Marble artworks, ornaments and furniture appear throughout this Milanese apartment, designed by Elisa Ossino Studio for the head of Italian stone brand Salvatori.
For Gabriele Salvatori, marble is not just an inherited material, but a family heirloom, having come from generations of craftsmen working with it.
Having grown tired of the apartment’s characterless white surfaces and fixtures, brand CEO Gabriele Salvatori tasked designer Elisa Ossino and her eponymous studio with giving the space a more intimate feel, so he could entertain friends and clients “ in a more convivial context ”
It made instinctive sense to Ossino, that his home should be designed to reflect this devotion and is accentuated generously with marble artworks and furnishings
Casa Salvatori is a minimalist space located in Milan, Italy
The fourth floor apartment is set within a 200-year-old palazzo in Brera, fronting the same courtyard as Salvatori‘s Milan showroom, where the brand sells a variety of natural stone tiles, furniture and homeware.
The classic nature of the apartment, with its standout features such as the fireplace and original Terrazzo floors, has taken on a new vibrancy as a result of the colour palette chosen by Elisa, in which strong tones in a variety of declinations play off each other
Elisa Ossino’s vision was to reinterpret the space, using striking and vivid accents to create three-dimensional pictures, and furniture and objects as bold contrasting points of colour.
” The apartment is like an old lady with some wrinkles… But with an embedded sophistication, you can’t not be touched by ” ……… Gabrile Salvatori, CEO Salvatori
“ It was a great opportunity to show and experiment with the use of Salvatori’s beautiful marble collection in a domestic environment.”I wanted to design an interior that was able to fully tell the Salvatori story, deeply connected to marble manufacturing.”
” The dialogue between marble, colour, and the existing floor looked extremely interesting to me ” ….. Elisa Osseno.
Photos by Germano Borrelli / Ignant
Styling by Elisa Ossino
Lounge Room
The dominance of the roof is a counterpoint to the bold geometric forms of the furniture, each piece carefully selected to be the perfect contrast with the walls in an engrossing dialogue between warm and cool colors.
There are also a selection of pieces by Salvatori scattered around the room’s off-white sofa and wicker armchairs.
These include the Colonnata oak bookcase, which features veiny marble shelf dividers, and a series of vase-like marble ornaments intended to echo those seen in the still-life paintings of 20th-century Italian artist Giorgio Morandi.
Coffee table in Verde Alpi e Cipollino: Proiezioni _Elisa Ossino_Salvatori
Coffee table in Verde Alpi: ‘Love me, Love me not’_Michael Anastassiades_Salvatori
Lamp: Michael Anastassiades
Easy chair: T54_De Padova
Easy chair : Butterfly chair_Knoll
Sofa : Rei_De Padova
Bottiglie in Rosa Perlino, Grigio Versilia e Rosso Collemandina: Omaggio a Morandi_Elisa Ossino_Salvatori
Lamp Floor in Bianco Carrara: Urano_Elisa Ossino_Salvatori
In the living room, the old a partition wall and false ceiling were knocked through to give the illusion of more space.
Ossino introduced coloured pieces of marble to form large decorative artworks, displaying an assortment of three-dimensional shapes.
The inlaid theme continues in the living room where a pair of pictures created entirely in marble remind one of the indelible link between Salvatori and the natural material that lies at the heart of all that the company produces.
Kitchen
The craft of marquetry is reworked in a contemporary key in the kitchen counter unit where Pietra d’Avola and Gris du Marais alternate with Bianco Carrara and Rosa Portogallo marble.
The doors of the unit sit perfectly flush with the counter top and create the illusion of a vast geometric canvas.
Chairs: Miss_Molteni
Dining Table in Rosa Portogallo: ‘Love me, Love me not’_Michael Anastassiades_Salvatori
Bottiglie in Cipollino, Grigio Versilia e Rosso Collemandina: Omaggio a Morandi_Elisa Ossino_Salvatori
Lamp: Flos
Kitchen : Salvatori
Tapware: Fontane Bianche Salvatori + Fantini
Vernice a parete: File under Pop
Internal Hallway
Dining Room
Hues seen in the apartment’s original ripple-pattern terrazzo floors are applied throughout the interiors.
In the dining area, which is centred by a monochromatic marble table, walls are painted dark grey and the ceiling is blush-pink.
Chairs: Rea De Padova
Ding Table in Bianco Carrara e Nero Marquinia: Proiezioni_Elisa Ossino_Salvatori
Lamp in Bianco Carrara: Farfalla_Marco Carini_Salvatori
Vernice parete e bottiglia rosa sul tavolo: File under Pop
Bottiglia in Cipollino: Omaggio a Morandi_Elisa Ossino_Salvatori
Lighting in Nero Marquinia: Gravity_Salvatori
Bedroom with En-suite
The bathroom is a veritable showpiece of Salvatori’s signature textures, such as Tratti where tiles in matt and honed natural stone are interspersed by accents of midnight black aluminium to create an intriguing chromatic interplay between stone and metal.
Slate-coloured marble tiles line the walls of the bathroom, while bolder tones feature elsewhere – from the golden corridors, to the teal-hued master bedroom.
Wash Basins e cassetti in Pietra d’Avola e noce Canaletto cannettato: Adda_David Lopez Quincoces_Salvatori
Lamp a soffitto in Pietra d’Avola: Silo_David Lopez Quincoces_Salvatori
Specchio: Archimede_Elisa Ossino_Salvatori
Lamp in Bianco Carrara: Urano _Elisa Ossino_Salvatori
Accessories in Pietra d’Avola: Fontane Bianche_Elisa Ossino_Salvatori
Tapware : Fontane Bianche Salvatori+Fantini
About Salvatori
The Salvatori brand is known for their novel experimentations with marble that blur the boundaries between design, sculpture, and interior architecture.
Having been in operation for over 60 years, the company has never once strayed from using marble as their primary material.
Gabriele represents the third generation of the company, after his father, Alfredo, and his grandfather, Guido—who is considered industry-wide as the father of Italian stone.
gabriele salvatori at casa salvatori
“ My Nonno, Guido, started the company in 1946 and then my parents took over. When I was about 13, I started coming in during the school holidays and hanging around the production area, generally wanting to help
Natural stone is such an incredible material, and we know it inside out, so of course it’s natural to work with what you know, and love ”
I love to work with people that I like, with an amazing eye for proportions and forms , I am not attracted by superstars just for the sake of having them in my list of designers”. Gabriele also finds reward in discovering emerging designers, too: “I am attracted by the poetry of their work and that’s all I’m interested in
Natural stone is timeless, look how many centuries it has already remained sought after. Of course, tastes change over time, so we have to be smart and interpret trends and use stone in different ways. And the important thing is that it’s already such an extraordinary material that you just need to give it a slight twist or touch and transform it into something even more precious and personal
We’re living in a world where more and more products are manufactured en masse and we’ve arrived at the point where we are realising that we have to slow things down, otherwise we risk losing some of the wonderful traditions and crafts which have been around for centuries.
In a mass-produced world, people are looking for something unique, and there is nothing more unique than stone with its layers of history ”…………………. Gabriele Salvatori
About Elisa Ossino
Architect and interior designer, Elisa Ossino founded her eponymous studio in 2000 in Milan where she leads a team specialising in design, styling and brand image consultancy for leading names in the design sector including Boffi, De Padova, Living Divani, Rubelli and of course Salvatori.
A graduate of architecture from Milan’s Politecnico, Elisa’s approach is characterised by a strong sense of theatre combined with a distinctive touch of indefinable lightness.
Elisa’s first product collaboration with Salvatori led to the Fontane Bianche collection of basins, mirrors and tapware in 2015.
Since then she has designed a number of products including a table collection, the Urano series of lamps and a series of accessories including the widely acclaimed Omaggio a Morandi collection.
