After a wide ranging career (including a stay in Miami and journalism school), Karine Simonot trained in cabinet making, interior architecture and design and happily began to redecorate the homes of her friends. But it was after meeting her partner — and then having a baby — that Karine fell for a place of her own, a warehouse space in a 19th century craftsmen's building in Paris. Now the backyard common area gives her space to create and restore antique furniture safely, and her family loves the extraordinary split-level staircase leading up to their loft. Inside, the interior is filled with objects bought, customized and reinvented. Karine draws her inspiration from art books and magazines — which is where she got the idea for the unusual library, designed like a target and acting as both storage and decoration. Ever evolving and changing, to live in this loft is to live inside a work of art. More details (in French) here. Via Marie Claire Maison.
(photography by Vincent Leroux, for the April 2010 issue of MCM)