She composes spaces like others compose perfumes, with instinct, memory, and audacity. At just forty years old, Laura Gonzalez has established herself as one of the most sought-after names in contemporary interior design. Her style? A joyful baroque, masterfully controlled eclecticism, and elegance based on a mix of eras and materials. Restaurants, hotels, boutiques, private apartments… every project by Laura Gonzalez is a stage set where a unique story unfolds. Portrait of a designer who shapes spaces like universes.
An early calling, a dazzling career
Born in Paris in 1983, Laura Gonzalez grew up in an environment where discipline and aesthetics coexisted harmoniously, thanks in particular to her education at the Légion d’Honneur boarding school (in Saint Denis).
She grew up in the south, near Cannes, surrounded by bright light, Mediterranean colors, the ever-present sea, and local crafts, all of which shaped her outlook and sense of aesthetics from an early age.
Although she considered an academic career for a while, a sudden realization led her to architecture: “I was washing my hands, and I knew that was it,” she says with humor.
She enrolled at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais.
After graduating with a DPLG architecture degree (as it was known at the time), she soon struck out on her own. At just 21, she founded her own agency, Pravda Arkitect. Her very first project? A friend’s shop, for which she was paid in an iPod and Bose speakers. The tone was set: enthusiasm, resourcefulness, and above all, a tenacious passion.
The Bus Palladium: the revelation
Word of mouth quickly led her to more substantial projects. In 2010, at just 26 years old, she was commissioned to renovate the legendary Bus Palladium in Paris. With a tight budget and extremely short deadlines, she sometimes slept on site to supervise the work carried out by teams working day and night. The project was a baptism of fire, but above all a springboard. With her vintage furniture, striking wallpaper, and narrative staging, she established a style that the press quickly described as “eclectic chic” , a vibrant, elegant, and timeless “mix & match.”
A signature style: masterful boldness and craftsmanship at the heart of her vision
It’s hard to pigeonhole Laura Gonzalez. Her trademark? A combination of contrasts: Art Deco inspirations, exuberant patterns, panther velvet, lush frescoes, toile de Jouy, and vibrant terrazzo, like the one she chose at the last minute for Brasserie Auteuil. Each project is conceived as a story to be told.
She proudly proclaims her diverse influences: cinema, fashion, travel, literature, jewelry… And this freedom is always accompanied by methodical rigor. Her team spends hours putting together mood boards by style, material, and era. “I’m driven by one obsession: never repeating myself,” she says, adding, “I like to mix genres to give a soul to places.” Her mentors are none other than Renzo Mongiardino, Madeleine Castaing, Dorothy Draper, Jacques Grange, Veere Grenney, and the Peregalli studio for their approach to classic spaces. “I love classic style, even if I break away from it with my more colorful approach. I transform whatever inspires me.”
Behind the glitz and glamour lies a strong ethical code. Laura Gonzalez works with upholsterers, mosaic artists, cabinetmakers, and ironworkers, many of whom are French, Portuguese, or local. During the pandemic, faced with logistical constraints, she has further strengthened this commitment, seeking to source her materials—wood, marble, fabrics—directly on site, whether the project is in Paris, Chengdu, Zurich, or Saint-Tropez.
For her, “beauty” is not enough. There must be meaning, roots, and a celebration of traditional craftsmanship. Her approach is clear: to reconcile luxury and authenticity, opulence and sustainability.
Un mode de vie incarné
Laura Gonzalez embodies what she creates. At the helm of more than 200 projects, she leads a busy life juggling international construction sites, trade shows, furniture collections, and collaborations.
In her offices in the 16th arrondissement, located in the former home of Gaby Deslys, she has preserved the soul of the place.
During the Belle Époque, Gaby Deslys was a star: an actress, dancer, and muse to the powerful, she shone on Broadway alongside Al Jolson, seduced Manuel II of Portugal, and appeared in numerous silent films. Her fortune enabled her to purchase a five-story house in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. After her early death at the age of 38, the house was divided into seven apartments, which remained unchanged until Laura Gonzalez bought it in 2023. The interior designer has restored the property to its former glory as a mansion, respecting the spirit of the era with rounded corners, vaulted porches, and original doors. Today, the space is home to the agency’s 45 employees (including no fewer than 38 women), a fabric bar in the basement, and cozy spaces. Two kitchens, a veranda, and a garden extend the atmosphere of a lived-in home. “Here, we welcome, we share, we pass on a way of life,” says Laura Gonzalez. Benjamin Memmi, the agency’s managing director and Laura Gonzalez’s husband, is just next door in an office with sliding doors. “We want visitors to feel at home,” she explains. “When they spend the day here, we welcome them to the table. It’s part of the art of living that we love to convey through design.”
Cult projects
Among its most iconic achievements, the Bus Palladium remains a milestone, but it has followed up with other locations that have become cult favorites: Régine, Lapérouse, La Gare (a former train station converted into an urban oasis), Le Schmuck, Polpo, l’Alcazar, Dar Mima (with Jamel Debbouze for Paris Society at the Arab World Institute), 86Champs (L’Occitane x Pierre Hermé, Champs-Élysées, Paris) and the Hôtel Hana (a boutique hotel with a Japanese identity), Le Relais Christine, the Hôtel Saint James in Paris, the Hôtel La Casa Monti in Rome, and the new suites at the Hôtel Byblos in Saint-Tropez.
She also designs international stores for Cartier (Paris, Zurich, Stockholm, Shanghai, Miami, Tokyo, etc.) and Christian Louboutin (Barcelona, Amsterdam). Not to mention Printemps New York, where Laura Gonzalez redesigned the legendary Red Room, an Art Deco gem from 1931, breathing new life into it with red and gold mosaic tiles while preserving the soul and memory of the place.
In each city, Laura Gonzalez creates a tailor-made atmosphere: hushed elegance in Paris, misty poetry in Chengdu, tropical exoticism in London. Each setting becomes a story, marked by her signature: an unexpected shade, a bold contrast, a personal touch.
Furniture, ceramics, and scenography: new frontiers
Tireless, Laura Gonzalez also explores other forms of creation. She has designed a furniture collection with Schumacher fabrics, created the sets for Guerlain for the 2023 Heritage Days, and published a monograph with Rizzoli in 2023 retracing her most significant projects.
Laura Gonzalez has a genuine admiration for the ceramics made by Jean Roger, which she often incorporates into her projects. Combining humor, fantasy, and craftsmanship, these iconic pieces she has designed—frogs, pineapples, and palm trees—add a quirky and precious touch to her designs, perfectly embodying her attention to detail and elegant references.
Laura Gonzalez has also collaborated with photographer and designer Romain Laprade to create a unique furniture collection that combines sculptural lines, vibrant textures, and a vintage spirit. Together, they revisit the elegance of the 1970s with boldness and poetry, infusing each piece with a strong personality and a deeply graphic charm.
Her personal showroom? A 19th-century stone and brick country house nestled at the entrance to the village of Mainneville in the Vexin region. Surrounded by a large garden, this welcoming home, just an hour and a half from Paris, is much more than a refuge: Laura Gonzalez has turned it into a style laboratory, combining custom-made furniture, vintage finds, and bucolic inspirations. Carefully renovated, the house perfectly reflects her creative, eclectic and enchanting world: an intimate place where the art of living and decorative imagination interact freely.
To be continued…
Between large-scale hotel projects in Dubai, artistic collaborations and new addresses in Paris, Laura Gonzalez continues her irresistible expansion. Her signature style—joyful, refined, instinctive—stands out as the antithesis of rigid minimalism, inviting a free, eclectic, and generous art of living. She embodies a new generation of interior designers, free from conventions and driven by emotion and a desire to share. “What matters to me is always giving yourself permission to create,” she likes to say. And since her imagination knows no bounds, Laura Gonzalez is sure to continue re-enchanting places—and our lives—for a long time to come.
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Featured photo: © Stéphan Julliard
