Hilary Swank, the Academy Award–winning actress and nascent fashion entrepreneur, purchased an apartment in a historic building on the Left Bank. With its soaring ceilings, polished herringbone floors, intricate moldings, marble fireplaces, and large windows, the apartment has the beautiful bones and soft filtered light that herald the European capital’s best spaces. To help make the apartment her own, Swank turned to Axel Huynh, founder of event-planning agency CrazyBaby and creative director of the 150-year-old French furniture company Henryot & Cie. While the original plan was for Huynh to design a piece of furniture for the home, his role quickly morphed into that of an interior designer.