Rosalie, a new hotel in Paris designed by Marion Mailaender

On a discreet street, a short stroll from the bustling Place d’Italie, lies a secluded courtyard. The tall iron gate at 8 bis avenue de la Soeur Rosalie opens onto a hidden oasis that gently hums with life: Hotel Rosalie.

The decoration for Hotel Rosalie sixty rooms shakes up the average Parisian 4-star standard. Architect and designer Marion Mailaender previously imprinted her bold aesthetic with a twist onto the Tuba Club’s cabins in Marseille (a favourite of mine!), and the first store of accessory designer Amélie Pichard. With Hotel Rosalie, Mailaender has grasped the urban, manmade vibe of the 13th arrondissement, playing on our post-industrial aesthetic and the desire to invite nature in.

Mailaender has crafted her decor with intentional ambivalence, juxtaposing marble and old stone with industrial materials, chic design and items from gardening catalogues. She commissioned Maison Thevenon to make a clover-patterned, pop art fabric to cover lobby armchairs and couches, designed by Gae Aulenti. Antiques and contemporary pieces appear in equal measure, infused with a straightforward colour palette.

At Rosalie, the frontier between interior and exterior has been left deliberately blurry. Galvanised steel, typically used in garden furniture, infiltrates the rooms – a bench, a wall light, a speaker, all designed by Mailaender. Nature seeps into the planters and onto a few fabrics; culminating in a William Morris floral carpet that covers the headboads and extends down across the floor.

In the bathrooms, the baths are original and the counters are made from recycled plastic, imitating a modern, sustainable terrazzo. All materials have been chosen for their aesthetic and environmental value. The carpet in the rooms is made from recycled fishing nets, and the cork elevator walls and restaurant floor provide a unique, intimate acoustic. In the lobby, different woodcuts mimic marquetry atop a table for sharing. Pre-loved chairs have been carefully restored.

Hotel Rosalie, 8 bis avenue de a soeur Rosalie, 75013 Paris, +33 1 43 36 62 00, bonjour@hotel-rosalie.com