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Giovanni Cavalleri and Cecilia Bianchini, founders of Milan-based graphic design studio Paper Paper, have created a highly functional 45sqm/484sqft home that feels more like a living gallery than a typical flat. Working with their friends at Associates Architecture, they leaned into bold colour and light industrial details, starting with a long, ceiling-hung aluminium bookshelf that acts as the home’s backbone. Running the length of the hallway, it’s packed with books, posters, prints, and artwork from friends. At the end of the corridor, the open-plan living space is anchored by a single-piece stainless-steel kitchen, a blank wall for projector movie nights, and a custom dining table on wheels that flips and rolls to suit everything from quiet dinners to hosting friends. Throughout the home, personal objects, borrowed furniture, and collected artworks create a space that feels flexible, lived-in, and easy rather than precious, organised around slowing down, staying connected, and living small on their own terms.

00:00-01:05 Introduction
01:05-02:04 Location
02:04-05:36 Entrance
05:36-08:46 Kitchen
08:46-11:19 Dining Area
11:19-12:38 Living Area
12:38-15:28 Bedroom
15:28-18:13 Bathroom
18:13-19:10 Conclusion

To see more inside this apartment https://www.nevertoosmall.com/post/how-two-graphic-designers-live-and-work-in-45sqm-484sqft-home

#smallapartment #architecture #interiordesign

How I Live Small Ep.13
Project Name: Papar Paper
Architect: Associates Architecture
https://www.instagram.com/associates_architecture
Owners: Giovanni Cavalleri and Cecilia Bianchini
https://www.instagram.com/paperpaperstudio

Produced by New Mac Video Agency
Creator: Colin Chee
Producer: Lindsay Barnard
Director & Cinematographer: Nam Tran
Editor: Sebby T
Music: Artlist.io
Lusso Calma E Volutta by Bottega Baltazar
Sparkling Water & Home by Aves
Chasin You - Instrumental version by Jimit
Termas feat Helios Amor by Skygaze
Radiate by 92elm
Home - Instrumental version by Zach Sorgen
Pain au Chocolat by Notize
Fifth Avenue by Phury
Caps Take 2 by Walz
Caffeine by Man with Roses

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Transcript
00:00This house is not very stereotypical.
00:03As designers, we always look to functionality.
00:07When we were planning the house, we said,
00:10OK, it's small, but let's make it very functional.
00:13You have little details here that recall an industrial aesthetic.
00:19I'm Giovanni.
00:20And I'm Cecilia.
00:21We are graphic designers.
00:23And, yeah, we open our own studio.
00:25It's called Paper Paper.
00:27We do graphic design.
00:29Brand identity.
00:30Editorial design.
00:33This apartment needs 45 square meters.
00:37This flat is a one-bedroom flat.
00:40Giovanni is super nice and you can notice that from the house,
00:42like, it's filled by books.
00:44I'm not at that level of nerd-man.
00:47Those are my childhood encyclopedia.
00:55We have a lot of art from friends and that's really nice because you can populate the house with people
01:01you connect with and are part of your life somehow.
01:06The apartment is located in California.
01:10The station is called California.
01:12But it's really in the southwest of Milan.
01:15It's a very residential neighborhood.
01:17Very quiet.
01:19You have a bit of everything, but it's not too busy.
01:23When we found the house, we immediately wanted to renovate it.
01:27We have these architects' friends from Brescia called the Associates Architecture.
01:32It's very modern.
01:34It's very clean.
01:35They really understand our style, our needs.
01:42This is where our flat is.
01:47We have a nice area outside where we can keep and storage our bikes.
01:53The building has been renewed recently and they tried to recover all these beautiful paintings and restore them.
02:04So that's the entrance of our flat.
02:07It can seem quite small, but it's indeed quite warm and welcoming.
02:24When we get in, we remove the shoes and the coats, we put them there and the keys are here.
02:39So we say that the corridor is our gallery.
03:04So we say that the corridor is our gallery.
03:05We So we're記得 to多分.
03:13And there in that location, I find we have also a busy booking of spots.
03:16These are my childhood enciclopedia.
03:20What is the winter destination?
03:21No one is filled with슬jana, such a beautiful view here
03:26On Friday, we are always finished with Dusko Pablo Manor.
03:27And then the other day is our library is the digitalacı and the library.
03:33ошиб devo dollars.
03:33And I love you, as a beautiful designer, making the traditional details.
03:35Unlocking creativity, it's definitely useful, like, this is about fancy dresses, about circus.
03:42This edition is from 1967.
03:53It's the darkest area of the house, so by doing that we take advantage of it,
03:59and it allows us to walk through all the posters and arts.
04:21In Italian we say svuotatasche, svuotatasche is usually like an object,
04:26what we have at the entrance, you just throw everything you have in your pocket.
04:56Also, we want it to look bigger, so all these whites really make a difference.
05:00It makes you feel in a big room.
05:15So everybody thinks this is me.
05:26I say this is me, and this is Giovanni.
05:30I love the kitchen, because it's so handy and compact.
05:35It's so big, in a way.
05:37It takes the whole wall, so it's much bigger than a normal kitchen.
05:41Kind of an industrial kitchen.
05:44So we decided to keep it blank for two reasons mainly.
05:49The first is that we wanted to add a layer of waterproof paint to make it easy to wash.
05:56The second reason is that we have a projector.
06:10We didn't want to have the sand yet.
06:13We decided to have it here.
06:14When it starts, it's quite noisy.
06:18You see.
06:19But it works very well.
06:25That came from the window.
06:27They had to...
06:30Unique piece, yeah.
06:33There's many storage places.
06:39You can see here we have the glasses.
06:43Here we get the dishwasher.
06:58Lastly, we got a tiny fridge.
07:01So that's one of the challenges of the house.
07:03Because the fridge and the freezer are so small, we really have to...
07:07Like, it forces us to buy fresh food.
07:10But it's okay.
07:11You just have to get used to that.
07:14Pull it up or down.
07:16Yeah.
07:17And you can also...
07:18Use it to wash our...
07:20Use it to wash our...
07:21Mmm.
07:30It's very greasy.
07:33Sort of.
07:34Nourished.
07:35Yeah, nourished.
07:36Yeah, we really wanted this space to be welcoming to people.
07:40We really, really love to have friends over.
07:46We've been doing a lot of dinners here, especially because of the way this room is organized.
07:52It very much allows us to have people over.
08:16Like...
08:25We want people over there.
08:25We are drinking water when they're eating.
08:25We want people over there.
08:25Because you can tend to sit together when they inexpensive.
08:27here we have six chairs but when we have more friends over we just open those chairs
08:33they're so clean yeah so we do three three one one that's a metallic pantry just because we wanted
08:45to first of all decorate a little bit the room but also have things at ends when like we have
08:51breakfast we pick up things or when we chill on the sofa there's chocolate
09:09that's an idea we actually stole from my mother's house actually the curtains themselves we stole
09:15the curtains we actually stole them from my mother's house they come directly from there
09:20the wire we stole the idea also we needed something that covered the split that's the hair con but
09:26in the winter we use it for warming up the room so this core that goes right in front of
09:32the split
09:32allows us to adding an element that makes the atmosphere warmer in my opinion
09:54we plant herbs in italian we call them the odori which means the spices so we have rosemary
10:02we have salvia lemongrass so we like produce them and use them while cooking when we have dinner with
10:09friends we just open the door and everybody hangs out in this area
10:14so this is a nice corner of the biggest big room and it's the corner where we usually put this
10:23light
10:23because in the night we project movies and tv on the wall this is useful for us to eat while
10:30watching
10:30because it's not too bright i think they used to be something they use at work
10:58so yeah when friends stop over we just move these
11:03move the table a little bit and back here the legs
11:14and here we come to bed
11:32when renewing the house we decided we wanted to put all the effort economically wise in the living
11:39room and then the bedroom is quite basic ikea furniture nice and clean but very basic
11:50so
12:00so
12:24I made fun of Giovanni because he wanted to put so much effort in finding the perfect
12:29mattress.
12:47Another important thing is the wardrobe.
12:55So, we got clothing, clothing and then storage, storage and shoes here, Joe, you had me been
13:04here.
13:05Yes.
13:06Well, it's very messy.
13:09What we would like to do is to solve better the space out there.
13:14Definitely or somehow cover it at least.
13:18Today we are lucky there is such a beautiful sun.
13:20It will take some time but we planted two yasmin over there so that can fully cover the aircon
13:27machine.
13:28Of course, in the night we need to use the shutters.
13:33You see how everything changes.
13:40So, that's my side of the bed, that's where I wake up every morning and it's very simple
13:48and easy.
13:48I got my lamp here, it's an eclipse so I can decide how strong I want the light to be
13:55by turning
13:56the wheel.
13:56time.
14:23So
14:26the first room that you can find entering the house is the bathroom.
14:30The first thing you find is this area where we storage all the things that we need for
14:36doing laundry.
14:37So there is a washing machine up here, all the products to clean the house.
14:43It's very messy.
14:44It's a bit messy, a bit messy.
14:46It's the back where we put dirt clothes.
14:48We chose curtains because we could have made them less impactful.
14:54Having a door would have been conflicting with this other door.
14:57It's just a nice resolution for the tiny space we had here.
15:29All the parking is in here.
15:38So this is like a nice, useful storage thing.
15:44This storage doesn't go all the way to the floor, just because it feels lighter and also
15:50like create some space for, I don't know, the scale or anything we want to storage underneath.
16:20So this is the shower.
16:22It's quite big for being a shower, which we love.
16:25So at first we wanted to have a very big shower head to make the shower more comfortable, but
16:31unfortunately it couldn't come from the top.
16:34We were forced to have it on this side and have it this size, but it's still okay because
16:41when you close the door, it creates some sort of a sauna.
16:46In the shower we needed a shelf because it would have been too expensive, of course, to customize
16:52the door in order for it to accommodate this shelf to continue.
16:58We decided to just have a very simple black metallic shelf over there where we storage everything
17:04we need.
17:04Shampoo and brush and anything.
17:07When it comes to home, I really like to unplug, like having a space where to just feel comfortable
17:15cooking and reading books with the playground like that, yeah.
17:20For me, it meant a space that I could design and plan as we really wanted to.
17:29I've been living in like rented spaces, which I kept very messy.
17:33I felt they were like very temporary.
17:36I thought maybe I'm just lazy.
17:38In the end, buying this house proved me right, like I got my house and I really took care
17:43of it.
17:44It means that you're shaping the house around yourself and it's a few simple things that
17:50makes the house your own one.
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