10 Tiny Paris Kitchens by Interior Designer Marianne Evennou

Let others bemoan the challenges of fitting a working kitchen into a closet-sized space. Photography courtesy of Marianne Evennou (@marianneevennou).

Space permitting, Marianne likes to differentiate the kitchen from its surroundings: “Each passage from one universe to another must be felt and provoke an emotion.” Here’s a look at 10 of Marianne’s standout concoctions and some lessons to take away.

1. Cabinets needn’t be blank slates. Photograph by Grégory Timsit. In the first months of the pandemic, Marianne was contacted by a woman in Philadelphia who was dreaming of a Paris pied-à-terre. In general, Marianne doesn’t like the top-heavy look of over-the-counter cabinets, but for storage in this case, there was nowhere to go but up.

Photograph by Stefan Julliard. 2. A niche can hold all the essentials. Marianne set this kitchen—”too small to pretend to be its own room”—in an alcove in the living room, and masterfully harmonized the cabinetry with the charcoal half of the two-toned room. Here, Marianne went with an open box as overhead storage and hung plinths for displaying ceramics.

Photograph by Grégory Timsit. In an apartment where the kitchen has to do double duty for formal entertaining, Marianne slipped in a dining table alongside the stove. The rattan Dou Lampshade is by Ferm Living. 3. Kitchen tables can be formal—and cozy.

A half-glazed wall divides the kitchen from the living room chez Sabine. Marianne reports that Sabine came to their initial meetings with Ladurée macarons, which inspired the “soft but not cutesy” palette. Photograph by Grégory Timsit. 4. Interior glazing is a great solution for a back kitchen.

5. Kitchens and stairs can be artfully integrated. Photograph by Grégory Timsit. With nowhere else to plant the stair, Marianne zigzagged it as a piece of sculpture: “it creates visual animation on the wall and shelters a niche in the kitchen.” Marianne designed the turned wood pendant lights.

Marianne says she “loves the idea that piece of furniture can have several functions.” In this 25 square-meter pied-à-terre belonging to a Swiss family, the plywood staircase leading to the mezzanine provides storage for dishes—and elsewhere it serves as a bookshelves and a desk. 6. Stairs can even provide kitchen storage. Photograph by Marie-Pierre Morel.

Marianne cleverly distinguished the living area from the kitchen by applying the terra-cotta flooring in two patterns.Photograph by Grégory Timsit. This design is on the top floor of a 376-square-foot duplex and is part of the living room. Marianne camouflaged upper storage cabinets on either side of the range hood: recessed into the wall, they completely disappear and have storage shelves of varying depths. 7. “Being simple is sometimes complicated.”

8. A counter can serve as a window—and a screen—for a tiny cook space. Marianne built this partially enclosed kitchen for a 16 square meter (172 square foot) apartment.

Photograph by Jean-Marc Palisse. “The only luxury is the choice of white marble as a worktop and wooden cladding on the partition, which,” Marianne notes, acts as “a window and an opening to let the space breathe and offer it to the visitor’s eye.” Tolix Marais Stools stand at the just-big-enough-for-two counter.

9. Open storage can be orderly. Photograph by Grégory Timsit. For a medical student and her musician brother’s shared quarters, Marianne separated the entry from the kitchen by a steel-framed interior window that overlooks the front courtyard.

“This kitchen was designed like a painting surrounded by a black frame,” says Marianne, who cloaked it “from head to toe” in Ressource’s Pompeian Brown. Many of these apartments appear in Marianne’s recent book Un Intérieur à Soi. 10. Gem tones work in jewel-box kitchens. Photograph by Stephan Julliard. Read more