The bathroom is decorated with hundreds of found umbrella handles. It used to be filled with hubcaps that she and Mr. Stern would find and clean off in the family dishwasher before hanging.

Then there are the single gloves she and Mr. Stern found on city streets and subways, perhaps 1,000 of them, all still sorted into plastic display cases, alongside other cases of toothbrushes, more umbrella handles and small balls.

“Friends got interested in the project and friends began sending them to us,” she said of the gloves.

Ms. Stern grew up in Normandy — “We’re descended from Joan of Arc’s brother, so Joan of Arc is my aunt” — where she was the oldest of five children raised by a widowed mother.

“My mother recycled everything, so I guess that taught me to look at things and find beauty in everything in life,” she said. “I like recycling common objects and making art presentations.”

During World War II, the family dug a deep trench for shelter during bombings, which they used even when troops were storming nearby Omaha Beach on D-day. Ms. Stern said she attended one of the lycées created by Napoleon. While studying in America on a Fulbright scholarship and working as a waitress in Lake Placid, N.Y., for the summer, she met Mr. Stern. Soon afterward, she said, “I became his waitress for life.”

He enjoyed her conceptual art projects, such as when she deputized Abner, the family’s pet rabbit, as an artist. She would put colorful beach towels in the rabbit’s sleeping area which he would gnaw full of holes, creating fringed shawls with fascinating patterns for her.