Before, an average apartment, a bit old-fashioned with its raised mouldings and polished parquet floors.

How do you breathe life into a place that is so desperately lacking it?

To do this, Manganèse Atelier decided to tell a story, and treat it like the suite of a hotel...

Bernard Astor, in charge of the project, applied the Manganèse recipe: first clear away as much as possible to expose the attractive period features, and then in a second phase redesign the spaces in a careful choice of colours combined with an austere furniture arrangement. Graphical sets - a bath of strong colours, counterpoints of black, furniture with dead straight lines.

Result: Suite Privée has become an elegant, stimulating and modern space - without losing the charming assets of the past. Is there anybody there?