An alpine living room lined floor to ceiling in warm timber, its beamed ceiling stained soft terracotta. A tapered rough-plaster fireplace anchors curved cream bouclé seating and two sculptural pine chairs with carved anthropomorphic backs, gathered on a rug bordered in deep red. A large abstract canvas in blues brings coolness to the wood.

Eighteen Interiors: Pierre Yovanovitch's New Monograph Reads as a Personal Manifesto

Words by Eric David

Good interior designers make spaces that are pleasing to be in and sensible to use, answering the brief and honouring the sensibility of the place. Great ones do all of that while sidestepping convention, fashionable trends and the well-worn tropes of the trade, creating characterful spaces with a recognisable point of view. Pierre Yovanovitch belongs to the second category, and his new book Eighteen Interiors artfully makes the case. Published by Rizzoli this September, this is the French designer's second monograph, following Interior Architecture (2019).

As its title suggests, the book gathers eighteen recent projects, from Paris, London and New York to Istanbul and the Swiss Alps, that showcase his talent for boldly blending contemporary and period registers with subtle theatricality, always adapted to place and client. Released to mark the anniversary of his agency, the book also includes a foreword by the filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, an opening essay by historian and former Met curator Jared Goss, and a three-way conversation between the broadcaster Claire Chazal, Yovanovitch, and the conductor Daniel Harding on the affinities between architecture and music.

A curved-plan Parisian salon in buttery cream, its rounded ceiling following the wall's sweep. A biomorphic oak coffee table on cylindrical legs sits on a pale rug before a minimal plaster fireplace, paired with a solid oak-framed lounge chair, a slim brass floor lamp and curved bouclé seating. A single dahlia softens the restraint.

Project Trocadéro. Private residence, Paris, France. 2024. Photography by Giulio Ghirardi.

The book cover of Pierre Yovanovitch: Eighteen Interiors, published by Rizzoli, set on a muted terracotta linen ground. The cover image shows an alpine living room with timber-clad walls and ceiling, a sculptural rounded plaster fireplace, a curved built-in banquette in oatmeal bouclé, a branching orb chandelier, and a sweeping timber staircase.

Pierre Yovanovitch, Eighteen Interiors (English cover). Photography by Giulio Ghirardi.

Lightened oak panelling meets a soft salmon-pink ceiling with ornate moulded cornicing in this dining room. A large arched mandala-like artwork anchors the panelled wall between alabaster sconces, above curved banquettes, mustard velvet armchairs and pale timber tables. A glazed vegetal sculpture rests in a panelled niche, warming the composition.

Hélène Darroze at The Connaught. London, UK. 2019. Photography by Jérôme Galland.

Fixated from childhood on the aesthetics of houses and the comfort of being surrounded by beautiful things, Yovanovitch began his career in 1990 designing menswear for Pierre Cardin, turning to interiors under his own name in 2001. The pivot was less dramatic than it sounds, since design in any field is finally a matter of problem-solving, of marrying form, material and technique to creative instinct. Being a self-taught interior designer has left him a certain freedom in a profession that remains essentially intuitive.

To understand what Yovanovitch does, it helps to reach for a French word that has fallen out of common use. As Goss explains, he is an ensemblier: a maker of complete, coherent interiors in which everything from the architectural shell to the smallest fitting is designed or commissioned rather than assembled from what already exists. It is a fundamentally different discipline from the far more common practice of furnishing a room by gathering objects from various sources, and it was the governing principle of the great French Art Deco figures whose monographs first captivated Yovanovitch in the 1980s and whose influence can still be traced through his work.

A dining room where intricate marquetry parquet meets pale panelled walls and a slender antique glass-and-brass chandelier. A blue-washed oak pedestal table with wire-frame Italian chairs sits between two contemporary canvases and a copper-toned inset fireplace, the restrained shell letting the art and the floor carry the drama.

Project Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Private Residence, Paris, France. 2020. Photography by François Halard.

A panelled Parisian study in soft cream, where a gilt-framed antique portrait of a young man hangs against restored boiserie. A kidney-shaped cerused oak desk on a bronze base pairs with a black leather swivel chair, a perforated crimson articulated lamp and honey-gold curtains, over herringbone parquet.

Project Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Private Residence, Paris, France. 2020. Photography by François Halard.

A panelled library in warm limed oak, its shelves set against deep teal and filled with bound volumes. A grand piano in figured walnut occupies the foreground, while two bouclé and cream armchairs, a dark organic side table and a dusky-pink rug gather at a green marble fireplace beneath framed contemporary works.

Project Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Private Residence, Paris, France. 2020. Photography by François Halard.

An alpine living room lined floor to ceiling in warm timber, its beamed ceiling stained soft terracotta. A tapered rough-plaster fireplace anchors curved cream bouclé seating and two sculptural pine chairs with carved anthropomorphic backs, gathered on a rug bordered in deep red. A large abstract canvas in blues brings coolness to the wood.

Project Suvretta. Private residence, Saint Moritz, Switzerland. Photography by Giulio Ghirardi.

A Parisian entrance hall in warm plaster, its ceiling carved with a soft petal-like relief. A large portrait of a seated figure in white hangs above a green-upholstered bench, mirrored opposite, while an amber cast-glass door glows within an arched reveal. Herringbone parquet in dark oak grounds the composition.

Project Quartier Latin. Private residence, Paris, France. 2022. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson.

Like the Art Deco ensembliers before him, Yovanovitch relies on a network of collaborators. His Paris and New York operations now encompass more than 120 people across architecture, interiors, furniture making, production and upholstery, translating his concepts into contemporary "total works of art". When not designing furnishings in-house, he collaborates with artisans and craftsmen on site-specific installations and bespoke furniture, and sources vintage pieces and antiques. A committed art collector himself, Yovanovitch also works with both established and emerging artists, incorporating art into every one of his projects.

Although he is a modern designer of interiors, Yovanovitch is not a modernist, Goss points out, noting that modernism implies a rejection of the past, whereas here the past is deeply respected and visibly present. The result is an aesthetic that is contemporary in look and timeless in feeling. Known for his sculptural command of volume, evocative use of colour and assured sense of proportion, Yovanovitch brings a haute-couture sensibility of understated grandeur and graceful simplicity to interiors defined by unpretentious sophistication and tempered luxury.

A study corner turns on a sculptural white-plaster fireplace with a rounded hearth seat, its textured surface rising like a chimney. A cerused oak table and blue-upholstered timber chairs sit on a pale rug, beside a lacquer-red bookcase. A domed brass lamp and a glimpsed blue-grey further room complete the palette.

Project Quartier Latin. Private residence, Paris, France. 2022. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson.

A living room in soft limewashed plaster, where a low custom banquette upholstered in a striped ombré weave of coral, ochre and grey sits beneath an expressionistic canvas in red and green, flanked by green ceramic sconces. Two rounded stone-toned side tables and an arched niche holding a carved figure complete the scheme.

Project Quartier Latin. Private residence, Paris, France. 2022. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson.

A Parisian living room where a chartreuse-lacquered ceiling crowns walls of gridded cream leather panels. A carved stone fireplace anchors a curved mustard sofa, a rounded ivory bouclé chair and two turned-walnut stools. A boldly polychrome-edged cocktail table and a slim sculptural object animate the pale, tactile envelope.

Project Trocadéro. Private residence, Paris, France. 2024. Photography by Giulio Ghirardi.

The book’s eighteen projects demonstrate both the consistency of this design language and its elasticity. In a Quartier Latin apartment in Paris, recurring arches and rounded furniture soften a gallery-like interior, while commissioned stained glass, frescoes and a sculptural fireplace lend an artisanal dimension. In another Parisian apartment, in Trocadéro, a buttery-soft palette, clean lines and material honesty reinterpret French modernism. In Suvretta, Saint Moritz, Alpine vernacular is filtered through a contemporary lens: timber-lined volumes meet rough-hewn stone fireplaces, voluptuous textiles and contemporary art, while a red-lacquered helical staircase forms the chalet’s spatial backbone. On the Bosphorus, curved walls, a waved timber ceiling and another signature spiral staircase translate the movement of the water into architecture. Across these homes, bespoke furniture, vintage pieces and contemporary art form part of a tightly orchestrated ensemble.

A concealed oak bookcase door swings open from a curved library, its shelves dense with art and design monographs, revealing a pale sitting room beyond hung with a framed drawing of two birds. Overhead, a boldly striped multicolour ceiling curves through in ribbons of blue, coral and ochre. Fluted timber panelling lines the wall.

Project Trocadéro. Private residence, Paris, France. 2024. Photography by Giulio Ghirardi.

  • Framed by a doorway of warm taupe plaster, a study opens onto the Bosphorus through full-height glazing. A kidney-shaped desk with rounded black-lacquer drawer stacks pairs with a vintage wooden armchair, apparently a Pierre Jeanneret Chandigarh piece, and a slim domed table lamp. The angled ceiling and sand-toned rug soften the waterside light.

    Project Istanbul. Private residence, Istanbul, Turkey. 2024. Photography by Giulio Ghirardi.

  • A sculptural helical staircase rises as a single sweeping gesture of pale plaster, its ribbon-like balustrade curling beneath a circular oculus cut into a timber-lined ceiling. Speckled grey terrazzo treads and floor ground the composition, the warm oak surround setting off the stair's smooth, luminous white form.

    Project Istanbul. Private residence, Istanbul, Turkey. 2024. Photography by Giulio Ghirardi.

  • Seen through a sliding glass threshold, a serene sitting area unfolds in pale oak and cream, where two rounded mustard-toned armchairs and a balloon-shaped floor lamp gather on a circular ridged rug. A timber-clad soffit, a slender charcoal column and sheer curtains frame the transition between deck and interior.

    Project Istanbul. Private residence, Istanbul, Turkey. 2024. Photography by Giulio Ghirardi.

A double-height living room under a sculpted vault and dormer, opening through white French doors to clipped hedges and a stone terrace. Solid pine armchairs and a matching sofa gather around a cerused oak coffee table on grey-green carpet, with a rug-topped side table and a bronze swimsuit sculpture bringing a note of wit.

Project Lasata. Private residence, East Hampton, USA. 2022. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson.

A vaulted sitting room in oatmeal and mustard, where a bespoke L-shaped oak banquette in ochre linen wraps a corner beneath arched casement windows framing autumn foliage. A perforated brass ceiling light, a conical woven floor lamp, a leather block stool and a solid pine rocking chair layer craft against pale carpet.

Project Lasata. Private residence, East Hampton, USA. 2022. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson.

An opera set bathed in deep crimson, where a sweeping concentric wall curls around a raised circular stage. A cobalt-blue curved volume anchors the centre, split by a slim glowing red doorway, while a staircase descends at the right. Sculptural light and saturated colour translate the drama into pure spatial geometry.

Set design, Rigoletto at Theater Basel, Switzerland. 2023. Photography by Paolo Abate.

Although domestic interiors remain the core of his practice, Yovanovitch has increasingly moved into exhibitions, showrooms and stage design, temporary formats that give him licence to experiment and bring his work before wider audiences. For Verdi’s Rigoletto at Theater Basel in 2023, his first opera set, curved, concentric walls tightened as the drama intensified, translating the protagonist’s deteriorating circumstances into spatial movement. Bold colour, sculptural geometry and controlled lighting carried familiar Yovanovitch signatures, but theatre offered something residential work rarely permits: as he puts it, “a kind of excess”.

A circular tasting room wrapped entirely in fluted, mirror-polished metal that ripples with warm reflected light beneath a terracotta ceiling. An oval illuminated table on a timber pedestal sits at the centre, ringed by rounded-back chairs in rust-red. Veined breccia marble flooring grounds the burnished, cocoon-like drama.

Vignobles Austruy. Showroom, Paris, France. 2020. Photography by Jérôme Galland.

Two concentric rounded archways frame a receding enfilade in soft blush and apricot plaster, drawing the eye towards a spotlit portrait of a figure in a pale blue dress against a green ground. Track lighting, russet carpet and warm gallery tones lend the exhibition scenography a quiet, processional intimacy.

Exhibition view, Au delà des Apparences, Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland. 2025. Photography by Dylan Perrenoud.

A curved terracotta-orange gallery wall sweeps beneath a vast circular skylight, its warm tone set against ochre carpet and deep aubergine reveals. A single black-and-white portrait of three seated women hangs spotlit at centre, while framed openings reveal further rooms and hung artworks beyond, layering the exhibition scenography in receding planes.

Exhibition view, Au delà des Apparences, Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland. 2025. Photography by Dylan Perrenoud.

Eighteen Interiors ultimately makes clear that Yovanovitch’s distinctiveness lies not in a fixed style but in a way of thinking about the whole. His reverence for precedent never overwhelms the present, just as his signature never overwhelms the client, architecture or setting. Luca Guadagnino locates his greatness in the “extraordinary evocative power” he instils in spaces; Goss sees him keeping the spirit of the French ensemblier alive for the twenty-first century. Described by Yovanovitch as “a personal manifesto”, the book is less a retrospective than a statement of how he thinks, works and continues to evolve.

A blush-pink room lit through geometric glass-block ceiling panels, where a curved timber-backed sofa in deep green sits beneath a large canvas of two facing profiles in lilac and orange. A gnarled bronze totem on a plinth, a round oak table and built-in plaster benches complete the softly Mediterranean, gallery-like composition.

Exhibition view, Les Nuits d'Été at Villa Noailles, Hyères, France. 2023. Photography by Paolo Abate.