Step Inside a Centuries-Old Paris Apartment Defined by Soft Hues and Inviting Textures

Some homes are designed to first appeal to the eye. But for French tech investor Pierre Krings and his wife, fashion entrepreneur Nima, what mattered foremost for their centuries-old apartment on Paris’s Left Bank was how the home feels underfoot. Upon entering the 3,200-square-foot, four-bedroom apartment, redesigned by French designer Pierre Yovanovitch, guests are instructed to remove their shoes—a practice the Kringses adopted during their sojourns in Japan. He sold his company, PriceMinister, to Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten in 2010, and she is the founder of Nimette, a soon-to-launch retail site that will distribute apparel from independent fashion designers from Japan and other countries.

As one moves from the entrance hall’s waxed reclaimed-oak parquet, across the plush abstract Aubusson carpet in the sunny salon, to the cool Delphine Messmer mosaic flooring in the kitchen, the sense of touch is not only stimulated but delighted; it’s pleasure for the sole and the soul. “The goal was to create an environment that is sensual and warm,” Yovanovitch explained, as he stood on the primary bath’s heated marble floor in his stocking feet.

“Especially warm,” barefooted Nima said.

The Kringses called Yovanovitch for the renovation because they wanted someone who would understand how to turn the ancient apartment into a 21st-century home for a family with young children and a taste for contemporary art while maintaining the due reverence for the building’s august history and regal allure. Tucked inside a cobblestone courtyard in the city’s literary Latin Quarter, the building once housed a publisher on the ground floor, and writers lived in the building over the years. “The best known was Théodore de Banville,” a 19th-century Symbolist poet and author, and friend of Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire, Yovanovitch noted.

“This project had all the green lights,” he said. “The owners were supercool: handsome, charming, clever, funny. The building had good vibes, good bones, and a good location. It was what you call a no-brainer.”

Though it did have “some challenges that required creative thought,” Yovanovitch said—mainly that the apartment actually straddles two buildings, one dating from the 17th century and the other built a bit later, which had been united in the late 18th century with a “lovely main staircase,” he said. “We had to contend with the quirks: odd shapes for the bedrooms, split levels, a narrow corridor with steps—a mishmash of structural elements modified over the years, sometimes in a haphazard way.”