Midsummer Night, Moon River, Wunderkammer: the walls of Lorenzo de Grandis

Some designers start from a chair. Lorenzo de Grandis often starts from the wall around it. For the Italian wallcovering house Wall&decò his studio has drawn papers with names such as Midsummer Night, Moon River, Wunderkammer, Bois d'Hiver and Gli Alisei, and has staged the collections too: for one launch it built a labyrinth of rectangular blocks dressed in wallpaper and mirrors. The studio, based in Carate Brianza north of Milan and active since 2012, describes its trade as communication through images, environments, design, art and graphics, so one hand travels from a catalogue page to a showroom set and on to furniture. The stated language is elegance, harmony and attention to detail, with a continuous search on colour and material that changes with every client.

That search ends up in the office as well. Through La Mercanti, British clients can specify his desks for i4Mariani, the leather-wrapped Nami and the bronze-bladed Milano, alongside the Mood System shelving he drew for the same maker.