Memories from Milan
Milano 2026 Design Fair
I went to the Milan Design Week this year and want to share with you what I saw there.
The number one was the lovely burgundy, rust and terracotta colours everywhere. And I mean everywhere, from bathrooms to living rooms, and I couldn't be happier! I love all those rustic autumn colours. Everywhere I turned, there were stunning displays of this colour combo.
As it happened, I had packed my wardrobe with these shades too and found myself blending in with the tapware and sofas.
In addition to the colours, another common theme was soft, rounded, organic and natural shapes. This was true for bathrooms, kitchens and especially furniture.
BATHROOMS
At the Design Fair itself my favourite section was the bathrooms. I found lots of lovely taps – which we sadly might not be able to get from Australia yet, but I have my hopes up for these Axor and Gessi taps.
Also, there were a lot of free-standing basins with quite interesting materials. Bathrooms seem to be calm and natural with beautiful organic shapes and materials, perhaps to create a respite from the chaotic world this year.
… Or they had had crazy colours, which we’re quite not ready for yet in Australia! Or I’m not.
KITCHENS
The kitchen section of the Design Fair was quite chaotic and claustrophobic at times, and not entirely meant for a person recovering from a knee surgery, as some of us were. Ironically many kitchen exhibitions displayed open plan kitchens, but behind closed doors and walls.
Kitchen materials mixed stainless steel with natural materials: stone and wood. Materials were tactile and interesting to touch. Many kitchens were also rounded, and especially islands had interestingly formed shapes, or the bare minimum, had curved edges.
Basalt by Alessandro La Spada for Visionnaire
I also enjoyed the colourful appliances and gave extra points to Smeg’s cooktop with rounded corners. With all these curves who would want a rectangular cooktop.
One thing I found missing, which we still have a lot in Australia, was the colour green.
There wasn’t green in furniture, or kitchens and very little in the bathrooms. My decision is to ignore that, because I still love green and think it suits perfectly the Australian light.
FURNITURE
Furniture, again, had nest-like comfy round shapes that hug you and protect you from the scary world. I was surprised about the amount of off-white boucle on display – I had thought it is no longer in, but clearly I was incorrect.
A nice thing to mix with soft furniture materials, were stained glass tables, or shiny lacquer. I’m sold.
The furniture display I liked most was not new, but the good old Kartell. I have not been a huge fan of them, but have now completely changed my opinion after seeing their quirky display with matching furniture and art pieces.
FUORISALONE
The Design Week doesn’t only happen at the Fair (Salone), but there are thousands of exhibitions and installations outside, on streets, in parks and shops, restaurants, palazzos and every possible historical building, all around Milan. Quite aptly it’s called Fuorisalone.
We stayed in the old city of Brera, because of my knee, and had booked some of these amazing installations to see and some, for example Prada Frames, we sadly missed out on. (Which means I didn’t get to see the Last Supper painting in Milan, because the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazia was booked for Prada for the whole week. Sad tourist face.)
We got invited to Cosentino launch of their new range, Eclos, with the exhibition designed by Tom Dixon. Where else would you run into 20 other Australian designers, but in an event with free cocktails? We also enjoyed amazing lunch with Unox Casa showcasing what their magic oven can do. If you’d like one of their super ovens, they would happily cook for you too. Plus send a chef to your house to program your 200 most favourite recipes to it.
One of my favourites at Fuorisalone was L’Appartamento by Artemest. Artemest is a high-end furniture and design company and had styled a full building in the most amazing opulent and luxurious style. Each room was different, styled by a different designer and dedicated to a different Italian city. The beauty of it all made my heart sing. It’s not necessarily style we’d be able to use in Sydney – I find people in Australia generally more minimalistic – but it was gorgeous to look at. They also had lots of these burgundy and rust colours that I enjoyed so much.
In hindsight, the most interesting installation I saw, and one that has stayed with me daily ever since was Chasing the Sun by Veuve Clicquot. I must admit I had only booked it because of an opportunity of a sneaky mid-day bubbles, but it turned out to be much more memorable than that.
The exhibition was small and fairly short. It took place in an orange-yellow round room, with a yellow round sofa and a very large orb in the ceiling. The voice of the artist played on the background, talking about joy, optimism and always chasing the sun and happy moments, and at the same time the large orb was pulsing with warm yellow light. The impact of the yellow was nearly instant: within a minute I couldn’t stop smiling. In five minutes I was crying because of happiness.
It was such a powerful reminder of how colours can impact your mood and how quickly it happens. That moment - and the feeling - is definitely something that I will take on. I will include it on my personal life mood board, as a reminder to always chase the positives, sun and happiness.
It was just fabulous.
Another major highlight for me – a bucket list item – was to see opera at La Scala. We saw Turandot, my favourite opera, that I had seen before and which I also have sang parts of at Sydney Opera House, and it was nothing but amazing. La Scala was beautiful, the singers, costumes, dancers and sets were extraordinary. The little box where we sat on bar stools and entered through cabinet doors was surprising. And the little old ladies in our box - humming along the opera and singing out loud to Nessun Dorma (!!) - were intolerable.
Milan overall was exciting and I had the best time with my travel companion, my cousin Marianne. I don’t intend to go back there every year, and the next time when I do, I’ll do more research on brands in advance. The fair was massive, bigger than 12 of our Sydney ICC:s together, and many stands were like apartments, surrounded by walls and ceilings. It was hard sometimes to know which ones were worth the queues.
We saw a lot of design, got inspired, laughed and cried, did some shopping, caught up with friends, had some prosecco, ate gorgeous food and survived 16k steps a day with a recently repaired meniscus (note to self: avoid that bit next time).
Here’s some photos of me blending into the background.
Sari