From the Archive: The Fornasetti Family Home Is as Delightfully Surreal as You’d Expect

This article originally appeared in the January 2013 issue of ELLE DECOR. For more stories from our archive, subscribe to ELLE DECOR All Access.

As the head of his family’s design firm, Barnaba Fornasetti has an innate sense for reinterpreting the whimsical furniture and decorative objects created by his late father, Piero, whose inimitable style has captivated the design world for decades. At his home in Milan, Barnaba has been just as faithful in honoring tradition, turning the ancestral residence into a living tribute to the Fornasetti style.

A bedroom features Fornasetti’s Nuvole wallpaper by Cole & Son, a chair with a Corinthian-­column back, and a 1950s chest of drawers; the Antonangeli Illuminazione table lamp is from the ’90s, and the Italian gilt-wood mirror is 18th century.

Located in the Città Studi district, the red, Venetian-style villa is tucked away in the shade of an old garden. Inside, the rooms brim with furniture and curios—screen-printed trays, ceramic vases, a bar cart adorned with trompe l’oeil bows—that skirt the line between decoration and art. “It’s a house that almost overwhelms you,” he says, “but I’m so used to it that I couldn’t live any other way.”

The 1950s table in Barnaba’s office was a collaboration between his father and Gio Ponti; the chairs and the Roubini rug are both Fornasetti designs.

An elegant man, Barnaba is soft-spoken and charismatic. “The collaboration with my father began when I was four years old,” he says. “I picked a leaf with a small hydrangea flower attached to it, and he used the motif on a tray.”

Framed drawings by Piero on display near the staircase.

It was not Piero’s only partnership: Over the course of his career, the elder Fornasetti—a talented artist, designer, printmaker, and decorator—joined forces with many of the greats of his time, including Lucio Fontana, Giorgio de Chirico, and Gio Ponti. His more than 11,000 creations, which range from plates to bureaus to folding screens, blend neoclassical and surrealist references with elegance and humor.

The dining area’s table, chairs, and floor tiles feature Forna­setti’s Ultime Notizie motif, the dishes are in the Architettura pattern, and the convex mirror is from the Litomatrice series; Barnaba designed the Fender Stratocaster guitar, and a 1930s painting by his father hangs on the wall.

Today, Piero’s exquisite furnishings fetch dizzying prices at leading auction houses, while other designs dating from the 1950s to the ’80s remain in production. Barnaba also mines the firm’s archives for inspiration, constructing new limited-edition pieces in collaboration with international galleries. “It comes naturally to me,” he says of keeping his father’s work alive. “This has always been my life. I see furniture and decoration as a way of being and as a means of injecting joy into a world otherwise obsessed with minimalism.”

Forna­setti ceramics line the living room mantel, and the cocktail table is from the Armistizio collection.

In the early days of the atelier, Fornasetti’s eccentric style may have attracted a particular clientele, but now the company counts fans across the globe. “The pieces have a contemporary look, but they’re not trendy,” says Barnaba.

In a guest bedroom, aquatic-themed trays are arranged against Fornasetti’s Corallo wallpaper by Cole & Son; the bar cart and chair are also by the designer.

“I’m trying to take the brand forward by reinventing it,” he continues. “My father was a pioneer in this field, mixing iconography and nods to history. Even though he was an incredible artist in his own right, he incorporated other people’s images, often making those more recognizable than his own.” Today, there’s no mistaking where the credit is due.

Originally published in ELLE DECOR India.

This story originally appeared in the January 2013 issue of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE