Colors From India in a Staid Paris Building

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/greathomesanddestinations/Manish-Aroras-Apartment-in-Paris.html

Version 0 of 1.

PARIS — In decorating his Paris apartment, the Indian fashion designer Manish Arora worked with one of the graffiti artists who sprayed bold letters onto paper walls during his autumn/winter 2012 show on the banks of the Seine.

Mr. Arora, 40, liked the aesthetic so much that he invited Rude 3HC to spray the entrance to the apartment, which is 80 square meters, or 861 square feet, and on the fourth floor.

“It is all about the artist’s inspiration that day,” he said. “I did not want to influence him. It was very exciting to discover, little by little, what he was spraying.”

The results — a colorful combination of letters, arrows, a star and even a stylized lotus — set the tone for this vibrant one-bedroom home, which, in a way, combines the richness of Indian palaces and the rawness of underground techno clubs.

Situated in the 10th Arrondissement, the apartment overlooks the Canal Saint-Martin, the waterway at the heart of this neighborhood, an artists’ hangout filled with funky bars and boutiques.

“I like the edginess and the contrasts,” Mr. Arora said.

He found the unit in October 2012 and, after six months of renovations, moved in the following spring.

“We did a lot of work in this flat,” he said, describing how small rooms were combined and reorganized, the windows changed and electrical service upgraded.

The building is a typical Haussmann structure, a six-story stone structure with a mansard roof and painted white. But other than the original marble fireplaces and gold-rimmed mirrors in the dining area, bedroom and bathroom, the apartment’s interior reflects little of that traditional Parisian style.

“My design aesthetic is all about happiness,” Mr. Arora said. “You can feel happiness when you enter. People smile when they enter my place and smile again when they leave.”

And the apartment, like the designer’s clothes, reflects his playful sense, rich imagination, use of crafts from India and daring color combinations. The open-plan living and dining area is the apartment’s main room, overlooking the canal.

Mr. Arora removed the original wallpaper, then scored the plaster walls before painting each one. Half of each wall is white but the other half was done in fluorescent colors: the green wall is topped with a pink strip, the orange with blue, the blue with orange, and the pink with green.

The area is filled with an assortment of 1960s-style furniture, including a red Plexiglas table and a low armchair in silver and glass.

“I used to live in a furnished flat before moving here so I had to buy everything,” Mr. Arora said. “Lots of the furniture comes from Brussels. The ghost chair, the one in glass, was found there. I went to get it after finding it on the Internet.”

The double door that opens to the bedroom was in the original apartment. Mr. Arora painted it a bold pink with a border featuring other colors used in the living room.

“In India, colors are very natural,” he said. “It is as natural as black for French people.”

“There are many weddings, festivities and Holi which celebrate colors,” Mr. Arora added, referring to an Indian holiday. “So it was very natural for me to use them in my designs and in my flat as well.”

The bedroom walls were painted fluorescent pink and orange, and one is covered in gold plastic panels. The designer’s shoes are lined up on the fluffy white rug, while the bed’s duvet cover features men with winding mustaches, one of the designer’s own prints.

“I have many of my designs in my flat, like the bed sheets from my collaboration with Portico, plates or kitchen furniture from my collaborations with Monoprix and Good Earth,” he said. (Mr. Arora’s home furnishings, including carpets and linen, will be sold at a pop-up store in the Joyce Gallery in the Palais Royal from Sept. 24, the start of Paris Fashion Week, through the end of November.)

The bedroom also features a doll’s house, one of many toys scattered around the apartment, including, in the bathroom a doll carriage in orange plastic and nesting Russian dolls lining the black marble mantle.

“I love collecting toys when traveling,” Mr. Arora said. “I have manga toys from Akihabara, in Tokyo. My little dolls in the bathroom are from St. Petersburg.”

The colorful palette continues in the kitchen, where the wooden cupboards are painted silver and outlined in bright orange and the walls above the sink are greens and blues.

The kitchen and bathroom are separated by a wall of stained glass, made in India, that throws shadows in rich reds and pale pinks, shades of greens, yellows, mustards and blues.

The lower half of the bathroom walls are yellow, separated from the white uppers by a strip of pink. The bathtub also is pink — “We had to put many coats to get this final bright color” — just like the toilet in the adjacent room.

Mr. Arora, who also has a home in Delhi, said he had very specific ideas about the apartment: “I share my life living between France and India. My flat in Delhi is very different. I did not want to make an Indian flat in Paris. I wanted a Parisian flat with my identity in it.”