Achille Salvagni Atelier

Known for his use of luxurious materials such as precious metals, warm woods and even gemstones in his extensive range of tables, lighting and decorative objects, Italian architect and interior designer Achille Salvagni is widely collected and celebrated by design enthusiasts around the globe.   

Born in Rome in 1970, Salvagni was raised in a home that was filled with an eclectic mix of early 20th-century furniture and objects, thanks to his father’s buying tours of art and furniture galleries in Milan and Rome. Salvagni’s father was a key influence on his early interest in art and design — the younger Salvagni began drawing furniture at the age of 10. He would later find inspiration in the work of modernist architects like Alvar Aalto and Erik Gunnar Asplund.

Salvagni attended Sapienza University in Rome, obtaining a degree in architecture in 1998. He subsequently won a grant to study at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. 

In 2002, Salvagni founded his architecture firm Salvagni Architetti where his early projects included supermarket interiors, grand Italian apartments and yacht cabins. In 2007, he won an award at the World Yacht Trophies in Cannes for his work on the M.Y. Mikymar, a 120-foot, four-cabin yacht. 

Salvagni’s reputation for his sleek, lavish interiors drew acclaim from critics and fellow designers, and he soon established an elite global clientele. Although his primary focus was on interior design, Salvagni often found himself creating furnishings to complement his decorating projects.

While Salvagni draws from a wide range of historical elements in many of his furniture designs — for example, his Lancea table lamp is inspired by a voluminous skirt worn by Queen Elizabeth I — the influence of Art Deco can be seen in some of his coffee tables, wall sconces, side tables and chairs.

“Art Deco is the perfect balance between the past and the future,” Salvagni once said. 

Salvagni has exhibited at several galleries worldwide, including Maison Gerard in Manhattan and the Laguna gallery in London. His first show at the former took place in 2013, and designers like Amy Lau, Victoria Hagan and Jamie Drake bought pieces on behalf of clients. Salvagni's works have also been shown at PAD exhibitions in Paris, London, Monaco and Geneva. 

Find Achille Salvagni decorative objects, seating, storage cabinets and other furniture on 1stDibs.

The road from early innovations in reflective glass to the alluring antique and vintage mirrors in trendy modern interiors has been a long one but we’re reminded of the journey everywhere we look.

In many respects, wall mirrors, floor mirrors and full-length mirrors are to interior design what jeans are to dressing. Exceedingly versatile. Universally flattering. Unobtrusively elegant. And while all mirrors are not created equal, even in their most elaborate incarnation, they're still the heavy lifters of interior design, visually enlarging and illuminating any space. 

We’ve come a great distance from the polished stone that served as mirrors in Central America thousands of years ago or the copper mirrors of Mesopotamia before that. Today’s coveted glass Venetian mirrors, which should be cleaned with a solution of white vinegar and water, were likely produced in Italy beginning in the 1500s, while antique mirrors originating during the 19th century can add the rustic farmhouse feel to your mudroom that you didn’t know you needed.

By the early 20th century, experiments with various alloys allowed for mirrors to be made inexpensively. The geometric shapes and beveled edges that characterize mirrors crafted in the Art Deco style of the 1920s can bring pizzazz to your entryway, while an ornate LaBarge mirror made in the Hollywood Regency style makes a statement in any bedroom. Friedman Brothers is a particularly popular manufacturer known for decorative round and rectangular framed mirrors designed in the Rococo, Louis XVI and other styles, including dramatic wall mirrors framed in gold faux bamboo that bear the hallmarks of Asian design. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, mid-century modernism continues to influence the design of contemporary mirrors. Today’s simple yet chic mantel mirror frames, for example, often neutral in color, owe to the understated mirror designs introduced in the postwar era.

Sculptor and furniture maker Paul Evans had been making collage-style cabinets since at least the late 1950s when he designed his Patchwork mirror — part of a series that yielded expressive works of combined brass, copper and pewter — for Directional Furniture during the mid-1960s. Several books celebrating Evans’s work were published beginning in the early 2000s, as his unconventional furniture has been enjoying a moment not unlike the resurgence that the Ultrafragola mirror is seeing. Designed by the Memphis Group’s Ettore Sottsass in 1970, the Ultrafragola mirror, in all its sensuous acrylic splendor, has become somewhat of a star thanks to much-lauded appearances in shelter magazines and on social media.

On 1stDibs, we have a broad selection of vintage and antique mirrors and tips on how to style your contemporary mirror too.