The Italian Job

Edited by Craig Kellogg -- Interior Design, 4/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

The aerodynamic showroom that kitchen manufacturer Snaidero recently unveiled in West Hollywood had once been painted a nondescript beige. Then, Giorgio Borruso posed a plan to "erase the ceiling and walls." The designer painted the soaring 20-foot-high ceiling and upper portions of walls matte black for a disappearing effect. The shapely showroom offers stark relief against this dark background.

On a 200-square-foot winged mezzanine, steel-framed sidewalls cloaked in white fabric appear ready to take flight. To connect it to the 1,700-square-foot space below, Borruso suspended ebonized oak stairs from stainless-steel cables. Floors are ebonized oak, too.

Seven swooshing ribbons made from elastic fabric stretched over aluminum frames encircle the four kitchen displays on the floor. (The ribbons spin out of a virtual tornado positioned directly over the Acropolis kitchen.) A single ribbon and one egg-shape hanging speaker bear the manufacturer's signature orange color.