Fratelli Boffi is an Italian furniture maker with a rich history of manufacturing excellence and whimsical design. The company's armchairs, side tables and cabinets feature high-end yet playful modern and Baroque-inspired silhouettes. Each piece contains at least one delightfully surprising element, whether it’s an unconventional shape or a bold color combination.

Artist and woodworker Carlo Boffi established Fratelli Boffi in 1928. Boffi had come to fame in the 1920s for carving exquisite chairs in the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles. He opened a furniture factory in Brianza, where he took commissions from all over Italy. In 1953, the company was passed down to Boffi's sons, Federico, Roberto and Michele. The second Boffi generation continued to run a successful business and even opened a new factory in Lentate sul Seveso.

In the 1980s, Fratelli Boffi took an avante-garde direction thanks to collaborative projects with Italian nonconformist architect and designer Aldo Cibic. The company became known for making furniture in sculptural, eye-catching shapes. The ornate bases of Fratelli Boffi coffee tables and its architectural sofas are excellent examples.

In the 2000s, Fratelli Boffi embarked on numerous collaborations with other celebrated designers. Each year, the company presents new and exciting collections by names like Marc Krusin, Christophe de la Fontaine, Nigel Coates, Giopato & Coombes, Philippe Bestenheider and Ferruccio Laviani.

Today, Fratelli Boffi operates a major contracting division that has been involved in prestigious hotel, office and residential projects around the world. Cibic continues to use Fratelli Boffi furniture in his home designs, as do New York–based designers Greg Dufner and Daniel Heighes Wismer.

On 1stDibs, find Fratelli Boffi seating, tables, storage cabinets and more.

Finding the Right stools for You

Stools are versatile and a necessary addition to any living room, kitchen area or elsewhere in your home. A sofa or reliable lounge chair might nab all the credit, comfort-wise, but don’t discount the roles that good antique, new and vintage stools can play.

“Stools are jewels and statements in a space, and they can also be investment pieces,” says New York City designer Amy Lau, who adds that these seats provide an excellent choice for setting an interior’s general tone.

Stools, which are among the oldest forms of wooden furnishings, may also serve as decorative pieces, even if we’re talking about a stool that is far less sculptural than the gracefully curving molded plywood shells that make up Sōri Yanagi’s provocative Butterfly stool.

Fawn Galli, a New York interior designer, uses her stools in the same way you would use a throw pillow. “I normally buy several styles and move them around the home where needed,” she says.

Stools are smaller pieces of seating as compared to armchairs or dining chairs and can add depth as well as functionality to a space that you’ve set aside for entertaining. For a splash of color, consider the Stool 60, a pioneering work of bentwood by Finnish architect and furniture maker Alvar Aalto. It’s manufactured by Artek and comes in a variety of colored seats and finishes.

Barstools that date back to the 1970s are now more ubiquitous in kitchens. Vintage barstools have seen renewed interest, be they a meld of chrome and leather or transparent plastic, such as the Lucite and stainless-steel counter stool variety from Indiana-born furniture designer Charles Hollis Jones, who is renowned for his acrylic works. A cluster of barstools — perhaps a set of four brushed-aluminum counter stools by Emeco or Tubby Tube stools by Faye Toogood — can encourage merriment in the kitchen. If you’ve got the room for family and friends to congregate and enjoy cocktails where the cooking is done, consider matching your stools with a tall table.

Whether you need counter stools, drafting stools or another kind, explore an extensive range of antique, new and vintage stools on 1stDibs.