Nesting at Poltrona Frau

Written by Trish Donnally Photography by Angie Seckinger

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It’s a wet and wild night and more than 300 people have popped into Poltrona Frau to celebrate the Italian furniture store’s first anniversary at 1010 Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown.

Leading Washington interior designer Nestor Santa-Cruz, a partner of SKB Architecture and Design, has created a vignette of a living and dining room integrating mid-century antiques with Poltrona Frau’s contemporary leather furniture to mark the occasion.

“It’s showing Italian grace that merges traditional with modernism,” says Santa-Cruz, who used Poltrona Frau furniture, including a white leather sofa, green chair and camel day-bed/chaise, the last with a faux fur throw. He used flat weave, monochromatic graphic rugs from Timothy Paul Carpets + Textiles to define spaces, then accented the rooms with mid-century antiques and flea market finds. Inspired by Italian furniture designer and architect Carlo Molino’s apartment in Turin, Italy, Santa-Cruz massaged certain Molino touches in his own inimitable way.

“Carlo would have had Fornasetti screens; I have a Fornasetti box,” he says. Carlo had dining room chairs by Eames. Santa-Cruz adds an Eames table. Carlo had a giant clam shell in his unique apartment so Santa-Cruz adds a giant clam shell from David Bell Antiques, in Georgetown, to his living room setting.

Santa-Cruz divides the living room and dining room spaces by using the black leather bookshelf unit from the Poltrona Frau CEO Collection designed by Lella and Massimo Vignelli. Santa-Cruz leaves the shelves empty.

“Furniture can also be used architecturally to divide space and to make space look smaller or larger,” Santa-Cruz says.

Meanwhile, as chef Fabrizio Aielli of Teatro Goldoni serves delectable bruschetta and olives from Ascoli, Ezio Mattiace, president and CEO of Poltrona Frau Washington, and the Washington Spaces team welcome design talents. Among them are interior designers Barbara Hawthorn, Lisa Bartolomei, Camille Saum, and architects Ernesto Santalla, Pedro Aguirre, Chiara Lalla, and Sandra Eremic.

“We buy almost all our rugs from Timothy Paul and we’ve come to Poltrona Frau often,” interior designer Lori Graham says. “You can’t beat Italy when it comes to furniture,” her design partner Lindsay Hair adds.

One guest, Sue Baum, a Poltrona Frau customer, agrees. “The product is to die for. If I could, I would get another house and start all over again.”