Quintessential Italian Style Puts Down Roots in New York

2024.06.04

If there’s a single word to characterize the made-in-Italy furniture collections by Meridiani, it’s timeless. Whether you’re looking at a single sleek sofa or a fully furnished space, what you notice first is how each piece bridges tradition and modernity, resulting in an aesthetic balance that works within any decorating style. Which should be no surprise: Meridiani has been delivering the sophistication and comfort Italian furniture is known worldwide for since its inception in 1996.

While that timelessness and what the company calls its “pure Italian soul” are the hallmarks of its furniture, the company itself is truly global, and distinctly of-the-moment. The ever-expanding brand is now distributed in more than 50 countries, with flagship stores in cities including Milan, Rome, Singapore, Paris, London—and, as of October 2023, New York.

The new Manhattan location, at Lexington Avenue and East 32nd Street in the NoMad design district, was conceived by Andrea Parisio, the brand’s designer and art director. The elegant two-level space serves as a representation of Meridiani’s expertise in top-to-bottom residential projects, with living, dining, and sleeping areas that are well defined while also subtly flowing into one another for a cohesive experience.

The store will showcase both recent collections and the brand’s most iconic pieces. For example, right now the recently launched Max modular sofa takes center stage in a living area. The linear Max, with its clean lines and precise angles, can be configured to suit different room sizes and seating needs, and side tables can be inserted between cushions or at the ends, providing utility and textural contrast. Also in the room: the new Nora armchair (shown above in brown), designed by Parisio himself, which has a playful curvy shape and can be upholstered in fabric, leather, or a combination, with either solid wood or fabric-covered legs.

In nearby dining-area displays, two configurations (among what seems a limitless set) of the Gong table—another Parisio design and one of the brand’s bestsellers—act as a calling card for Meridiani’s design versatility and facility with creating eye-catching combinations of colors, shapes, and materials. Both the base and the top of this striking sculptural table, shown here in just two of many variations, can be customized in glass, lacquer, marble, metal, and wood, and in an array of hues.

The design of the store itself frames these pieces and others with a layout that spreads across the considerable depth of the building; the monochrome white-and-ivory palette serves as a clear design throughline that readily adapts to each of the different environments. It’s what we’ve come to expect from a company that, as Parisio says, knows “how to make new collections communicate with previous ones,” constantly innovating but always emphasizing fabrics and materials for a character that is “intensely Italian but with an international inspiration.”