Paris-Based Designer Pierre Gonalons Celebrates The Centennial Of The Art Deco Movement

Pierre Gonalons is recognized for his refined yet daring esthetic, which blends historical influences with forward-thinking vision. Drawing inspiration from decorative arts, architectural heritage and pop culture, he creates furniture, lighting and interiors that exude a sense of timeless luxury. His work often features rich materials like marble, enamel and gilded metals, combined with geometric forms and vibrant colors. Whether designing bespoke pieces for luxury brands like Lalique, Chloé and Pierre Frey or crafting striking interiors for private residences and boutique hotels, Gonalons maintains a distinctive style that balances elegance and modernity.

Gonalons’ collections, produced under his eponymous brand, showcase his ability to merge age-old craftsmanship with contemporary boldness, resulting in objects that feel both sophisticated and playful. This year, to mark the centenary of the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, Gonalons is showcasing different facets of his work through one-on-one dialogues with various artists. Throughout 2025, he will juxtapose his creations with artworks and furniture from his personal collection that have influenced him. For its first exhibition of the year, which runs until March 1, 2025, Galerie Pierre Gonalons in Paris is presenting American artist Larry Bell’s “Barcelona Series”, a rare suite of nine lithographs from 1989. At the same time, Gonalons’ Montceaux table – playing with fullness, emptiness, light, shadow and texture, and designed within a 17.7-inch cube – mirrors Bell’s signature metallized glass cubes. Gonalons highlights his key projects.

What is the most difficult thing in design for you?

The hardest thing in design is also the most interesting: seeing beyond the boundaries to find the right design with which people will be happy.

Tell me about your studio, how big your team is, how many projects you work on at any one time and what keeps you going.

I work with a small but strong team dedicated to the creative part. We are now between six to eight in the studio. We work with a balance of 10 projects at the same time, from the smallest to the biggest. What keeps me going? I work to offer reinvented wonder to people.

Name and describe five of your designs from throughout your career that best reflect who you are as a designer and your design philosophies.

A Parisian Apartment: Featuring a kitchen and bathroom in French Grand Antique marble and burned wood, it’s a very deep exercise between strong materials, shadow and light.

Paradisoterrestre Gallery in Bologna: It’s the showroom-gallery of the historic design company based in Bologna. A very beautiful space in a historic building treated as an apartment, it reflects my love for the ’70s Italian era.

Rupture Record Store in Paris: A record store inspired by the famous Drugstore Saint Germain in a reinvented ’70s style, between Hollywood glamor and Tokyo nightlife, I love the atmosphere I created there! It’s very warm and cool.

Loggia Armchair: Made of “flexible marble”, it’s a key piece of my work. It looks like vintage outdoor furniture conceived with an outstanding innovation.

Serge Sofa for Duvivier Canapés: I like very much this seating design. It’s my vision of the Chesterfield couch redesigned for contemporary life. I love rewriting traditional shapes using classical materials with a new point of view, showing what is old fashioned from another angle.

Among the private residences you have designed, which ones stand out?

From my point of view, maybe my own house! It’s an old Anglo-Normand cottage outside Paris, which is my playground for decorating.