Paulin Furniture at Ligne Roset

The late, great Pierre Paulin’s visionary furniture designs for French president Georges Pompidou at the Elysée Palace, between 1971–74, haven’t taken on a wrinkle, as Ligne Roset’s latest editions of his Elysée seating demonstrate. Within the semicircular shape of the Palace’s smoking room/library, which dates from the days of Napoleon III, Paulin created a tented room in an oatmeal-colored fabric that made the space contemporary by masking the decorative Second Empire grandeur. He then used the semicircular motif to furnish it with timeless half-moon-shaped settees, armchairs and ottomans, also upholstered in oatmeal fabrics. Ligne Roset’s new pieces are true to the original design, but come with heightened comfort in vivid-hued velvets. www.ligneroset.fr

Originally published in the May 2012 issue of France Today