What did you have in mind?
Trade terms for professionals and design studios
In Horo the long table is where the collection's signature detail is easiest to read. A LINE meeting table is assembled from end pieces and a centre profile in painted aluminium, so the stripe that marks the LINE desk runs down the middle of the boardroom as well. Six lengths, from 240 cm (94½ in) to 680 cm (268 in), all 126 cm (49⅝ in) deep, let the table follow the room instead of the room bending round the table. In a family of contemporary executive desks, that continuity is the first detail worth checking.
Top access can be built into the LINE surface. Our advice: fix its position as soon as the length is agreed, because at 560 or 680 cm the people in the middle sit a long way from any wall socket. For a smaller director's own office the PURE tables are the other route: 240 cm, 270 cm with rounded ends, or round at ø 120 cm (47¼ in), with plain uniform surfaces on a metal frame that comes in six colours, Bosco and Grigio Fango among them.
Antonio Morello designed the collection for About Office, Ancona, and it goes well beyond the table: three desks, PURE, LINE and JOIN, the PURE and LINE meeting tables, the BLEND service unit, the LOOP bookcase, including a multimedia version for the screen, and the LIFT sideboard. La Mercanti lays both table families on the client's floor plan and settles the length with them before a single finish is discussed.
Tell us which finishes you'd like to assess
LIFT is the sideboard of the collection. It comes 180 or 270 cm wide (70⅞ or 106¼ in), 50 cm (19⅝ in) deep and 71 cm (28 in) high, plus a taller 270 cm version at 112 cm (44⅛ in). The low ones sit under a window or a screen; the tall one gives a meeting room storage at standing height without bringing in a cupboard.
LOOP stands on painted metal uprights that echo the table frames, with wide shelves and a structural back panel. The grid takes four or five shelves, open or with doors, fluted ones included. Widths are 180.2, 225.2 or 270.2 cm (71 to 106⅜ in), 49 cm (19¼ in) deep, at 107, 153 or 199 cm (42⅛, 60¼ or 78⅜ in) high, so one model can run under a window or fill a wall.
Six painted colours, from a quiet Grigio Fango to Nautilus or Bosco when the frame is meant to be seen. The same six apply to the painted aluminium profile of LINE. PURE was given new frame colours precisely so that frame and top can be matched tone on tone or set in contrast, which is a decision to take with the samples side by side.
In Horo it is one of three families, alongside lacquer and, on PURE, Laminam. The melamine range includes Frassino Carbone, Noce Boheme and Eucalipto, and LINE uses flamed melamine finishes that play against its aluminium profile. Meeting tables take the same melamines as the desks, so a room can be specified in one finish code from desk to table.
On JOIN the modesty panel slots into the top with geometric precision, and the frame is a sequence of lines and right angles. It has two cable outlets that can be matched to the frame finish. JOIN comes in three set-ups rather than four, and its tops are melamine or lacquer: the porcelain stoneware option belongs to PURE only.
Five decisions turn the Horo desk from a catalogue entry into a workstation that fits one room and one person, in the order that saves the most second thoughts.
Horo offers three desks with one footprint. PURE shows a metal frame holding the top, LINE an aluminium strip set into the top, JOIN a modesty panel that slots into it. Decide which detail you want to look at every day, because everything after this follows from it.
Each desk comes 200, 220 or 240 cm wide (78¾, 86⅝ or 94½ in), always 94.5 cm (37¼ in) deep and 74.5 cm (29⅜ in) high. Draw the desk on the plan with the chair behind it and the door in view: the right width is the one that still leaves a clear walkway round it.
PURE and LINE come free-standing, with a part or full modesty panel, or with the extension; JOIN in three of those set-ups. The extension measures 100 × 60 cm (39⅜ × 23⅝ in) and gives a second working surface for papers or a visitor's laptop.
An under-top storage box can be fitted beneath the desk, and top access and cable outlets with EXIT or VERSAFLAP caps can be built in. Mark the floor sockets on the drawing first, then place the outlet where the cables will actually come up.
Tops come in melamine, in 20 lacquers with GREENGUARD Gold certified paints or, on PURE only, in Laminam; the frame in six painted colours. Choose the frame colour first and then the top, tone on tone or in contrast, with real samples under the light of the room.
