Milan Fair 2011.

The most wanted furniture fair in the world starts today, where the best in the business gather to present their collections to inspire us all.

Sophisticated Home Office by TemaHome Check them out, it's Made In Portugal.

To refresh your memory from last here, click here.

Eclectic Gervasoni.

Gervasoni is an Italian furniture brand which design stands out very gracefully. Mainly outdoor furniture, their design is quite eclectic with a retro twist. I find it just perfect for small holiday houses, cafés by the beach (specially if they're hidden away from the general public eye) and cosmopolitan terraces (surrounded by high bushes).

Sweet 16 sofa, Sweet 41 coffee table, Sweet 27 chair.

Sweet 102 – Sofa in handwoven giant calamus.

InOut 44 pouf – I can see these all over the place in café terraces by the beach. Can you?

Sweet 27 chair is probably my favorite chair by Gervasoni. They style pretty well the space around a swimming pool.

Beautiful armchair – InOut 109
It reminds me SPAs from the 60’s / 70’s. Well, it really reminds my home town. Click here to see some photographs. Next time I go home, I promise I’ll photograph exactly what I’m trying to say here.


I’ve posted about Gervasoni back in February. Click here for more.

Cosy Seats. Cosy Spaces.

Chairs, armchairs and sofas are the core of social spaces whether it’s your living room, doctor’s waiting room, café or hotel lounge…
Here are a few I would like to share with you. Hope you like them too.

Ligne Roset
Quite gorgeous armchair: very welcoming indeed. Good for a tea house, isn’t it?
{love the metal feet contrast}

This collection was presented in Germany last January. Quite nice for contemporary offices’ waiting room. Ligne Roset has always very interesting colour fabrics.

Mood Flexform
This is my very favorite chair by Mood. It’s elegant and very welcoming. First time I saw it, was years ago in purple velvet. Just about right for an hotel suit {or your dressing room}

This is the very long version. Doesn’t lose its elegance and comfy look.

Comfy and just perfect for a doctors waiting room, isn’t it?

One of my favorite articles about style and comfort - A Sofa Is Like A Pair Of Shoes.

Interiors and Furniture Resumé for 2010.

To wrap up every single post I’ve been writing for the last 2 weeks about the most wanted furniture fair in the world, I thought I should come up with a trends resumé of what I’ve absorbed from Milan. There’s so much to talk about, but I tend to edit very quickly and save only what for me makes good spaces.

I don’t see interiors as trendy, but I see trends as an inspiration to design for who’s going to use and / or live in the space. Sometimes they are good arguments for clients to understand how a space will reflect their personality / brief, and all this because, like personalities, each space is different from another.

Please click on each image to enlarge.

Moroso @ Milan Fair 2010.

Moroso is a brand I sit back in admiration. There’s always so much narrative in their furniture.

Their press release ends like this – “Authentic quality and obsessive attention to detail, varied ideas and solutions designed for different ways of inhabiting the spaces of daily life.” How much more accurate can this line be? See it for yourself.



Sushi Collection | Designer Edward Van Vliet

Great line to style a SPA, isn’t it? I can see it facing big windows looking at the sea horizon.

Paper Planes | Designers Nipa Doshi & Jonathan Levien

Very comfy, extremely light, quite architectural. Perfect for Google headquarters, no?

Silver Lake | Patricia Urquiola
Continuous geometries of solids and spaces, with volumes creating multi-faceted shapes. Spaces like waiting rooms or an empty corner in your living room is just about right to have this very comfortable armchair.

Tropicalia | Patricia Urquiola
2008 Collection.

Shadowy | Tord Boontje

Extremely sculptural this outdoor line, it evokes beach furniture in the twenties. It’s just perfect for a discreet restaurant on top of the cliff facing whether sea or a lake.

The Most Beautiful Design @ Milan Fair 2010.

If I have to chose The One, Klara wins. Designed by Patricia Urquiola, this chair is a must have. Extremely feminine, harmonious in its curves and very stylish.

Very graceful, isn´t it? The perfect space? My living room.



The One! - The right colour and right materials option.

Vitra @ Milan Fair 2010.

Vitra will always have a special space in my heart. It was the first manufacture that invaded my heart and taught me the importance of design in our lives, good design!

I remember the first time I saw one of their chairs, the Panton designed by Verner Panton, was in a James Bond Movie. I was very young at the time and I would watch these movies just to dream about being in those super chic & dynamic spaces, dreaming that one day I would live in spaces like that as well as design super chic interiors. Of course at the time we didn’t have internet to Google the image, but a few years later I came across to its manufacturer name – VITRA!

But back to Vitra’s stand in the Milan fair – once again they surprised me for its display simplicity. Instead of having their products as if you see them in a museum or gallery, they recreated home environments. I believe everyone who came across to that stand wished to grab everything and take it home. Each space was within a white cube (like a gallery) but so meticulously displayed it looked like someone was about to arrive, seat down, serve a glass of wine and relax for a moment. Beautiful. Just beautiful.

For seconds the concept reminded me Tracy Emins’ “My Bed” installation, though with a more aesthetic approach, if you know what I mean.



Quite masculine space, but with so many men living on their own, I'm sure many got inspired.





I could buy every single product by them and I’m sure I would never get tired of it. Plus it’s an investment, and we all know it.

Click here to know more about the stand.

Apologies for my shots quality. I didn't have my camera with me. Had to shoot it with my iPhone.

Poltrona Frau @ Milan Fair 2010.

Poltrona Frau wasn’t in the fair like everyone else. They were in Durini Street, Milan's centre where apparently furniture showrooms gather. Their collection was spread in 2 spaces: on the ground floor the brightest collection and on the lower ground floor a more classic colour collection.

Once again, the pallet was quite bright: turquoise and red - a very sexy combination.

Check out the rug - stunning! It had this very old look (though I don't thing it was) bright colours, washed and very baroque inspired.

If you’re looking for a leather sofa, Poltrona Frau is indeed the one to look for. Their heritage is unmistakable.

Even with such splash of colour the brand doesn’t lose its elegance.

What I want to enhance here is the headboard detail: next to perfection.

Showroom overview.

For some reason I love to compare interior design to fashion, and for me button down sofa is like the Birkini by Hermès - a must have classic.





Modello 261c – Museo Storico Poltrona Frau, 1918 (Tolentino, Italy)

Contact European Design Centre for more details.

Interlübke @ Milan Fair 2010.

Interlübke’s display was beautiful as always. They were the most conceptual and pretty display in the last two international fairs I’ve visited. Amazing how they send the message so well with their fitted furniture, which can be used in any space, whether residential or commercial.

Music was the theme, but more than that I like the colour message: Golden Age is really back, and I’m loving it so much - in every sense of the word, actually.





This is a great photo, isn't it?



Please click here to see their stand in Germany last January. My post is more informative and you can see how versatile a fitted brand can be.

If you’re in London and need more info, contact European Design Centre at the Contract Sales Department.