Decorating & Design

October 7, 2013

Fashion-Forward Penthouse In Milan

If Rome is the Eternal City, Milan is the city of now — of all that’s hot in design and fashion. Though it’s located in the city’s historic centre, this price-upon-request penthouse has been made over with the latest in both design worlds. Let’s start the week with a tour of the three-storey space.

 

The giant terrace — large enough to be divided into three areas spread over two levels — is what first caught my eye about this listing. Sure, you could go to the nearby Parco Sempione and picnic, or you could dine al fresco on your own park-like patio. Keep the fuchsia hue of that table in mind; we’ll be seeing it again later.

 

You climb to the fifth-storey terrace through a glass-enclosed living room, skirting the sculptural modern sectionals on the way. I love the wood slats on the gallery wall at right, which make the greenhouse-like space feel like a real room, and the potted plants, which help create the airy greenhouse feel in the first place. Less wonderful is that white portal, which seems to belong to the stairs but is, oddly, a pace or two from the actual steps.

Continuing downstairs, here’s the dining room on the apartment’s main floor. (The kitchen, TV room, gym, principal suite, and ‘service area’ are also on this floor.) I just can’t get over the combination of the lacquered orange cabinet with the stone-cold floor and slightly more organic wishbone chairs.

 

And here’s that fuchsia again, spread all over the floor and even running up one wall. (It even continues onto the floor of an outdoor dining area, as though its brightness just can’t be contained.) The cabinets and kitchen fixtures are so uniformly sleek and contemporary that I half suspect they were just carted over after Design Week one year.

 

This shot of one of the six bedrooms doesn’t give a very good idea of the room’s proportions or layout, but gives a gorgeous view of that grainy paneling. It really makes the space feel cosy, even snug, in spite of the crisp bedding and white beams overhead.

What do you think? Is this Milan space your style?

For more Milan inspiration, check out Suzanne Dimma’s dispatch from the Salone del Mobile.

Photo Credits:
1-5: Sotheby’s International Realty Milan.