Set Designers for Emily in Paris and Extra Weigh In on the Greatest Locations to Supply French Furnishings
For the popular Netflix series, Seibel had to hunt across the titular city for unique, rare pieces to help make the show shine. Having worked on the last two episodes of another location-heavy show—Sex and the City—she’s an expert of bringing a fantastical flair to sets. Whether it was using lighting by Italian brand Lodes (which can be seen in Gabriel’s restaurant in Emily in Paris), to cozy antiques for the offices or apartment scenes, every piece needed to capture the ethos of the show.
“For season two, I went to flea markets, antique dealers, and fairs, private collections through people I know, and more,” Seibel says. “I had to build some of our new sets, like creating the new look of Gabriel’s restaurant, as well as trying to continue looking for unusual things and stunning locations. I used historical places in Paris for the show too,” she says.
Siebel worked closely with the show’s set decorator Christelle Maisonneuve for finishing touches. “We sourced furniture and lamps from a variety of sources,” she says, including local flea markets, vintage shops, and the online secondhand marketplace Le Bon Coin (an Offer Up–like platform for France).
Maisonneve built things by hand as well. Tropical leaves she found at a secondhand market, for instance, transformed into a hand-painted, fan-shaped DIY headboard for Emily’s bed, a design inspired by 20th-century mahogany Thonet beds.
“Emily’s world is full of fantasy, sensuality, beauty, and is unusual,” Seibel says. “It is so fun to do this in such a sad period. It is an escape to a more joyful atmosphere.”
Véronique Melery, set decorator of No Time To Die
Melery has a long history of working on films that use authentic French furniture, whether it’s Sofia Coppola’s 18th-century drama Marie Antoinette or the 20th-century setting of Phantom Thread.
One of Melery’s recent projects was No Time to Die, a film from the James Bond series that features sets filled with French country-style furniture. (The film was partly shot at the Francis Ford Coppola–owned hotel Palazzo Margherita in the town of Bernalda, which is filled with historic furniture and lighting by French interior designer Jacques Grange).
Her favorite places to source French furniture include Maison Soubrier Antiques and Decor, which House & Garden has called the “best-kept secret” for antiques in Paris. “They have rare 1940s iconic French pieces, as well as Napoleon III and Art Deco furniture in pristine condition,” Melery says. Another favorite is La Compagnie des Lucioles in Pommeuse, France, which is a warehouse filled with retro furniture. Just outside of Paris, Marché Jules Vallès is an overlooked, low-key flea market too.
It helped that she befriended Parisian antique dealer Bernard Steinitz, who gave her access to his collection, which includes “paintings, furniture, objects—a world of wonders,” she says. (Melery once found a tea set there that belonged to Marie Antoinette, which she used in the Coppola film.)
