furniture and cars. The odd pair works. Some of the luxury brands have had a line of home and office furniture for a number of years. The legendary English company Aston Martin launched its first collection of furniture and accessories for the home in 2011. And in 2015, Italian brand Lamborghini created its line of home and office furniture inspired by Formula 1 racetracks. To break into the interior design market, both companies partnered with Italian house Formitalia Luxury Group, which manufactures these unique pieces and exclusively worldwide sells world.
His customers are top-class, they are the same ones who buy his cars for over 100,000 euros. They are looking for sophisticated and quality pieces for their home or business and price is never the issue. For example, you spend €3,400 on an Aston Martin floor lamp or €2,400 on a table lamp.
The L-sofa V297 from the same company costs 29,800 euros (excluding taxes) and is one of the most popular products according to the Formitalia Group. The V298 bed is sold for 15,200 euros. Both pieces were presented at the Milan Furniture Fair last June. The collection focuses on living rooms and bedrooms with a minimalist style, playing on the contrast of materials: fabric, leather, gold lacquer…
Tonino Lamborghini Home, the furniture brand of the Lamborghini family, creates pieces that play with creativity and engineering, elegance and technology at the same time. They are pieces of furniture that show the passion for the automotive world, with clean and sharp lines, dynamic shapes, timeless design and refined materials. An example are the pieces for the office: his desk has a leather top, gold-lacquered legs and carbon fiber inserts and his retail price is 36,000 euros. His leather office chair is sold for 5,850 euros.
Sofa designed from a Bel & Bel Seat car.
Other alternatives
They are pieces beyond the reach of most mortals. However, huge amounts of money do not always have to be spent to furnish a home without resorting to the usual mass production of large furniture chains. Bel & Bel is a Spanish brand founded in 2005 by designers Jesús Bel and Carles Bel, graduates in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona, who began their adventure working with waste materials. His designs are known for turning classic vehicles into vintage furniture. The result is one-offs and limited series that are slightly cheaper to purchase.
From his workshop in Viladecans (Barcelona) comes his flagship product, the Scooter Chair, an office chair built on the front chassis of a classic Vespa. “As well as reusing some of the most distinctive parts from different models of previously restored classic scooters, we use high quality materials for the finishes. We take care of the smallest detail of the chair so that it is not only comfortable but also durable,” says Bel. The chair can be customized by choosing the color of the outer structure, the type and tone of the upholstery – it can be natural or eco-leather – or the frame – fixed or with wheels. In addition, extras such as chrome armrests, logos on the rear, turn signals or an original wheel can be included.
Office chair by Tonino Lamborghini.
The sofas from a Seat 600 are also a classic from the Catalan brand, which has a total of ten pieces of furniture in its portfolio that are handcrafted to order. “Some objects like the sofa can take a month to make,” says Carles Bel. “We want our pieces to highlight some of the designs from the past that we admire, like the mythical Corradino d’Ascanio motorcycle or our beloved Seat 600, which were somehow made to last a lifetime,” he says. His philosophy is creative recycling or upcycling.
The office chair costs from 1,500 euros, without taking into account the extras (armrests or indicators, each 100 euros more. With natural leather it is another 120 euros). The sofa will be sold at a price starting at 6,000 euros. “Our buyers are both companies and individuals, and their targets are offices and homes and even TV programs. This year we made around 70,000 euros in sales and made profits from the first year,” says the co-founder. Its furniture is exported to Japan, Taiwan, the United States, Italy, the Bahamas and the Philippines.