Often labeled as a “classicist” or a “maximalist”, designer Juan Pablo Molyneux prefers “Decorator of Oxymorons” – an appellation received for the first time when he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. His ability to manage more styles and tendencies at the same time, accompanied by a team of artisans and craftsmen experts in marquetry, gilding, fabric weaving, and trompe l’œil effects. A recovery of a lost era’s methods that symbolizes Juan Paulo Molyneux’s aesthetics.
Hôtel Claude Passart
The Chilean-born interior designer was an architecture student at the Universidad Católica of Santiago and later at the École des Beaux-Arts and the École du Louvre. French architects Louis Le Vau, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, instead, gave him knowledge of historical styles. He was already well-known in his country when he decided to establish a New York studio in 1982 and later, one in Paris in 1998; his job took him all across Europe, America, Russia, and the Middle East.
“I try to distill that which is expected and turn it into something unexpected. I make interiors people want to belong to—forever.”
With several residential and commercial projects in his portfolio, during the years Juan Pablo Molyneux had been asked to design the interiors of several institutional projects, such as the Pavilion of Treaties, in St. Petersburg, the Russian Rooms of the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, and the salons of the Cercle de l’Union Interalliée in Paris.
Penthouse on Lake Michigan
Juan Pablo Molyneux’s eclectic tendencies mix themselves with an opulent savoir-faire, a luxurious feeling that permeates his projects: a grandeur of textures and a sapient use of accessories provide new life to old historical buildings; Juan Pablo Molyneux is totally capable of recreating old interiors, reutilizing the original elements under a different light: his particular vision takes the shape of a glamorous setting in which contemporary and historical features blend together.
Interpreting the past through a personal design rendering is what motivate Juan Pablo Molyneux: for the designer, a rampant curiosity – aided by a fascinating passion for craftsmanship and artisans’ values – is the starting point of every project.
Villa in Pebble Beach – California
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