We admire designer Paola Navone for her unique ability to transform ordinary things into deconstructed, charming, often astonishingly-beautiful new uses (like her painted floor rugs). Using our rusty French to translate this video tour of her Paris apartment, we’ve gathered a small trove of smart, original, inspiring and doable ideas  (Video link here.)

She designed the kitchen (.48) in four “quadrants”, one for each main function: the stove/cooking area; a big sink for washing pots and dishes; a marble worktop for pastry and other preparations; and the big luxury for Navone, a special shallow sink only for washing vegetables, a sort of swimming pool for lettuces to float in. (It reminds us a bit of Margot Wellingtons shallow prep sink.)

Extra chairs are perched on top of storage structures throughout the high-ceilinged flat.

Navone allows little color in the kitchen, except for the bright tomato red water taps. The color is in the food itself.

Her dining table has a bold lazy Susan made of molded metal, like in cuisine Asiatique.

The “volcano” tables she designed 2:30 each has a different surface pattern, including one wrapped with black cord.

 

She repurposed a huge chair in the shape of a hand as a tabouret (low table).

She loves chairs (3:20) and has collected many of them. Some she refurbishes to her own design. 2:36. She took the “carcasses” of two chairs and created new seats out of green glass, festooned with bits of metal and pompoms from India. I love to give a second chance to objects.

The boards used by workmen became a table top. The boards are held into a slab with red staples.

 

The door to a bedroom is a large painted canvas that she moves out of the way when she wants to come and go. (4:35).

And that’s just to name of few of the ideas you’ll find if you watch very closely…

 

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