All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
French designer Pierre-Marie Agin, known as Pierre Marie, doesn’t take a breath without thinking about making something. One of the youngest designers to create scarves for Hermès, with packaging for Diptyque and tapestries woven at Aubusson’s Manufacture Robert Four also in his portfolio, he is not one to rest on any laurels. Recently, he opened his second exposition at his namesake Parisian gallery.
As he was growing up, there were signs of the design stardom to come. Pierre Marie, the perfect subject, begins at the beginning: “I was born in 1982 near Paris, in a picture-perfect postcard place along the Marne river. It was very impressionist—think Monet,” he says. “I always knew I would live in Paris, and every weekend we went to museums in the city with my parents and saw monuments. This nourished my creative sensibility, I think.” He goes on, “I had a wonderful childhood. Our house really looked like a playground and I started drawing very early. And everything I made went immediately up on the walls!”
When the young creative first came to Paris, he found a tiny, 215-square-foot apartment in the 20th arrondissement. He ended up staying put for eight years—it wasn’t far from both his family just outside Paris and a beloved grandfather who lived nearby, plus he was able to expand and double the living space. Needless to say, Pierre Marie loved it there—”It was full of life,” he remembers—but ultimately, “I needed more space for my clothes!” he bursts out with a laugh.
The apartment hunt began. Pierre Marie wanted to stay in the 20th, but he couldn’t find anything. But when he opened up his search to a wider Paris, he discovered this artist’s studio immediately. “This is the 9th area,” he explains. “This place had soul and it was a blank page.” Pierre Marie didn’t hold back. “I opened up the kitchen, created a passageway between the dining room and the salon, and redid all the floors.” All of this was with the expert help of friends, the architects and designers Yann Le Coadic and Alessandro Scotto of Lecoadic-Scotto, who also worked on his first place. Their working relationship is ideal: “They don’t impose anything,” says Pierre Marie. “This was a real discussion and a real project. What I learned from them is that it is important to work within a context. It’s important to integrate into the location.”
What was once a classic Parisian artist’s studio became a modern space for living, working, and entertaining. In keeping with the original reason for the move, storage was added everywhere. “This was a real love story,” Pierre Marie continues. “I didn’t know this area at all, even though my friend Pierre Banchereau has his florist shop, Debeaulieu, downstairs. I moved in about five years ago and it took ten months of serious work to create the pretty box and then nine months of decoration.” This being Pierre Marie, that means no surface is untouched or unadorned. His hand is on every piece of furniture, every fabric, every window. Running countercurrent to modern design, nothing is white. This is truly the world according to Pierre Marie.
💡 Do It Yourself
In the words of Pierre Marie, “Always start with the floor. Choose a carpet or a floor treatment, then build up from there. Plant your seeds.”
Look out your windows for inspiration. Use the colors you see outside, inside.
Can’t find a wallpaper you like? Wrapping paper is another option. Pierre Marie covered an entire small hallway with a metallic blue gift wrap!
Turn nature finds into art. Remember pressing leaves and flowers as a kid? Pierre Marie still does this every summer, when he collects leaves and blooms from his bike trips around France. He then glues the foliage onto unexpected papers (like that shiny blue wrapping paper) and frames them himself.
Forget a puny cork board. Cover a big stretch of wall in the material for the ultimate inspiration hub. If you’re feeling extra, paint the cork the same color as the walls.
Choose one color for all the technical stuff. Pierre Marie went with a deep brown for the light switches, door handles, and other hardware throughout his apartment to keep things consistent.
Repurpose good packaging. Don’t toss out those pretty boxes your shoes came in! Do like Pierre Marie and use them for storage in your bedroom instead.
🛍 Shop It Out
Architectural Digest may earn a portion of sales revenue from purchases made through affiliate links on our site.
Botticelli glassware by Saint-Louis, from $325, scullyandscully.com
Nantes five-piece silver-plated flatware by Puiforcat, $615, jungleeny.com
Flambeaux et Rubans fabric and Rubans Foullis Fournaise fabric by Pierre Marie for Créations M´étaphores, creations-metaphores.com
La Lampe Gras No 304 L40 wall or ceiling lamp by Bernard-Albin Gras for DCW Editions (in office), $430, lumens.com
Museum storage boxes by Lineco (similar to shown), from $15, dickblick.com
