Some things you must be in Italy to truly experience — the charming unevenness of a cobblestone street, the gooey ribbon of melted, fresh mozzarella stretching from a slice of hot-from-the-oven pizza Napoletana.
Some things you don’t — like sinking into a sumptuous Italian leather couch right in your own living room.
Italy’s always on the cutting edge of everything — fashion, interior design, sports cars — but for years, a prohibitive exchange rate for the euro meant the country’s sleek, modern furniture wasn’t readily available here. A better exchange rate, though, means Italian design will soon arrive in the Southwest, where it works quite nicely. On Oct. 1, Contents Interiors will introduce the trends that blend with contemporary desert living. Owners Carol Bell and Tamara Scott-Anderson remodeled 1,000 feet of showroom into a minimalist Italian apartment to illustrate how an Italy-Old Pueblo mashup would look.
The duo attended the Salone del Mobile Milano — the largest international furniture show — in April to select styles for the Desert Italia collection.
“We felt something was missing in Tucson,” Scott-Anderson said. “We wanted high style, more unique.”
Just as the Italians renovate an old building and retain its rustic exterior but decorate the inside with modern furnishings, Tucsonans can do the same, Bell and Scott-Anderson said.
The Italian style trends that tie-in with Arizona homes:
Leather. Already a mainstay in desert dwellings, Italian-made Gamma furniture is the ultimate upgrade. Scott-Anderson says it’s more luxurious. “This leather, they use only bulls,” she said. “The leather is thicker, yummier.” The line also offers thick topstitching in several different options, Bell added.
Wallpaper. This is not the stuff in your grandmother’s powder room. The Italian version features large, wall graphics rather than a small, repeating pattern, and it looks very textural.
Sleek storage. Once upon a time, TVs — when they weren’t on — were tucked away in wooden cabinets. Today’s TVs are huge and flat and mounted on walls. Still, you need a place to stick stuff. Boxy, minimalist cabinetry with exposed shelves looks contemporary and is practical.
Secret speakers. Miniforms’ Caruso stereo cabinet looks like art with a rectangular base festooned with a trumpet-shaped — or doughnut-shaped, depending on your perspective — speaker. You just plug in your iPod, and the unit doubles as storage.
Hot colors. Big on the horizon are copper and rose-gold along with orange and salmon. Blue, a mid-range shade between aqua and cobalt, complements those sunset-ish hues.
As with all good things, there’s a wait. While it takes about 10 to 12 weeks for something to arrive from America’s furniture hub of North Carolina, it might take around 14 weeks for Italian-made pieces.
“You must have a patience to your being,” Bell said.
The trade-off is you don’t have to tack on a two-hour drive to get what you want.
“We don’t want people to have to go to Scottsdale,” Scott-Anderson said. “Shop local. Tucson’s got high style now.”
