Live Like an 18th-Century Aristocrat in This Wildly Decorated Parisian Apartment

Listing of the Day

Location: Paris

Price: €4.2 million (US$4.49 million)

This Rue de Rivoli home in the heart of Paris’s 1st Arrondissement comes with some serious design cachet: For one, it was one of the first major projects of notable French interior designer Didier Rabes, according to listing agent Paola Feau.

While an apartment, the four-level home is large enough to feel like a detached house, and Rabes decorated it lavishly to evoke an 18th-century chateau, complete with chandeliers, mirrored ceilings, Versailles-style parquet flooring and stucco imitation sculptures.

A wrought iron stairway connects the home’s four floors, while a lift also connects the three main floors.
Sébastien Dondain

Most of the building dates to the mid-19th century, though there are some remnants of the older Directoire style with its Neoclassical architectural forms, which were popular in the late 1700s, according to Feau.

This particular residence in the building also has the legacy of being the couture workshop of designer Madeleine Vionnet during the early 20th century, Feau said. It was later transformed into a private home, and with recent renovations, it boasts both a distinctive period atmosphere and modern comforts such as an elevator and a large modern kitchen.

Stats

The 3,207-square-foot apartment has four bedrooms with three full bathrooms and two half bathrooms. The apartment is spread over four floors including a lower ground floor, and is entered on the ground floor of the building.

Amenities

The home boasts a lift that goes between its three main floors, as well as a home office, and a 300-square-foot paved courtyard on the second floor that two of the bedroom suites open onto.

A separate, renovated apartment on the second floor connects to the main house, and can be accessed by both an interior staircase from the main house or through the building’s common areas. With two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen, “the apartment could be kept completely separate and rented or used for guests, or it could be used as an extension of the main house,” Feau said. “This little apartment has been fully renovated in a completely modern style, in contrast to the 18th-century-style main house.”

Neighbourhood Notes

Sitting right on the expansive Tuileries Garden, a 17th-century formal garden filled with statues, including 18 bronzes by Aristide Maillol, the location is also within a few minutes’ walk of the Louvre, Place Vendôme and Place de la Concorde, as well as the Jardin des Champs-Élysées.

“It’s one of the best areas in Paris,” Feau said. “It’s very, very central, with all the finest restaurants, fashion and jewellery boutiques and hotels, including Hotel Le Meurice and the Ritz.”

The Place Vendôme has historically been the home of many famous dress designers, with the stores of the couturier Chéruit and the shirtmaker Charvet still in situ.

Agent : Paola Feau, Daniel Feau and Luxury Portfolio International

In Sydney’s Northern Beaches, there are plenty of homes with a multimillion-dollar view and an enviable position close to the sand.

This unique listing has all that, but it has also earned its page in the local history books.

After 50 years in the same hands, The Palladium in Palm Beach—once a famed dance hall, then a restaurant, a private residence, and an artists’ studio—is now back on the market with a price hopes of $13.5 million through BJ Edwards and David Edwards of LJ Hooker Palm Beach.

Positioned in a rare corner spot where Ocean Rd meets Palm Beach Rd, The Palladium has been front and centre observing the famous sandy stretch for almost a century.

Built in the early 1930s, the Art Deco building was originally conceived as a vibrant community dance hall; the “it” place to be for young folk during Sydney’s thriving interwar period.

Often the dances were held to raise money for the Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club, and newspaper reports of the time told of rowdy parties lasting until the early hours, bootleg liquor arrests, and where shorts and sandals—or even pyjamas—were scandalously worn by “both sexes”.

Over the decades, The Palladium has worn many hats.

By 1943, the original owner, Joseph Henry Graham, had defaulted on his loan, and a mortgagee sale reportedly sold the building for £1550, which translates to about $137,000 today. It later became a dining space and a general store run by the Milton family. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the property was also home to the Blue Pacific Restaurant.

The current owners acquired the keys in 1976 when it began its next chapter as a creative hub. One of today’s vendors, filmmaker David Elfick, who has been a filmmaker and producer on such films as Newsfront and Rabbit-Proof Fence, has told stories of a free-spirited creative hub that has been used for film sets, to store numerous movie props, as editing rooms, to hold countless parties and has even hosted visiting members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

From its famed beachside soirees to its grassroots film club nights, the venue has become woven into the cultural fabric of Palm Beach.

Today, that rich history has been reimagined into a coastal home that honours its past while embracing contemporary beachside living.

Built in a unique architectural style known as streamline moderne, the aeroplane hangar-like building reflects the era’s fascination with air travel, mass transport, and modernity. The facade is defined by a sweeping curved roofline and subtle nautical cues.

The main residence features a vast central living space framed by a number of bedrooms and sunrooms, as well as a front dining room and kitchen. In total, there are four to five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a powder room adjoining an upstairs loft space.

Big, broad windows draw in loads of natural light and provide iconic views, plus the sounds of the beach just across the road.

Many of the original elements remain, most fittingly the polished floors of the former dance hall. In the additional building at the back of the block, there is a separate, self-contained studio with its own bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and laundry. From its elevated deck, the outlook stretches across the full sweep of Palm Beach.

Outside, the expansive 1151sq m land parcel also features established gardens with veggie patches and standalone decks for quiet contemplation.

Sitting just across the road from the beach, the property is also within walking distance of local cafes and the surf club. Palm Beach Rock Pool is at one end of the beach, with the Palm Beach Golf Club and the water airport at the other end of the peninsula.

The Palladium and Palm Beach Studio at 16 Ocean Rd, Palm Beach are listed with BJ Edwards and David Edwards of LJ Hooker Palm Beach via a private treaty campaign with a price guide of $13.5 million.

Live Like an 18th-Century Aristocrat in This Wildly Decorated Parisian Apartment

The four-bedroom home is decorated lavishly, complete with chandeliers, mirrored ceilings, Versailles-style parquet flooring and stucco imitation sculptures

After half a century in the same hands, The Palladium blends Art Deco heritage, cinematic history and beachfront living in one extraordinary offering.