A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a Paris apartment with a stellar stainless-steel kitchen (again!), a hotel with rooms by 14 different designers, aluminum furniture cast from waste polystyrene, and a few early highlights from Maison & Objet and IMM Cologne.

Interiors

London-based design dealer Spazio Leone has branched into the restaurant business, opening an Italian eatery named Dalla in Hackney. Owner and designer Gennaro Leone, who hails from Italy’s food capital, Naples, worked alongside Sicilian artist and maker Oscar Piccolo to create interiors that are filled with design classics as well as one-off pieces. The bright, neutral-toned space, with its white tablecloths, Robert Mallet-Stevens chairs, and stainless-steel accessories, is balanced with a selection of dark wood furniture, with a sprinkling of killer vintage finds, including a wooden rotary telephone. The restaurant serves seasonal home-style cooking from chefs Mitchell Damota and Gianmarco Leone, Gennaro’s brother, and the Google reviews are very positive. 

Stainless-steel kitchens have been trending for a while now, but this one is next level. At an apartment designed by French studio Haddou Dufourcq in Le Marais neighborhood of Paris, even the refrigerator matches the cool metal cabinets and worktops, and dining chairs by Giovanni Salvarani also join in with the theme. Elsewhere, the understated and refined interiors feature floor-to-ceiling mirrors in several rooms, creamy tones galore, and several wood and black accents that add just enough contrast against the pale spaces. Photos © Ludovic Balay

In the French town of Hyères, home to Villa Noailles and the Design Parade festival, a 1950s hotel’s 14 rooms have each been taken over by a different designer. Guests of La Reine Jane can choose to stay in spaces imagined by top French names including Inga Sempé and François Azambourg, or those designed by emerging talents, like Odd Matter and Superbly (whose room 15, with its bikini-wearing starfish mural, might be our favorite). Those who contributed to this year’s edition were asked to interpret the theme of Mediterranean seaside, and the results are as varied as you might expect. Photos © Stephanie Davilma

Discoveries

Y’know those pieces of polystyrene that protect a TV or other appliances in their delivery boxes? Well, Detroit-based designer Madeline Isakson rather cleverly noticed that these structural forms could be used to create a series of molds, from which she has cast a range of aluminum furniture pieces. The resulting designs carry all the markings of the waste packaging material, from the rough bead-like surfaces to the recycling information, and are paired with upholstered elements and light sources to become functional objects for the home. Genius!

Dutch practice Studio Truly Truly’s new Loya sofa for Leolux comprises straight architectural lines that are softened upholstered forms. It’s designed based on the principle of “soft mass”: filling a textile with material until it’s plump, and the geometric lines are emphasized by an exaggerated saddle stitch. The cushioned elements are placed on a flat base platform, which can be wrapped in the same upholstery to unify the design, or in leather for a sharp contrast. The design, which also comes as an armchair, debuted at IMM Cologne earlier this month.

Belgian ceramicist Anita Le Grelle’s hat-wearing lamps for Serax might be simple shapes, but they certainly have presence. Named John and Oliver, the two designs are both made from stoneware and are coated with golden paint on the inside of the shade to create a yellowish glow. John is finished in a deep blue reactive glaze, while Oliver’s is warm ochre-brown, and his shade has a flatter top. 

More simple-shaped furniture that leaves the dramatic material to do the talking: The Thebes stool and low-back chair by French studio McGannon Saad are designed to highlight the qualities of Pistore Marmi’s marble. Their monolithic yet delicate planar forms feature slightly concave seat tops for better ergonomics, and they come in Rosso Verona, Travertino, Bianco Carrara, or Nero Marquina versions. Debuting at Maison & Objet in Paris, which runs January 18-22. Photos © Cristina Romanello

Exhibitions

Also during this week’s Maison & Objet and Deco Off fairs in Paris, furniture brand De La Espada has opened an exhibition of work by French designer Anthony Guerrée at art gallery Amelie Maison D’Art. The gallery’s collection of abstract art is presented amongst the equally angular furniture pieces, which “explore craft and geometry in bold, sculptural forms inspired by the designer’s recurring dream of spending a starry night in Joshua Tree Park.” Solid wood products on show include the Hadar Lounge Chair, Aries Side Table, Deneb Desk, Altair Chair, and Orion Table, which all debuted in November 2023 but haven’t yet been presented in a residential-style setup until now. The exhibition runs through March 18. 

French collective Uchronia is having a busy Maison/Deco week, presenting two exhibitions with floral themes at different locations in Paris. The first is The Candy Box (top three), a secret room in the Prelle showroom that the team has decked out in brightly colored silks. The jacquard-woven fabrics – some from Prelle’s archives – are used for everything from curtains to cushion covers, forming an immersive installation complete with resin furniture by David Roma, lighting by Sébastien Bevierre, and a variety of other designs. Until January 22. Meanwhile, over at Charles Paris gallery, Uchronia has reinterpreted the floral-inspired designs of famed bronze artist Chrystiane Charles as a series of lighting and accessories (bottom). The Bloom collection features organic, undulating and psychedelic shapes, which were all modeled in 3D before being formed in various materials. Until January 21. Photos © Félix Dol Maillot & Lucile Casanova