Francophiles: You need this book.
Design and architecture enthusiasts, francophiles, lovers of gorgeous books…. get ready for an incredible book that will publish tomorrow. Tell every French Culture Vulture you know. It is dreamy. I was already a Jean-Louis Deniot fan… but wow, his style has even more range than I realized. If I showed you everything I liked, Rizzoli would not be happy with me. Every page of JEAN-LOUIS DENIOT: Interiors is visually stunning, with 250 photographs by Xavier Bejot. Diane Dorrans Saeks will transport you into these wondrous rooms with her elegant prose. 288 pages of design heaven, it is the first ever book devoted to Deniot’s work. This is the kind of book that you want to make an entire day of.
Divided into chapters dedicated to historic houses, residences, and private apartments on the Left Bank, the Right Bank, in the French countryside, with another titled French Projects in America, JEAN-LOUIS DENIOT INTERIORS provides the reader with a detailed look at the Paris-based designer’s sensibility, inspirations, and a dazzling array of his most varied projects.
The book opens with Deniot’s own residence in Paris, and ranges from a jewel-box pied-à-terre overlooking Notre Dame, to his sister and business partner Virginie’s country house in Touraine; from a glittering art-filled Chicago apartment steeped in cool Parisian glamour, to a sunny Paul R. Williams house in Hollywood that is Deniot’s home when work and life bring him to LA. In all, there are eighteen different projects shown in great detail, which will make it clear to the reader why this young designer is spoken of in the same breath as that of greats such as Jacques Grange and Alberto Pinto.
I was transfixed by a home that begins on page 39- located in the sixth arrondissement, across the river form the Louvre, which is owned by an American couple who was smart enough to hire Jean-Louis Deniot. It is said to be one of the most beautiful in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. I believe it; he intelligently blends serious antiques with modern glamor, making his projects look as if they had come together over centuries, not months. He is master of the mix of periods, artists, metals, and points of view.
Then there is the aforementioned Chicago project …(photo above)… WOW. I will fantasize about this home for months now. Deniot gave Chicago a french accent in this 1930’s apartment high above the lake. This slice of heaven begins on page 253, when you get your book. The entry hall is evocative of a mini Hall of Mirrors, the front doors to this residence evoke the feeling of a palatial mansion rather than a high-rise apartment. The details, the textures, the proportions all point to custom detailed luxury like few are equipped to dream of. It is clear that the clients gave Deniot free rein to run with his creative genius.
Then there is his office. OMG. There is a beautiful library type room that is filled with bookshelves, one section is a faux book-filled panel that opens to where his clients’ files are confidentially stored. Down to the details, Deniot exercises intelligence and discretion. I want you readers to get this book so I will have somebody to talk to about it!
Deniot was trained as a contemporary architect,
but finding adequate art and architectural history missing from his curriculum, made it his mission to acquire deep knowledge of both. “I love the purity of modernism but I appreciate also the two previous millennia of architecture. It was so ironic that as a classicist, I felt like a rebel” states Deniot. As an architect, creating a complex and cohesive design means perfecting the interior architecture first. Quite often this entails tearing a room down to its shell in order to perfect its proportions, and this ensures that the interior architecture of Deniot’s rooms are harmonious before he selects a paint color or a piece of fabric.
Deniot’s exceptional projects include contemporary art, antiques, and custom-made furniture. The educated eye, exquisite taste, and knowledge of design history Deniot brings to his work results in interiors that are always comfortable, and though never overly formal or trendy, his rooms are filled with polished glamour and wit.
Throughout the book, readers will find useful information about resources, art, textiles and color, and inspiration for treasures to be found in flea markets, and antique stores. Knowing the reader loves to dream, but also desires practical how-to advice, author Diane Dorrans Saeks has added a chapter titled Inside the Mind and Method of Jean-Louis Deniot in which he details his design philosophy, names his favorite resources, and shares his thoughts on essentials from paint, to fabric, and hardware.
About the Author:
Diane Dorrans Saeks is a noted design lecturer, and the founder of the design and travel blog The Style Saloniste. She met Deniot more than fifteen years ago, when he first started his own design firm.
Jean-Louis Deniot Interiors is Dorrans Saeks’s twenty-second book on design, among them Ann Getty: Interior Style and Michael S. Smith: Elements of Style, both from Rizzoli. A world-traveler who favors trips to previously unvisited destinations, Dorrans Saeks
nevertheless frequently travels to Paris and India for inspiration and research.
“I always want to get as far as possible from the white box. My interiors are about atmosphere, character,
texture, and a sense of harmony…”—
Jean-Louis Deniot
JEAN-LOUIS DENIOT INTERIORS will be the design book must of the year, both for fans of his work and the uninitiated Francophile dreamer looking for inspiration.
©JEAN-LOUIS DENIOT: Interiors by Diane Dorrans Saeks, Rizzoli New York, 2014.
JEAN-LOUIS DENIOT: Interiors
By Diane Dorrans Saeks
Photography by Xavier Béjot
Hardcover /
9” x 11”
/ 288 pages / 250 color and B&W photos
$65.00 U.S., $65.00 Canadian, £
40.00
UK
Rizzoli New York / ISBN: 978-0-847-84332-9
Release date: October 2014
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