As a kid growing up in Mexico, Alfonso Navarro says his “incredibly stylish” mother set him on his first interior design project: his own bedroom. “I was interested in architecture, design, and art from a really young age — mainly from films and music videos,” he says. Their vacations to Palm Springs also made a mark. He remembers spotting Bob Hope’s “spaceship” house on the Southridge hill and dining at Ken Kellogg’s Chart House — both leaving a lasting impression.
For his room, the 11-year-old sketched a built-in unit and collaborated with a carpenter, met with a window treatment vendor to choose black-and-white metallic blinds, and worked with an upholsterer on two chairs, including a space-age Danish white lounge chair with a black vegan leather cushion. “My custom aquarium had white rocks, one piece of black coral, and black fish. My reversible bedspread was black and white stripes on one side, checkered on the other,” he recalls. “Everything was black, white, and gray — similar to my current color palette. Not much has changed in these years.”
His shop’s stark aesthetic draws directly from those memories, pushing past mainstream vernacular to introduce fringey names and styles from the 1920s through the 1980s. Visitors describe it as stepping into a New York loft — or another dimension entirely.
“I don’t like trends,” says Navarro, who is also an interior designer. “I like the unorthodox.” Thus, NOK NOK sits in a cool place between intimidating and approachable. Navarro tips the scale toward the latter. A convivial conversationalist, he describes the showroom as “a mood.”
“When people come in and they have an emotion, it’s the best,” he says. “Every day someone asks me, ‘What is this music you’re playing?’ I take pride in that curation.” Cultivating a sense of discovery, Navarro connects the dots between his postmodern and Bauhaus pieces and references to film, music, art, and travel — all to leave visitors feeling a little smarter for having stopped by.
Navarro relocated from San Diego to the desert with his wife and young daughter during the COVID pandemic, drawn by close friends and creative possibility. He transitioned from owning a music venue in Mexico and galleries and restaurants in San Diego to channeling his passion for collecting into a new pursuit. He began at the Vintage Flea Market, selling from a warehouse curated like a showroom, and on 1st Dibs. Two years ago, he committed to a permanent space on Perez Road. “I signed a long-term lease — as long as I could,” he says. You’ll find him at the far end, “in the meatpacking district,” he jokes, adding to that sense of discovery.
