Notes on Italian interiors

When I first came to Milan to study, I remember wondering: where was all the design? The city behind so much of the furniture and architecture I admired seemed remarkably discreet from the street. Then those heavy doors started opening.

Inside, I began noticing a different relationship with time. Terrazzo carrying decades of footsteps. Old parquet repaired rather than replaced. A remarkable chair beside something completely anonymous. Pieces from different periods living together without any need to explain why.

There is an ease to this layering that I find particularly Italian. Interiors are allowed to evolve rather than being frozen into a single aesthetic moment. The thread connecting everything isn't necessarily a style, but a certain standard of material, proportion and craftsmanship.

In Italy, restraint isn't minimalism. It's confidence with a long memory.

That idea has stayed with me. Choose materials that can age into their beauty rather than out of it. Let different periods coexist. And don't automatically confuse new with better.

Sometimes the most contemporary decision you can make is simply knowing what is already worth keeping.