If you want to take a little piece of Paris back with you after your holiday, the city's extensive selection of interior design shops is there to help you give your home that certain je ne sais quoi. From bijou boutiques to modern warehouses, you'll find a mix of styles as eclectic and classy as Paris itself.
Caroline Giraud has a knack for seeing the potential in a pre-loved piece of furniture, and has spent ten years honing her skills. This store/showroom presents pieces that she's sourced while traveling around the world, with many items benefiting from a makeover personally chosen by the owner herself. Dentist's chairs, discarded farm equipment and antique mirrors are buffed, painted, and polished to perfection in this enchanting boutique next to the Charonne metro. Expect to find everything from mid-century office sets to carved wooden trinkets, along with a huge selection of brightly colored throw pillows.
You'll feel as if you've uncovered your own secret garden when you visit Les Mauvaises Graines, or 'The Bad Seeds', a stone's throw from the Chateau Rouge metro station. Headed by David Jeannerot, in this ‘urban gardening’ store you'll find retro motorbikes hiding behind lush shrubs, teacups and saucers dotted in between pot plants, and framed sets of pinned butterflies covering the walls.
A tour around the cavernous Les Ultimes showroom takes in a truly eclectic mix of designs, with whimsical touches like rocking horses and mounted heads adding quirky charm to the mismatched chairs and industrial lamps. Larger pieces include retro mirrors, asymmetric bureaus and polished desks, but if you'd rather bypass shipping costs, pick up a travel-sized memento like a ceramic vase or an old-fashioned atlas.
Sentou's eye-popping colors and edgy objets d'art come straight from an international stable of renowned designers including Claudio Colucci and Isamu Noguchi. You may not walk in thinking you need a wooden cat carved to resemble a bowling pin, but chances are you'll soon be reconsidering. '70s-inspired sofas, minimalist desks and huge geometric standing lamps epitomize the refined style of this store, finding a perfect balance between tradition and modernity. Pick out some designs for yourself in one of the three boutiques conveniently located near our Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan Hotel, Paris Eiffel, or head to the brand's professional showroom in Bastille.
Leave Paris' bustling streets far behind at Monastica, a unique refuge that lives up to its name with both its stock and its tranquil atmosphere. The artisanal items in Monastica are made in the monasteries and nunneries that form the Fraternities of Jerusalem, so you'll find everything from honey and jam to candles and icons here. If you're visiting before Christmas, you can also buy Advent calendars or beautifully carved stone Nativity figurines.
Calling itself a "shop that works like a magazine", the immaculately presented collections of homewares at Merci certainly wouldn't look out of place on a glossy page. Housed in a former wallpaper factory, the store is neatly divided into fashion, beauty, home, and garden, with a charming mixture of vintage and contemporary esthetics from established and emerging designers. The result is a little more bohemian than the classic Parisian style, but it's all put together with such impeccable taste that there's no mistaking its heritage.