Interior of L' Hotel La Maison Champs Elysees photo courtesy of Maison Martin Margiela

Maison Martin Margiela has been entrusted with its first hotel collaboration and is rethinking the interior design of hotel ‘la Maison Champs-Elysées’, which is located within the historical building of the Maison des Centraliens.  The hotel ‘La Maison Champs-Elysées’ consists of two buildings, one dating from the Second Empire under Napoleon III, the other built more recently. Maison Martin Margiela has been appointed the historical part of the building and has re-thought this space to create  seventeen rooms out of the existing 57, a restaurant, a smoking room, a bar and a reception area.  Situated between Avenue Montaigne and the Grand Palais the hotel is slated to relaunch in July 2011.

The Reception Hall
The floor is made up of Mareuil limestone flagstones with black slate insets randomly scattered as if by the wind. The reception area in the shape of a mirrored prism is in the centre of this hall. This huge diamond gives an impression of infinite space. There are many wall lamps in brushed stainless steel on the white walls, which light up the outlines of missing paintings.
The Essling Bar
The floor and ceiling match each other by using a divided- up effect in black and white trompe-l’oeil. A wool carpet on the floor is printed with a classical-style French ceiling design while the ceiling is decorated with wallpaper printed with the same design. Traditional French panelling, coloured off-white, covers the walls, which themselves show traces of a past which never existed and where only the outlines of paintings and lighting remain.
Smoking Room/ Cigar Cellar
The Smoking room is like a negative of the bar- white becomes black. Black is dominant and club armchairs in dark brown leather are grouped around small, low cube-shaped tables made of mirrors which give this room an authentic English gentlemen’s club style. Traditional French panelling and parquet stained in black oak are literally burnt which creates the impression of disaster.
Restaurant – 80 covers
The restaurant plays on the contrasts of materials and sensations: Flooring in waxed concrete and walls in formed concrete contrast with light, delicate furniture. Square tables and arm chairs in white cotton loose covers placed on a dull metal pedestal create an illusion of floating, bringing a note of surrealism to the place. The seating is entirely classical mixing Louis XV ‘Bergères’, Louis XVI Salon chairs, Louis XV Lyre Back chairs and Louis XVI Medallion Back chairs. nThe background shows classical French wooden doors, but supersized. The mouldings, locks and casement bolts also emphasise the supersize theme. Three canvases stretched on the ceiling continue the theme of three classical distressed ceilings. Alcoves made mainly of silver birch printed with endless black and white classical cubes scattered on the walls. The restaurant offers a view of a green living wall through a glass screen and access the garden.
Corridor/Passageway
After the reception hall, access to the restaurant and lifts is through a long corridor covered in wall-paper made from black and white photographs of the ‘golden salon’ on the second floor. A wool runner, printed with English-style parquet in black and white is laid on the waxed concrete flooring. Three ‘Montgolfier’ chandeliers with steel and crystal pendants have been deliberately mottled to age them. The left partition wall in this corridor is made up of moveable panels on hinges, which form a visual filter between the corridor and the restaurant. They are printed with trompe-l’oeil on one side and on the other side stretched fabric lit from behind.
The Antin Hall
This hall is situated behind the hotel. It provides access to a passageway leading to the garden and to the upper floors via the lifts. The walls and ceiling are entirely covered in aluminium sheets, applied by hand. The flooring is made up of big, silver, ceramic tiles. The lighting comes from a chandelier in the shape of a faceted diamond.
Suites

Three suites with unfinished mouldings
These three suites with wood mouldings endlessly interrupted, like an unfinished work, or work in progress, offer a monochrome painting in white from very pale grey to light beige. The salon and bedroom are separated by a huge central space with sliding partitions to provide a complete or partial separation of the space. The ceiling is optical white and the fitted wool carpet is in very light beige. The bathrooms are entirely made of vitreous enamel mosaic tiles. A mirror lit by a set of bulbs, like an artist’s dressing room, has been placed above a huge double basin in white stoneware. A large bath and an Italian-style walk-in shower complete the room.
The ‘Golden Salon’ suite
The walls are entirely covered in wallpaper made from black and white photographs taken of the golden salon on the second floor. The net curtains are printed with these same patterns. In this way, the perspectives and richness in decoration of the Second Empire style (Napoleon III) are reproduced as trompe-l’oeil on the fittings and furniture in the suite A huge library mural full of various books is put up over the bed head in the bedroom. The conveniences with all four walls covered with sections of different editions of magazines, continue this library theme. The flooring is English-style parquet in aged oak. The bathroom is entirely made of vitreous enamel mosaic tiles.
The ‘Closet of Rarities’ suite
Black is overwhelmingly present in this suite. The walls are painted coal black and the English-style oak parquet is stained black. An entire wall of the salon is devoted to a closet of rarities displaying various objects and works of art. The curtains are fashioned from black wool cloth with fine pinstripes reminiscent of the traditional fabric for a gentleman’s suit. The bathroom is done in mosaic tiles.
The ‘loose covers in white’ suite
Paintings, objects and furniture and fittings from the entrance are meticulously covered in white loose covers. In the salon and bedroom the upper part of the white walls differs from the lower part. The foot of the classical Haussmann walls with picture rails, frames and plinth contrast with the upper part made with wide panels of stretched white cotton. A set of bulbs in phosphorescent gypsum from the Urals frame a large mirror on the bedroom ceiling and illuminate the night. The flooring is English-style parquet in aged oak. In the bathroom the installation of white tiling with black pointing hints at a graph paper effect.

interior of L' Hotel La Maison Champs Elysees photo courtesy of Maison Martin Margiela

Published 30.06.2011