Exhibitions

Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023: wood furnishings and accessories

Text by
Laura Barsottini
Add to bookmarks
gebruder thonet vienna, wood, furniture, salone milano

Gebrüder Thonet Vienna at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023, ph. Margherita Bonetti

Natural, sustainable and eclectic – it’s the hero of interior design of the future 

Wood proved once again to be one of the prime materials for the brands exhibiting their products at the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023, both for its sustainable characteristics and for the ancestral - or perhaps utopian - meanings that it inevitably takes on. The trend was to keep it as natural as possible, with opaque and see-through finishes ensuring that the grain was the star of the show; lines were minimal, playing on delicate curves, often achieved thanks to craft skills honed over time.

Among the new creations of the historic Austrian brand Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, the new Mickey, a comfortable armchair with generous dimensions designed by India Mahdavi, and the enveloping Hagu chair by Ed Ng, co-founder of the international design studio AB Concept at its first collaboration with the brand.

Janus et Cie chose to team it with extremely textured materials for its new Ares dining and sitting room collection, combining the solid, FSC certified and finely polished wooden table and coffee tables with Carrara marble, and deep cushions for the chair and sofa seats. 

maruni, wood, stand, salone milano, wood table

Maruni at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023, ph. Andrea Mariani

Maruni harnessed the material for some of its all-wood workhorses. The EN chair, by the Danish designer Cecilie Manz, chimes with the round maple wood table in the same collection, and the ash Hiroshima Armchair by Naoto Fukasawa.

Ritzwell plumped firmly for wood for its new extra-large version of the T table, which can seat up to 12 people. The top is an extraordinary plank of solid wood. 

ton, wood, stand, salone milano, wood chairs

TON at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023, ph. courtesy

The modular P.O.V. table system presented by TON in 2021 now also includes rounded triangular coffee tables boasting an almost organic look, achieved by putting together three sheets of curved plywood. 

The name itself is a clear pointer to the material championed by the Very Wood brand. Its latest products are the Bowie chair by the Swiss designer This Weber in multilayer ash, inspired by the inflatable bow kite used in kiteboarding, and the small Sisters armchair by Rodolfo Dordoni.

more, wood, stand, salone milano

More at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023, ph. courtesy

Gabriele and Oscar Buratti’s Yaku collection for Gervasoni is a real paean to wood: the components of the table and bench boast sharp lines which create a delicate vanishing point and look as though they’ve been assembled by means of an interlocking technique. 

Wood teamed with a contrasting material characterises MORE’s Avar table, in which an imposing solid wood top is supported by a pair of A-shaped marble trestles. The same also goes for Toan Nguyen’s Joss sofa for DISTRICT EIGHT, its monolithic seat accentuated by the curvature of the solid wood base.

nomon, wood, stand, salone milano

Nomon at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023, ph. Alessandro Russotti

A leader in the manufacture of decorative wood composite surfaces, Alpi together with Konstantin Grcic have explored the possibilities of playing with colours, leading to the two new Arcobaleno and Raggiosole woods, in which the nuances of the colours give an illusion of natural grain. 

Wow effect for the Effetto 71 ping pong table by Teckell, from the Turin studio Adriano Design, with the 15 mm extra-clear tempered glass top supported by a sculptural structure in American walnut, and for the Rara Avis side table by Nomon, signed by Mermelada Estudio, artistic stylization of a wooden bird with Rosso Levanto marble base.

Lastly, the outdoor Om Wood parasol and the Trama Chair from Calma are suggestive of creative, kinetic relaxation. Designed by Andreu Carulla, artistic director of the Catalonia-based outdoor furnishing brand (Spain), the former boasts an innovative unfolding mechanism that makes for a  constantly-moving play of shade, and the latter, a reinterpretation of one of the brand’s classics, boasts an almost hypnotic succession of slats.