Préparez-vous à vous évanouir (prepare to swoon/pass out!) as you enjoy this Parisian style mansion tour and (surprisingly!) score ideas to apply to your own interiors. Hey hey hey, bougie and anything-but-bougie francocentrique friends. The objective here is NOT to convince anyone a $17 million manse on the market and offered by Sotheby’s HERE has a look within reach. It’s 8,650 square feet of luxurious yet understated sophistication so c’est impossible. Instead, we’ll collect furniture choices, finish details and color story intelligence within this magnificent home.
Photos: Sotheby’s
Parisian Style Mansion Tour: 5 Surprising Ideas to Apply
Curious about the particulars of this magnificent San Francisco beauty on the market?
Number of rooms? 17 (Five bedrooms and five and a half baths).
You’ll find a chef’s kitchen, four fireplaces (including a 16th century Renaissance-style showstopper), library, grotto, plaster walls, and hardwood flooring.
The listing from Sotheby’s calls the home’s style “evocative of a Parisienne-style hôtel particulier.”
Hôtel particulier? That description is precisely what drew my attention.
One of my favorite parts of our stay in Paris was touring hôtel particulier wonders!
What’s a hôtel particulier? Not a hotel, but rather a grand mansion in the city.
My favorite? Carnavalet which closed for five years of renovations shortly after I toured it.
While these private manses certainly appear palatial to this peasant, not all are palaces.
“The term hôtel was defined by Catherinot as ‘houses less beautiful than palaces and more beautiful than simple lodgings’ in his Traité d’Architecture published in 1688.” –UNTAPPED CITIES
While 2839 Pacific Avenue’s classic French architecture is undeniably Old World, inside you’ll discover contemporary furnishing and what appears to my eye as MODERN FRENCH.
Yes, indeed, it’s luxuriously grand like its asking price.
And it is also comfortably livable inside with modern appliances and state-of-the-art technology.
For example, the breathtakingly beautiful centuries old fireplace upstaging even the La Cornue range in the kitchen?
It is equipped with a gas starter. (If you’re thinkin’ an antique French limestone mantel needs to come live with you, your first stop ought to be Chateau Domingue.)
No. 1: Calm Color Palette Idea from a French Inspired Mansion
This first idea to explore in this magnificent French kitchen is the tranquil tonal atmosphere.
Notice there is little in this everyday kitchen dining area that is jarring or saturated in color.
From the beige stone to the white trim to the light wood floors, contrast is low.
While the walls are luxuriously finished with plaster, a paint color that springs to mind for a similar warm white look is Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter.
Another possibility is a color I just used in a guest bath here at the new house:
You guys – talk about fancy schmancy service! This Clare paint comes straight to your doorstep. I love that so much!
BTW. What do you think about the black stone used to top cabinetry in here? It surprised me yet felt consistent with a more Modern French look.
No. 2: Modern Art & Contemporary Shapes With Traditional Architecture
This French home is a dream for a modern art collector as it is designed with art lighting and plenty of gallery walls.
The tension created by modern abstracts or sculpture in traditional Old World spaces is highly intriguing and alluring.
Imagine how different the bedroom sitting area above might feel with an antique portrait above the fireplace and brown wood furniture surrounding it.
No. 3: Spare & Subtle Modern French Style
Oh this spare and sophisticated modern bedroom with its traditional French doors and shutters! Such restraint as far as decorating the space.
The subtle neutrals, simple lines of furniture, and sumptuous nubby rugs create a very hygge feel that is anything but fussy.
Just imagine if this very Paris-like bedroom was crowded with ornate antique furniture, shelves of objects, or gilded finishes.
While the bones and architecture are exceptionally breathtaking here, even without them, such unfussy simplicity would feel modern in a space with a traditional or vintage backdrop.
Video of 2839 Pacific Avenue!
Go inside this mansion to see it for yourself!
No. 4: Timelessness of Plaster Finishes & Lime Washes
If you have never lived with plaster walls, you may wonder what all the fuss is about, but they really are allllll that and a bag of…
And both plaster and plaster-like finishes are becoming more commonplace. Curious about giving it a try? You could always start small!
If you live near Houston, you could give SEGRETO FINISHES a jingle! Their work speaks for itself…see examples HERE!
Psst. This ultra-luxurious French mansion’s bathroom with its gold toned hardware and stone floors reminded me so much of the one in our Paris hotel room (Park Hyatt Paris Vendome).
Twin showers! As I gazed at this bath, I pondered what could possibly be affordable to get the look.
Let’s see…cremone bolts on grand double doors…nope. Out of the stratosphere soaking tub…non, non, non. Skylight…c’est possible.
Fine. About all I can emulate are those fluffy white towels in the shower above on the left:
But these aren’t just towels you’ll score with a Target run, kitties. They are the best ones I own!
No. 5: Cozy Study/Work Area in Kitchen
I can’t stop thinking about the beauty of this desk area next to that enormous fireplace in the kitchen. While an ancient kitchen hearth may be out of the question, creating a tucked away nook isn’t an impossibility!
Another possibility is borrowing the color story happening…reminds me of this:
Ready to move in? For more realistic ideas from fancy French homes, SEE THIS.
Peace to you right where you are.
-michele
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I’d write a check today, but alas, it is in California. Everybody is leaving. Sell it to Nancy.
Author
I just want the fireplaces and the tub and some of that sunshine! 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Definitely ready to move in!! The look I’m after…I might need to take down the gilded mirror in my bedroom though! Can’t improve on this in my opinion! Thanks so much for sharing!
Author
Thanks for taking the joy ride, Amy! 🙂
I love color, and lots of it in our home! But I also love looking at rooms like these, because I always take away some excellent ideas. The sparse, neutral spaces lose everything if one item is out of place, or there is any clutter at all. And for most families, living like that is impossible. So maybe a better idea for empty nesters?
Thank you, as always, for bringing so much beauty and so many amazing properties into my life! I look forward to your posts so much.
Author
Great topic for a post! I have never written about where I hide all the stuff of living I don’t want to see. These images are styled to be clutter-free, but it truly isn’t realistic to live without the stuff of life, right? Thanks so much for reading and for the kind words.