Metal: Interior Design’s Newfound Alchemy

Thor Svaboe April 18, 2024

With Milan Design Week kicking off earlier this week, we look at the growing use of metal in interior design with a renewed interest. We know this might give you flashbacks of eighties bachelor pads with chrome and black leather, or the tech-coldness of brushed steel, but this is a new and richer world of metal mastery.

Over the last ten years, we’ve seen a new wave of brass, steel, and copper imbued with life and warmth. Italian design has led the way with a new alchemy-like trend of infusing cold metal with vibrancy and warmth. Here are five great examples of statement pieces that might be the finishing touch you’re looking for.

Henge 07 Cage Pure Bookcase

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Henge is a young Italian company carving out a curated furniture niche with an air of quirky cool. Known for collaborations with international design firm Yabu Pushelberg and Dutch artist Maarten Baas, metal is their calling card. Massimo Castagna has designed the Cage Pure, an intriguing 3D brass or steel square tubing piece. With matching shelves, the interplay of light will make it a worthy centrepiece of your lounge or office. And, in addition to its four standard sizes, each Cage Pure is customizable and hand-finished at their workshops in Italy.

De Castelli Canneto Barista

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A steel, copper, or brass sheet will enter the De Castelli workshops and re-emerge with a distinct new personality through brushing, engraving, and oxidation. From wall panel systems to furniture, the company led by Albino Celato is on point and beloved by architects for a reason.

The Canneto series stands out within their furniture range with its pipe-clad surface. The Canneto Barista is a made-to-order sculpture that happens to be a minibar, an object we’ve seen a big revival for lately. The interior is made of Italian walnut and polished stainless steel in two closable parts. The vibrant handcrafted exterior is covered in unequal-thickness copper, brass, or steel piping. Hand-brushed and evocative of the Italian meaning of Canneto, a field of reeds.

Required Objects MK1B Chair

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Required Objects stands out internationally with a limited range of chic minimalist designs. Straddling the line between atelier and furniture producer, Required Objects offers a Toronto-based limited range of objects. We know that the MK1B is a chair, but with its strong presence, it is equally a sculpture with a very unusual origami-like design of waxed aluminum.  The studied proportions have a strict architectural quality and are part of an edition of 12 chairs. With a clean, crisp folded structure, Required Objects can also produce the MK1B in steel and in any powder-coated colour. The clean lines would look good in a fire-popping red, even if the Zen of monochrome aluminum is always right.

Laura Meroni ST10 Chest of Drawers

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Laura Meroni is a multi-faceted brand based in Italy, and their ST10 chest of drawers is a delightful rainbow of metals. With a bespoke interior crafted from a light Italian walnut, the ST10 is a textbook example of how chameleonic metal surfaces can be. It offers rich, warm hues of oxidized and striated asymmetric strips of copper, brass, steel, and iron, flowing like a fall-coloured waterfall from its top. It creates a 3D visual impact by narrowing the patterns in the centre; the vertical metal art flows down through the four drawers. Consider this bespoke storage art created in the Laura Meroni workshops in Milan.

Fendi Casa Metropolis Coffee Table

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Designed by Atelier Oï, the Metropolis coffee table is made from steel in a hand-finished oxidized degradè finish, with a distinct architectural balance to its simple form. With the distinct flavour of fashion brand Fendi’s furniture range, Fendi Casa, the table is inspired by the Pallazzo della Civiltà, a landmark building in Rome. It is known as Colosseo Quadrato (the Square Colosseum) and gives the table its trademark rectilinear shape with its arched legs, topped with iridescent glass in an amber tone.