French fashion insider Clara Cornet grew up in the quintessential Paris apartment—a traditional Haussmannian home on the city’s west side, with moldings, high ceilings, and a balcony. But like most of us, when it came time to craft her own place, she wanted something different. After spending five years in a loft-style apartment in New York City’s Chinatown, she returned to her native Paris to look for “something less traditional.”

Clara’s book collection sits with a 1972 Tizio table lamp by Richard Sapper that she got from her parents’ house.

Graphic white tiles with black grout add a jolt of pattern to the open kitchen. She fell for a place with an open floor plan, great light, and wooden ceiling beams in the Haut-Marais, a neighborhood in the 10th arrondissement, on the east side of Paris. “There’s a coziness to the architecture. The buildings are more narrow,” she says of the now-very-fashionable district. “They’re not as noble [as the west side] but I find they have as much charm, if not more.”  She and her partner, Luca Pronzato, worked to meld their styles into a space that felt cohesive. “I’m quite eclectic, while he has a much more Nordic approach to interior design,” says Clara. “That’s what makes the place feel special. We complement each other. I go for more eccentric, high in color. He goes for midcentury modern, Scandinavian design.”

“We find the balance between my quirkiness and his neutral Scandinavian style in the coffee table,” says Clara of the 1960s Italian travertine piece they found at Galerie Blanchetti in Paris. In the living room, those two styles meld into one, with funky forms—Michel Ducaroy’s iconic Togo sofa and Pierre Paulin’s Pumpkin chair, both for Ligne Roset—upholstered in sandy hues and a 1960s Italian travertine cocktail table they sourced at Galerie Blanchetti in Paris. Luca’s collection of natural wine bottles decorates a windowsill, while jolts of Clara’s eccentric style find their way into the mix via vessels by emerging ceramist Jessica Hans for Hay and an Ettore Sottsass Tahiti lamp, designed for the Memphis Group in 1981, which Clara received as a gift from friends for her 30th birthday.