This 1,200-square-foot apartment in Paris’s 7th arrondissement was not an obvious choice for its owners, a Swiss-American couple looking for a pied-à-terre in the French capital. It had been a medical office for many years, which resulted in a strange layout that felt far from residential. But designers Laurent Champeau and Kelli Wilde of Champeau & Wilde, who participated in the house hunt, saw potential right away. “There was something special about this place, so we pushed them to get it,” recalls Champeau.“The light was fantastic and it had a terrace, which is kind of unusual in Paris.”

The location on the Carré des Antiquaires, a beautiful section of the Left Bank laden with prestigious antiques dealers, didn’t hurt either. Once the designers were done refurbishing the apartment, tearing down walls to create two bedrooms with en suite bathrooms and a spacious living area connected to the kitchen via a double-sided fireplace—a layout that is known in France as an enfilade, or a series of aligned rooms—they scanned the surrounding streets in search of one-of-a-kind furniture pieces.

Statuary marble from Italy, known for its dramatic gray veining, covers the floors and the top of the custom his-and-hers vanity in the master bathroom. “This kind of marble can be quite cold if you mix it with, say, stainless steel,” explains Champeau. “But combined with the golden tones of the brass details seen here, it creates a rather warm environment.”

For the parlor, which is anchored by a velvety pomegranate sofa designed by Champeau, they picked a 1970s coffee table by Belgian designer Marc d’Haenens: a cool, brassy piece whose sharp angles act as a counterpoint to the sofa’s soft curves. The adjacent dining section flaunts a striking bronze-and-glass table by Fred Brouard, also dating back to the early ’70s. “I’d never seen one so pretty,” says Wilde of the Frenchman’s famed designs. “We found it walking from one job site to the next; it was a real stroke of luck.” The table was paired with vintage Scandinavian chairs found at the Saint Ouen Flea Market and reupholstered in beige sheepskin.

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While many of the home’s furnishings are from the ’60s and ’70s, or custom-made in a style that nods to bygone decades, the atmosphere is contemporary and vibrant, filled with bold shapes, glossy finishes, and occasional pops of color. “We wanted to create something elegant but also dynamic,” says Wilde. “Our style is a blend of modern and classical references.”