Italian designer offers colorful inspiration for loft
If you are a design junkie, a number of publications will satisfy your cravings. One of the most unusual and beautiful is a book called “Italian Designers at Home” by author Alessandra Burigana and photographer Mario Ciampi (published by Verba Volant). What makes this book stand out from the crowd is that it shows not only examples of Italian design but also how designers have integrated their work into their own homes.
We all know of Italy’s contribution to the design scene of the last 50 years. In this book we get a glimpse of the philosophies of the most gifted Italian designers. They tell their stories and explain their work, which encompasses furniture, objects, and interior and architectural design. The settings for their work include not only modernist buildings but a fair number of spectacularly ancient buildings as well. “Italian Designers at Home” makes most coffee table books pale in comparison.
Q: I live in a converted city loft with the usual factory wooden floors and worn and poorly finished wooden ceiling. I think it must be new but made to look original.
There are thousands of such apartments, and they all look industrially the same. Any ideas on how I can make the space more cheerful and not minimal? I do like modern design.
A: I always try to find a photo in my files to illustrate the article and my answer to questions. It’s not always easy. This photo can give you some ideas as far as the floor and ceiling and some color ideas. It was taken from “Italian Designers at Home.”
The floor, as you can see, is marble. Well, you may not be able to afford marble, but check out the price anyway. Then look at some large-scale ceramic pavers that look like stone or marble, as well as other possibilities such as low-pile carpet tiles. The wood on the ceiling could easily be the same color as the walls, spray-painted white to make it more cheerful and hopefully not like a machine shop.
The photo shows a very modern way to bring some interest and color into a space. It is a space in a renovated building adjoining a Palladian villa, where at one time the farmers lived and worked. It is now the home of Cleto Munari, who has produced objects in collaboration with some of the greatest designers in the world.
Even though furnishings are minimal, brilliant colors are used to good effect in furniture, wall panels and doors. It becomes a setting and an unusual design statement in an industrial space.
If such a minimal and avant-garde look doesn’t suit your taste — and I must admit it is not everyone’s cup of tea — such spaces can often be treated with a mix of traditionally designed furniture. For example, if the bones of your space, the furniture and color choice were as they are in the photo, it would be interesting to add a Regency- or even Victorian-style sofa with an area rug in a geometric Turkish design, along with some realistic, even academic, paintings. So go for it!
Rita St. Clair is a syndicated columnist with Tribune Media Services Inc. E-mail general interior design questions to her at rsca@ritastclair.com.