In Best of the Best, we honour the brands and people behind the most covetable products. Here are our picks for best home furniture of the year.
Best Rug: CC-Tapis Les Arcs Collection by Charlotte Perriand
Known for her modernist work and belief that better design can improve society, Charlotte Perriand, who died in 1999 at the age of 96, remains among the most celebrated names in the industry. One project, the design of Les Arcs ski resort in the French Alps, on which Perriand worked for more than 20 years, was meant to include a set of striped textile panels, but due to a tightened budget, they ultimately fell by the wayside. The drawings for these textiles stayed filed away at the Perriand archives in Paris for more than 50 years—until 2023, when CC-Tapis launched Les Arcs Collection, consisting of five hand-knotted rugs featuring the previously unseen colour studies by the French architect.
Best Desk: Frank Lloyd Wright by Steelcase Racine Signature Desk
A partnership between two great names in American design, the Frank Lloyd Wright Racine Signature desk by Steelcase reimagines the 1939 piece conceived by Wright for the SC Johnson administration building in Racine, Wisconsin. Originally produced by Steelcase and part of a larger reintroduction in collaboration with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the Racine Signature desk, with its multi-tiered surfaces and trifecta of drawers, remains as stylishly functional in the work-from-home era as it was in the age of manual typewriters.
Best Lighting: Marset Fragile Lamp
Contemplating the quintessential table-lamp shape—round body, conical shade—Jaume Ramírez decided the utilitarian object was ripe for reconsideration. The Barcelona-based designer reinterpreted the silhouette with a refined set of geometric forms. Simple yet elegant, the Fragile lamp, created for Marset, is an all-glass lighting solution (available in either transparent or amber) with a cylindrical bulb running through its centre—an ode to minimalism that boldly puts the lamp’s inner workings on full display.
Best Chair: Living Divani Ark Armchair
The latest in an ongoing collaboration between designer David Lopez Quincoces and Italian brand Living Divani, the Ark chair is a sculptural piece of furniture that encapsulates Quincoces’s bold, graphic style and interest in experimentation. A study in composition, the chair balances straight lines with curves, a heavy back with thin legs, and soft surfaces with steel and wood. For Quincoces, who also runs Milan’s Six Gallery with his partner, Fanny Bauer Grung (part of their architectural office Quincoces-Dragò & Partners), the idea was to create an ‘armchair-object’ that goes beyond just another place to sit. Mission accomplished.
Living Divani
Best Cabinet: Molteni&C Archway Sideboard
Designed by the late Milanese architect and designer Rodolfo Dordoni for Molteni&C, the Archway sideboard is a treasure trove of discovery. Made with a sunken Calacatta-marble top, lacquered sides and a wooden shelf (all customisable), the cabinet opens to reveal a beautifully lacquered interior. Its integrated handles are cut at a 45-degree angle for ease of use—an attention to detail that marked Dordoni’s work.
Best Coffee Table: Gloria Cortina Origin II
Presented by Sean Kelly Gallery at this year’s TEFAF Maastricht, the Origin II coffee table by Mexican designer Gloria Cortina is a monumental piece of furniture. Made from black onyx and white raku-glazed ceramic, each of the five limited-edition tables—the production of which took several months to complete—bears unique markings. According to Cortina, the Origin II is inspired by the creation of the universe. “Darkness and light, sun and moon,” she says. “And the circle and the ceramic insertion are also like two misfits that come together to form a beautiful world of their own.”
Best Outdoor Furniture: Qeeboo Cobble Collection
Qeeboo’s durable, weatherproof Cobble outdoor- furniture set is sleek and inviting, with enough heft to anchor a deck, patio or pool area. Developed by industrial and interior designer Elisa Gargan Giovannoni (wife of Qeeboo founder Stefano Giovannoni, who launched the brand in Milan in 2016), the pieces invoke the playful Italian spirit through form and colour. In addition to neutrals, the tables and chairs are available in a juicy citrus orange and deep-merlot red. The table even has an option for an insertable ice bucket (or plant holder) if you wish, so you can keep a cold bottle handy—a solution that allows the host to keep up with the table-side conversation.
Best Sofa: De La Espada Azores Collection
Envisioned as islands by designer Luca Nichetto for De La Espada, the Azores collection features a configurable set of five sofas and four small tables meant to suit myriad spaces. Each component is named for an island in the Portuguese archipelago, with soft curves that invite long afternoons of lounging. Available in a range of upholstery options—velvet, leather and fabric—the Azores sofas sit on peekaboo timber bases that double down on the island imagery and help ground the assemblage in any decor.
Best Collection: Aman Interiors Migumi by Kengo Kuma
Aman‚ known for its international roster of hotels and resorts, launched Aman Interiors at the end of 2023 as a way for clients to bring the brand’s urbane design sensibility into their homes. In addition to its Foundations collection of furniture, Aman is partnering with leaders in the design industry to produce limited-edition pieces. The first such release, Migumi, is by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and includes a dining table and chair. The material palette—white oak, Calacatta marble, steel—is rooted in environmental connection, and the production (Migumi is handmade in Higashikawa) places a premium on craftsmanship.
Best Kitchen: Reform Column
Conceived as a protest against angular kitchens, the Column, designed by Inga Sempé for Danish company Reform, sits ahead of the curve. Embracing soft edges and rounded details, Sempé’s design eliminates superfluous knobs to create a smooth, uninterrupted shape with handles that stretch from top to bottom—at first glance, blending seamlessly with the cabinetry doors. Sempé laments that most home kitchens today look no different from industrial ones. “Like a sum of cubes. We are obliged to live surrounded by these cubes and I’m fed up with it. I just wanted to do something warm and different.”
Best Accessory: Pulkra Compage Collection
A modular system of concrete table accessories, the Compage set was designed by Martinelli Venezia for Pulkra. Inspired by the Latin root of the word ‘compage’, meaning ‘structure, union’, the designers created the collection with the idea that its individual elements—two trays, a candelabra and an incense holder—could be displayed in different configurations based on the personality and style of the owner. Meditative to look at (the smooth surfaces and thinness of the material come from Pulkra’s processing technique) and even more so to arrange, Compage showcases the potential of a humble material through graceful forms and thoughtful composition.
Best Reissue: Karakter 925 Scarpa Lounge Chair
Introduced in 1966 by the office of husband-and-wife designers Afra and Tobia Scarpa, the 925 Scarpa lounge chair, re-released through Danish brand Karakter, captures the timeless beauty of Italian modernist design. No wonder the armless lounger’s sculptural combination of elegant curves and a stout, angular frame earned it a spot in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Best Kitchen Cabinet: Arclinea Proxima
Proxima is the latest high-performing and professional collection from the luxury Italian kitchen system designer, created in collaboration with famed architect Antonio Citterio. As the name implies, Proxima honours both physical and metaphorical proximity: physically, through the ease with which one can access and use cooking tools, and metaphorically, by diminishing cultural gaps in the preparation and consumption of foods.
“In Proxima, everything is extremely high-performing and evocative of the pleasure of cooking for others and with others,” highlights Citterio. The collection includes a large stainless-steel kitchen island and Hortus, a specially designed mini- hydroponic garden. Another new element is the Inverso column unit, which boasts a sophisticated space- saving system that allows the interior to be completely rotated outwards.
