The homemade live-work space that's a serene haven

Almost everything in the home of the designer Małgorzata Bany has been salvaged or made by herself and her partner - except the Ikea cupboards

The Polish-born artist and designer Małgorzata Bany has a peculiar (and very particular) obsession with off-white objects. The one between us on her dining table - an ostrich egg from Germany - is a case in point. Bany saw several of them collecting dust on the top shelf of a supermarket. "I don't speak very good German," she admits, "but eventually someone understood me and helped me choose this perfect egg."

Outsized eggs are just one inspiration for Bany, whose live-work space is a serene haven in an industrial area in Seven Sisters, north London. In the year they have lived here, Bany and her partner, Tycjan Knut, have transformed the place. "We did the work really quickly," she says. "Everything was painted. The sofa, dining table and bed frame were all made by us. The kitchen and shelves, too. The Ikea cupboards are the only things we haven't made."