In designing home surfaces we use a combination of colours and materials which creates a precious shrine showing the house-owner’s sensibility and character. Every surface reveals its soul through a mixture of materials and shades of colours. Every surface tells a story.
The company CAP Arreghini, specialised in paints and varnishes production for the construction industry, embarked on a challenge meant to unveil this story by decorating Il Salotto di Milano walls in Fuorisalone 2023.
The materic textures selected and applied to six surfaces are a tribute to the ancient and precious latin domus, the Roman patrician families’ typical dwelling. It also casts a deeper insight into the everyday and domestic dimension at the time of Antonio and Cleopatra, protagonists of Il Salotto di Milano.
Our deep research into the soul of surfaces enabled us to revive the materials used to build and furnish the ancient domus.
These were simple materials, often found in the natural environment, which had and still have a vibrant aesthetic. Thanks to these materials, valuable and healthy structures could be built according to the needs of their dwellers.
The fragments that stand out from the golden frame are these ancient dwellings remains and vestiges.
By using efficient and safe products, CAP Arreghini wants to offer the opportunity to experience the ancient domus walls’ preciousness.
Wood, mortar, bricks, and even marble, limestone, stuccoes and paint.
The skilful use of these materials gave the domus a solid and, at the same time, airy look which was matched with a careful management of volumes, in which solidity alternated with emptiness. The indoor spaces were rhythmically interrupted by outdoor areas, being light only provided by sunray or candles in a world where electricity was not yet known.
The dark entrance of the domus, in which the faint light of the flame reflected off the mosaic tiles, opened into the atrium, the beating heart of the house, illuminated by an opening in the ceiling.
The renowned Roman triclinia were placed in bedrooms and dining rooms, dark spaces whose frescoes shone in the torchlight. These were opened onto the peristyle, the inner garden of the house, where the almost dazzling light reflected off the clear marble surfaces.
The domus rooms had few openings. The focus was on the marvelous frescoes created by skilled Roman painters, in which still lifes alternated with mythological scenes and astonishing trompe l’oeil framed by painted marble columns.
The archaeological remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum bear witness to the chromatic harmony of these walls: gray and yellow-green marbles are combined with purple and blue stuccoes, light beige travertine forms a backdrop to the gilded and coloured inlays.
Visual sensations coexist with tactile ones: the hand perceives the smooth and cold marble surface, the warm porosity of the plaster and brick, and lingers on the stuccoes reliefs sometimes combined with fragmented mosaic background.
With Antera you will rediscover the ancient taste of a space. The finish, featuring circular patterns and dances of chiaroscuro, adds depth to any room. Its worn out allure, created through a skilful decorative technique, is a tribute to the ancient Roman dwellings. Antera is a precious heritage revealed on a surface.
The decorative effect Morfè creates three-dimensional patterns and unusual shapes thanks to stencils and bas-relief effects. Morfè is creative, but not perfect: a restless and talented soul, it illuminates deep characters in soft or bold colours to highlight their hidden powers.
Liquid as the sea, solid as a rock: this is Neptune. This texture is characterised by a rough and irregular effect in different shades of blue, creating a three-dimensional impression through materic textures. Neptune brings back the ancient technique of Roman decorators who transformed plaster into an elegant marble inlay.
Clear, shining surfaces were the protagonists of the splendour of ancient civilisations. Marmo is as immortal as its soul, and the decorative effect bearing its name is able to evoke preciousness and visual-tactile experiences.
Solidity, austerity and cool colours: the aspect of concrete gives homes elegance and plasticity even today. The soul of Opus travels in time, creating a bridge between ancient construction techniques and contemporary uses of processed and pigmented concrete decorative effects.
Aurea is light. A finish created with crossed brush strokes, it celebrates antiquity by recalling the Roman domus and surfaces embellished with gold leaf. Inspired by the precious metal, Aurea reminds us that every surface is connected to the Earth and its resources. Its soul is spiritual, rich, fascinating and human.
