His uncle Georges Paulin was a part-time automobile designer and invented the mechanical retractible hardtop, who was later executed by the Nazis in 1941 as a hero of the French Resistance.
After failing his Baccalauréat, Pierre trained to become a ceramist in Vallaurius on the French Rivera and then as a stone-carver in Burgundy.
He was as well the nephew of Georges Paulin who designed vehicles and invented the first mechanical retractible hardtop roof.
Pierre Paulin had failed his Baccalauréat and moved on to train as a ceramist in Vallaurius and then as a stone-carver in Burgundy.
Relations with the Gascoin company, he would gain interest in Scandinavian and Japanese design which would influence his works later on.
A year later he would be employed by the Thonet company and began experimenting with stretching swimwear materials over traditionally made chairs.
Pierre Paulin influenced Olivier Mourgue's Djinn chairs that were featured in Stanley Kubrick's classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
He also redesigned the interiors of the Denon Wing of the Louvre Museum, the hall of Tapestries in the Paris City Hall, the Economic and Social Council assembly room, the Green Room of the state radio's Broadcasting House ("Maison de la Radio") the Nikko Hotel and other places.