MAGAZINE
Interiors without Rules. Maison&Objet and Paris Design Week 2026
From wax lighting and experimental ceramics to private apartments opening their doors to the public, this September in Paris made one thing increasingly clear: individuality is becoming more important than trends.
Twice a year, Paris turns into a vast laboratory for design. The programme brings together two complementary events: Maison&Objet, traditionally held at the Paris Nord Villepinte exhibition centre, and Paris Design Week, which moves beyond the fairgrounds into galleries, showrooms and historic spaces across the city. Paris-based interior designer Maria Beregovoy visited both and shares her impressions and observations.
Maison&Objet Pulse: A New Generation Sets the Tone
This September, Maison&Objet adopted the theme Pulse, shifting attention towards emerging designers, experiments with materials, new technologies and new ways of looking at familiar objects. Rather than promoting a single aesthetic direction, the fair felt like an ode to individuality. Interiors can be different – just like the people they are designed for.
One of the fair’s most visible projects was Design District, artistically directed by the French collective Hall Haus. It brought together a younger generation of designers and practices in which cultural references, craft and contemporary production methods meet.
The Future On Stage programme offered another concise snapshot of this experimental mood. Baguette Studio presented lighting made from plant-based and beeswax materials, using a rotational moulding process developed by the studio. The result turns the natural translucency and irregularity of wax into part of the light itself.
The Rising Talent Awards turned the spotlight on South Africa. Among the designers presented, Meetlo stood out for work that combines wood with precise metal inlays, giving familiar furniture forms a distinctly graphic character.
Across the fair, ceramics also moved far beyond the role of a decorative accessory. Sculptural, irregular and deliberately tactile pieces were treated as autonomous objects – sometimes functional, sometimes closer to collectible design.
Paris Design Week: From Exhibition Stand to Real Interior
If Maison&Objet offered a concentrated view of new materials, objects and emerging ideas, Paris Design Week showed how those ideas can live inside real architecture. One of the most interesting formats was the Appartements route, which opened private residences and gallery-like homes to visitors and allowed furniture, art and craft to be seen in context rather than on a stand.
House of Cassandre
House of Cassandre proposed a softer and more sensory approach to contemporary design. Natural materials, craft, ceramics, textiles and objects were brought together without the need for a rigid stylistic formula. The result was less about a trend and more about atmosphere, tactility and the personality of the space.
Franck Genser
Franck Genser’s apartment offered a very different experience. Genser knew Yves Saint Laurent and later acquired an apartment that had belonged to Saint Laurent’s psychoanalyst. Objects given by Yves Saint Laurent remained part of the story of the place. Today the apartment functions both as a residence and as a gallery-like setting for Genser’s own furniture, lighting and collected works – a space where personal history and contemporary design overlap.
Fleur Delesalle
Fleur Delesalle’s interior demonstrated how confidently colour can be used when the architecture remains calm. Sculptural furniture, saturated accents and expressive objects coexist with the apartment’s classical Parisian shell. The contrast is deliberate: heritage is not imitated, but used as a backdrop for a very contemporary collection.
Pendhapa
At Pendhapa, the emphasis shifted towards material richness and craftsmanship. Marquetry, stone, textiles and strongly shaped furniture were combined with colour in a way that felt decorative without becoming nostalgic. The interior showed how traditional techniques can be made relevant through scale, proportion and unexpected combinations.
Laclaux
Laclaux offered perhaps the most playful interpretation of the apartment format. Classical mouldings and parquet floors were paired with contemporary furniture, strong colour and highly crafted surfaces. The dialogue between the historic envelope and new collectible pieces made the rooms feel personal rather than staged.
Small details mattered just as much as the larger pieces: ceramic flowers, pomegranates, irises and other almost surreal decorative objects appeared throughout the rooms. They worked as punctuation marks, reinforcing the idea that an interior gains character through specific, sometimes eccentric choices.
So What Has Actually Changed?
The strongest conclusion from Maison&Objet and Paris Design Week was not the arrival of one dominant trend. Quite the opposite. The most convincing projects resisted standardisation and relied on a mix of personal references, craft, colour, unusual materials, collectible objects and existing architecture.
The contemporary interior no longer has to conform to a single aesthetic model. It can be restrained or exuberant, historic or experimental, highly crafted or deliberately simple. What matters is coherence of intention – and the feeling that the space belongs to a particular person rather than to an algorithm of trends.
Design is becoming less about following rules – and more about creating a world of your own.
A word from the designer
Maria Beregovoy is a Paris-based interior designer and stylist. She studied at the International Design School in Moscow and has worked in interior design since 2015.
Maria’s Definition of Good Interior Design:
Personal, authentic and distinctive.
A good interior becomes a portrait of its owner, reflecting their character and interests. It should feel individual and free from overused or formulaic solutions.
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