them the pair of red, nineteenth-century Maison Jansen armchairs in the main sitting room.
Melissa's taste encompasses a broad range. Artworks include eighteenth-century English landscape paintings by George Cuitt the Elder and pieces by twentieth-century artists such as Donald Judd and Matthew Collishaw. The furniture runs the gamut from an English Regency bookcase, Syrian chests and a Piet Hein Eek kitchen table. Creations by her friends are also happily included.
Collecting has always been a passion - particularly chandeliers, tiles and boxes. Her biggest love, however, is books. 'I'd had a fantasy of building a library,' she says. In the one she created with the help of Laurent and Hugh, existing mouldings were replicated and stylish taupe-grey bookcases installed. Hugh also insisted on having four large Twenties tables grouped together in the middle of the room. In front of the windows are two busts the owner bought in Padua more than 20 years ago. She doesn't know whom they represent. 'They were bought for an imaginary Venetian palace I didn't have.' Two decades later, they have found their place in a Parisian town house that is very much reality.
Spirit of Place: The Collection of Melissa Ulfane sale to take place at Dreweatts Donnington
Priory on 4 March 2025. Viewing takes place at Dreweatts Donnington Priory from 28 February - 4 March 2025.
Gaelle Le Boulicaut1/10The chandelier in the library was bought by the owner in Venice. The yellow glass sculpture is by Tristano di Robilant.
Gaelle Le Boulicaut2/10In the kitchen, the overpanels above the doorways were added by Hugh Henry and Laurent Bourgois, and allude to the grand beginnings of the house.
Gaelle Le Boulicaut3/10The kitchen doors are painted in a colour mixed by Hugh Henry; the simple Thirties dining chairs are from the Marché aux Puces. The picture above the chimneypiece is by Anselm Keifer.
Gaelle Le Boulicaut4/10In the main bedroom, the two blue velvet armchairs from the Castello del Duino sit on a beautifully coloured eighteenth-century carpet. The photograph (right of picture) is by Jack Pierson; the painting on the chimneypiece is by Diarmuid Kelley.
Gaelle Le Boulicaut5/10
Gaelle Le Boulicaut6/10The main bedroom contains an Austrian armoire, and paintings by Patrick Kinmonth.
Gaelle Le Boulicaut7/10In the dressing room, the glass panels in the wardrobe doors were painted by Reese Studio on to a background of silver leaf, to a design by Hugh Henry.
Gaelle Le Boulicaut8/10The scale of the second-floor bathroom is balanced by the Many wallpaper and Meissen chandelier
Gaelle Le Boulicaut9/10The terrace has views over the Place des Victoires.
Gaelle Le Boulicaut10/10The original golden-coloured stone can be seen in the building's main entrance.
