Jacques Garcia’s Lavish Homes Embody a Surprising Nostalgia

“This will be my last home. I’m reaching the end of my life, and I won’t be moving again.” says Jacques Garcia. The AD100 Hall of Famer stands in his 17th-century apartment, between the building’s courtyard and its garden. It’s a home from a dream, located on Paris’s Left Bank. To understand all of its subtle nuances, however, it’s necessary to travel back in time and follow the path that led Garcia here.

In front of a piano by Thierry Betancourt (Maison Louis Marie Vincent), a work in plaster created as a staircase banister. Above, a painting of a sculpture that is part of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s tomb, created by Michelangelo in the 16th century. In the foreground, an Oeuf armchair by Jean Royère. On the floor, a carpet by Agra.

Beneath an elaborate Louis XVI cornice, a 17th-century tapestry by Chancellerie des Gobelins. In front of the tapestry, a Louis XV gilded-wood Tillard sofa, a Delanois armchair in Duchesse Anne fabric by Tassinari & Chatel, and a coffee table by Céline Chalem.

After a career spanning five decades, French interior designer Jacques Garcia takes a look back at five apartments where he has lived. If these walls could talk, they could recount the evolution of his style and tastes, though they all share some features in common: They are all in Paris and they are all decidedly French. Garcia has had an extended waltz with the city, and this long relationship has often been expressed through priceless antiques. “I’ve always had a passion for them, and the Château du Champ de Bataille [a 17th-century château in Normandy which Garcia purchased in 1992] is a total reflection of that,” he says. The château also embodies the eclectic approach that would characterize much of Garcia’s work as a decorator. His first apartment, in a hôtel particulier in the Marais district, showcases his interpretation of the 1970s but it’s a far cry from the shiny interiors of the time. Garcia preferred instead to cover walls with dark mirrors and create a dialogue between paintings by Yves Klein and Roy Lichtenstein. “I was fascinated by Jean-Michel Frank’s work even when nobody knew who he was,” he continues, referring to his second apartment, which he furnished entirely with works by the designer.

Atop a coffee table by Hélène de Saint Lager, a vase by Eric Schmitt. Next to the sofa, a terracotta piece from Jerusalem that dates from around 3,000 years BCE. In front of the window, a floor lamp by Charles de Vilmorin. On the left, a Louis XIV carpet screen and a Louis Delanois seat upholstered with fabric from Le Manach. The light fixture hanging from the ceiling light is a design by Garcia for the new official and VIP reception rooms at Roissy CDG.

Around a bronze table by Garcia, chairs by Garouste & Bonetti. On the walls, surrealist works and, above, an 18th-century crystal chandelier. At the rear of the photo, in a bedroom, a bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon of the French revolutionary politician Antoine Barnave sits atop a chest of drawers from Versailles. Above, a painting by John Armleder.

The apartment once belonged to Jules Hardouin-Mansart, architect to Louis XIV, and Garcia’s interiors are a clever reflection on the relationship between kings and their mistresses. “I’ve always had a fascination with big clients, and big clients are often women. The greatest were often the mistresses of kings,” he says with a smile. The result is a Louis XIV interior with extraordinary panache. Later, with his apartment at the Palais Royal, the change in environments was radical. There, Garcia created a futuristic apartment—like something from the 2050s, he says—with a ceiling painted in Klein blue and lead fixtures placed like planets in the sky. Garcia combined this personal solar system with silver wooden doors and a bronze floor and walls with a noticeable patina.

“I was very attached to my fourth home, because it was designed by the neoclassical architects Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine,” Garcia says. He explains that he likes to mix Empire-style items with more contemporary pieces. “I’ve been called a backward-looking person, but the truth is that I’m nostalgic for a future created from the past.” And what about his fifth and final home? Garcia describes it as a distillation of the spirit reflected in his previous homes. “It’s all there. Diverse influences, modern paintings, historical furniture, and a convivial atmosphere—that’s my character. I like comfortable homes where it’s easy to entertain. I like houses with beautiful light. This is what I put into practice everywhere, whatever the era or genre,” he tells me as we ascend a sumptuous grand staircase that looks exactly like the one found in his first home.

Under the oil painting View of Tivoli by Hubert Robert, two chairs by Garouste & Bonetti. Atop an 18th-century lacquered corner unit, a vase by Hubert Le Gall.

In front of a window, an antique sculpture and, on both sides of it, Jacob chairs created for Madame Elisabeth.

The apartment unfolds with the splendor of a small palace in the heart of Paris. With the first two rooms having been stripped of their original decor, Garcia reinvented them. “The idea behind the rooms is simple,” he continues as he enters the first room: “First of all, they are mixtures.” Pieces from the 16th century sit next to more modern ones from the 20th century: Three important works from the 1920s and 1940s coexist with an effortless style. Continuing on, in the petit salon, the spirit of Louis XV and the 18th-century furniture maker Louis Delanois, whose clients included Madame du Barry and the King of Poland, lives on. As Coco Chanel famously said, “I can’t be the queen of fashion. Fashion changes, style endures.” Garcia’s response to that idea is to adopt a certain attitude that leads to his timeless eclecticism.

Eclecticism is, for Garcia, a fundamental mode of expression which is increasingly rare these days. This apartment is the essence of that approach with an openness to every style and aesthetic. “It includes a taste for both the heavy and the light, the historic and the minimal,” Garcia, who is an undisputed master of jumping between different looks, says. “Let’s create something very personal that many people will probably not like, and then not worry about what they may think. Let’s be happy with something that suits us and that we want to share with others,” the interior designer who has fearlessly combined different eras and trends says. He then shares how much he admires the decorator Henri Samuel who is said to have almost died falling from a stepladder late in his life while he was hanging curtains in the Wrightsman Galleries at New York City’s Met. “Twenty years ago, I laughed about it, saying that I didn’t want to end up like Henri Samuel. Today, I tell myself that I may be headed that way,” concludes Jacques Garcia, with a smile.

This story was originally published by AD France. It was translated by John Newton.