Matèria
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All the text for the site, from one source file. V1, V2 and V3 use exactly these words; only the layout changes. Reply with the section and the line you want changed.

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  1. In running text the name is written Matèria; MATÈRIA in capitals only where the logo is. Change if you prefer capitals everywhere.
  2. Placeholders: phone +39 02 0000 0000, emails @materia.example, street numbers. They show on the site but are not clickable, so nobody dials a real number.
  3. The armchair keeps the name Nòva from your file name. Other names are Italian words tied to each piece: Sella (saddle), Cumulo (cumulus), Ciottolo (pebble), Lesena (pilaster), Calotta (dome cap), Pastorale (crook), Orcio (oil jar).
  4. “Twelve making our own” counts 2014 to 2026.

Brand story · Studio page

Title
A joinery that made furniture for other people for fifty years
Intro
Matèria is the name the Valli workshop gave itself in 2014, after fifty years of building chairs, sideboards and tables that left Meda with other companies’ labels on them.
Timeline
  1. 1964Ernesto Valli, 31, opens a joinery in Meda with two lathes and his brother-in-law. They make chair frames for larger firms in Cantù and Lissone.
  2. 1979His son Carlo joins. The workshop moves into the building it still uses and starts making whole pieces, mostly sideboards and tables, sold under other names in Milan, Paris and Düsseldorf.
  3. 2009Orders halve in a year. Carlo keeps all eleven people on and takes repair work until it passes.
  4. 2012Tommaso Ferri, an architect renovating a flat in Brera, asks the workshop to build a table he has drawn. It takes four prototypes. He keeps coming back.
  5. 2014Carlo’s daughter Livia and Tommaso start Matèria with four pieces. One of them, the Sella chair, is still the one we make most of.
  6. 2019The showroom opens in Milan, in a former print shop.
  7. 2026Twenty-three people work in Meda. Ernesto, 93, still comes in on Wednesdays.
Why the accent
Italian dictionaries print the word as matèria, with a grave accent, to show where the weight of the word falls. Nobody writes it that way. We put it on the sign because it says where we put the weight.
How a piece is made
  1. WoodWalnut arrives as whole logs, is sawn at the mill and dries in our yard for about two years.
  2. FrameParts are cut, steamed and bent on the ground floor, and joined with mortise and tenon wherever the design allows.
  3. UpholsteryFoam is cut by hand, wrapped in feather and covered on the first floor. Covers are sewn from one piece where we can.
  4. FinishThree coats of hardwax oil, sanded between coats. The person who finishes a piece checks it and wraps it.
People
  • Livia Valli Managing director. Runs production and the yard.
  • Tommaso Ferri Co-founder and creative director. Draws the walnut pieces.
  • Carlo Valli In the workshop since 1979. Makes the bending forms.
  • Studio Baldan Ruiz Upholstered seating, from Venice and Valencia.
  • Ines Corradi Lighting, from Turin and Nove.
Visit the workshop
First Friday of each month, 10:00 to 12:00, Meda. Up to eight people per visit. Book through the showroom form.
Book a visit

Home

Hero title
Fifty years making other people’s furniture. Twelve making our own.
Hero text
Matèria makes chairs, tables, storage and lamps in walnut, wool, brass and stoneware, in the Valli family workshop in Meda, twenty minutes north of Milan.
Buttons
See the collection · Visit the showroom
Intro
Everything is made in one building in Meda.
Frames are cut and steamed on the ground floor. Upholstery is on the first. Finishing happens in the room at the back, where every piece gets checked by the person who will wrap it. A sofa takes about three weeks to make. A sideboard takes five.
Collections
Three families, eight pieces
Featured piece
The arm of the Nòva
A length of walnut, steamed for forty minutes and bent over a beech form that Ernesto Valli made in 1971 for someone else’s chair.
See the Nòva armchair
Materials
Five materials, from people we can drive to
Walnut from a sawmill in Friuli. Bouclé from Biella. Brass from Lumezzane. Stoneware from Nove. Linen from Busto Arsizio. The furthest is four hours away.
Studio
The workshop is open on the first Friday of the month
Architects, clients and anyone curious can see a piece being made. Book through the showroom.
Read about the studio
Showroom
Showroom in Milan

Collections

Title
Collections
Intro
Eight pieces in three families. Everything is made to order in Meda, and most pieces can be built in other sizes or finishes on request.
Ansa · Seating
Seating in steam-bent walnut and wool bouclé.
An ansa is the bend in a river. Every frame in the family has one, bent from a single length of walnut over a form in the workshop.
Fondo · Tables and storage
Tables and storage built from the board up.
Thick tops, solid legs and no veneer on any edge you touch. The outline of each top is redrawn to follow the grain of its boards.
Lume · Lighting
Three lamps by Ines Corradi.
Brushed brass from Lumezzane, shades in linen and stoneware. All three take the same brass neck, so they read as one family across a room.

Products

Armchair · Ansa · Studio Baldan Ruiz · 2019

Nòva

A low armchair with arms bent from one length of walnut.

Each arm starts as a length of walnut 1.4 metres long and 32 mm thick. It is steamed for forty minutes, clamped over a beech form until it holds the curve, then rested for two weeks before it is shaped by hand.

Baldan Ruiz drew it as a reading chair. The seat is deep, the back is low enough to hang an elbow over, and the arms are wide enough for a cup. Seat and back are separate cushions on a webbed frame, so either can be re-covered without touching the wood.

How it is made
Solid walnut arms, hardwax oil
Beech frame with elastic webbing
Foam and feather cushions
Wool bouclé cover
Finishes
Natural walnut · Smoked walnut · Bouclé Latte · Bouclé Sabbia · Bouclé Muschio
Dimensions
Width 82 · Depth 80 · Height 70 · Seat height 40 cm · 19 kg
Made to order in
8 to 10 weeks

Dining chair · Ansa · Tommaso Ferri · 2014

Sella

A dining chair whose back and arms are one curved rail.

The rail that makes the back and both arms is laminated from seven layers of walnut in a two-part mould, so the grain runs unbroken from one arm to the other. The legs are turned from solid walnut and joined with mortise and tenon. There is no metal in the frame.

Sella was the first piece Tommaso Ferri drew for the workshop, in 2014. It is still the one we make most of, about six hundred a year, many of them for restaurants.

How it is made
Laminated and solid walnut, hardwax oil
Mortise-and-tenon joints
Foam seat and back pad
Wool bouclé cover
Finishes
Natural walnut · Smoked walnut · Bouclé Latte · Bouclé Sabbia · Bouclé Muschio
Dimensions
Width 54 · Depth 53 · Height 76 · Seat height 46 cm · 6.5 kg
Made to order in
6 to 8 weeks
Also available
Contract version with fire-rated foam, tested to EN 16139

Sofa · Ansa · Studio Baldan Ruiz · 2021

Cumulo

A sofa made of four rounded blocks, each covered in one piece of bouclé.

Cumulo has no visible frame. Two arm blocks and two seat blocks sit on a walnut plinth set 3 cm back from the edge, so from standing height the sofa seems to rest on the floor. Each block is covered in a single piece of bouclé, with one seam along the back.

The blocks are held together by hidden steel brackets and can be rearranged: as a three-seat sofa, as a two-seat with a chaise, or split into two armchairs. A block can be added later.

How it is made
Poplar and plywood frame
High-resilience foam with a feather wrap
Walnut plinth
Removable wool bouclé covers
Finishes
Bouclé Latte · Bouclé Sabbia · Bouclé Muschio
Dimensions
Width 248 · Depth 98 · Height 72 · Seat height 42 cm · 96 kg
Made to order in
10 to 12 weeks
Also available
Two-seat, W 196 cm
Chaise block, D 160 cm

Coffee table · Fondo · Tommaso Ferri · 2018

Ciottolo

A low table with a pebble-shaped top, 6 cm thick.

The top is glued up from five solid walnut boards, 60 mm thick, and its edge is rounded over by hand until it has no corner left. The outline is redrawn for every table to follow the grain, so no two are quite the same shape.

The two turned legs, 22 cm across, are set off centre so the table can slide under the edge of a sofa. It is finished with three coats of hardwax oil; rings and scratches can be sanded out at home.

How it is made
Solid walnut top, 60 mm
Turned solid walnut legs
Three coats of hardwax oil
Finishes
Natural walnut · Smoked walnut
Dimensions
Width 130 · Depth 72 · Height 32 cm · 38 kg
Made to order in
8 weeks
Also available
W 160 × D 84 cm

Sideboard · Fondo · Tommaso Ferri · 2017

Lesena

A sideboard with a fluted front and rounded ends, on two solid feet.

A lesena is the flat pilaster on the front of an Italian church: it holds nothing up; it gives the wall a rhythm. The front of the sideboard is milled into flutes 12 mm apart, and they carry on round both ends without a joint, because the ends are bent from the same board.

Behind the front are three push-to-open doors with two adjustable shelves in each bay. The inside is oak, left unfinished, so it smells of wood when you open it.

How it is made
Solid walnut fluted front and top
Walnut-veneered carcass
Unfinished oak interior
Push-to-open doors
Finishes
Natural walnut · Smoked walnut
Dimensions
Width 220 · Depth 48 · Height 66 cm · 74 kg
Made to order in
10 weeks
Also available
W 180 cm, two doors

Pendant lamp · Lume · Ines Corradi · 2022

Calotta

A shallow dome of textured stoneware under a brushed brass cup.

The shade is pressed from stoneware mixed with coarse sand, fired once and left unglazed on the outside, so the surface has the grain of plaster. The inside is glazed white to send the light down. The brass cup holds the LED module, and the stem is cut to length when you order.

Ines Corradi made the first shades herself in Nove. They are still pressed and fired there, about forty a month.

How it is made
Pressed stoneware shade, glazed inside
Turned brass cup and stem
LED 18 W, 2700 K, 1,600 lm
Dimmable, DALI or phase cut
Finishes
Stoneware Gesso · Stoneware Argilla · Brushed brass · Burnished brass
Dimensions
Diameter 48 · Height 20 cm · 3.8 kg
Made to order in
6 weeks
Also available
Stem up to 200 cm

Floor lamp · Lume · Ines Corradi · 2022

Pastorale

A floor lamp whose stem curls over at the top like a shepherd’s crook.

In Italian a pastorale is a bishop’s crook. The lamp is one brass tube, 22 mm across, bent cold on a mandrel so the wall of the tube does not thin, then brushed by hand. The shade is heavy linen on a brass ring.

The base is a solid brass disc, 6 kg, turned in Lumezzane. The light falls down and slightly forward, over the arm of a chair.

How it is made
Bent solid brass tube, 22 mm
Turned brass base, 6 kg
Linen shade on a brass ring
E27, LED up to 12 W, foot dimmer
Finishes
Brushed brass · Burnished brass · Linen Naturale · Linen Grezzo
Dimensions
Height 186 · Reach 52 · Diameter 38 cm · 9 kg
Made to order in
5 weeks

Table lamp · Lume · Ines Corradi · 2023

Orcio

A table lamp with a round stoneware base and a linen drum.

The base is thrown on a wheel in Nove and named after the orcio, the round oil jar of central Italy. Its matt sand glaze leaves small pits in the surface, and each base comes out of the kiln a little different in height and shape. We number them underneath.

The linen shade sits on the same brass neck as Pastorale and Calotta.

How it is made
Wheel-thrown stoneware base
Linen drum shade
Brass neck
E27, LED up to 10 W, inline switch, 2.5 m braided cable
Finishes
Stoneware Sabbia · Stoneware Fumo · Linen Naturale
Dimensions
Height 52 · Diameter 36 cm · 4.2 kg
Made to order in
4 weeks

Product page, shared text

Finishes note
Photos show natural walnut and Bouclé Latte. Samples are available at the showroom or by post.
Dimensions note
Centimetres. Other sizes on request.
For architects
Technical sheet (PDF) · 2D drawings (DWG) · 3D model (3DS, OBJ)
Downloads are part of the demo and contain sample files.
Ask about this piece
Tell us the finish and quantity and where it is going. The showroom replies within one working day, with a price and a delivery date.
Related
From the same family

Materials (inside product pages, plus a strip on Home and Studio)

Walnut · Friuli
Italian walnut, bought as whole logs from a sawmill in Friuli.
We buy walnut as whole logs and have them sawn into boards at the mill. The boards air-dry in our yard in Meda for about two years before they come inside. Italian walnut is lighter and more varied than American walnut; we keep the sapwood streaks where they fall.
Care: Dust with a dry cloth. Wipe spills straight away. Once a year, rub in a thin coat of hardwax oil; a small tin comes with every piece.
Wool bouclé · Biella
Looped wool bouclé, woven for us in Biella.
The bouclé is 86 % wool and 14 % polyamide, which holds the loops in shape. It is woven in Biella on a loom that runs our three colours twice a year. It rates 45,000 rubs on the Martindale test, enough for daily use at home and in hotel rooms.
Care: Vacuum with a soft brush. Blot spills, do not rub. Covers are removable on Cumulo; send the others to a professional cleaner.
Brass · Lumezzane
Solid brass, turned and brushed in Lumezzane.
Bases, stems and cups are turned from solid brass bar in Lumezzane, near Brescia, by a firm that also makes valves. It is brushed by hand and left unlacquered on request, so it darkens where it is touched.
Care: Dry cloth only. Unlacquered brass will darken; a brass polish brings it back if you want it to.
Stoneware · Nove
Stoneware thrown and fired in Nove, near Bassano.
Nove has made ceramics since the early 1700s. Our lamp bases are thrown on a wheel there and our pendant shades are pressed from a body mixed with coarse sand. Each piece comes out of the kiln slightly different; we number them underneath.
Care: Dust with a dry cloth. The unglazed surface takes marks from oily hands; a damp cloth and a little soap removes them.
Linen · Busto Arsizio
Heavy linen, woven near Busto Arsizio.
The lamp shades use a heavy plain-weave linen from a mill outside Busto Arsizio, stretched over a brass frame. The weave is open enough to show the light through it and tight enough to hide the bulb.
Care: Dust with a soft brush or a hairdryer on cold.

Designers

Tommaso Ferri
Co-founder and creative director
Architect, born in Bergamo in 1979, studied at the Politecnico di Milano. He came to the Valli workshop in 2012 with a table drawing for a flat he was renovating in Brera, and has drawn all the walnut pieces since.
Studio Baldan Ruiz
Upholstered seating
Chiara Baldan and Joan Ruiz work between Venice and Valencia. They design seating for hotels and theatres and have drawn the upholstered pieces in the Ansa family since 2019.
Ines Corradi
Lighting
Lighting designer and ceramicist in Turin. She fires her own prototypes in a kiln in Nove shared with three other workshops; the Lume shades are still made there.

Showroom

Title
Showroom in Milan, workshop in Meda
Intro
Every piece in the collection is on the floor in Milan, with samples of every finish. Come without an appointment, or book an hour with someone from the workshop.
Showroom
Via Conte Rosso 21
20134 Milano
Former print shop, ground floor, step-free.
Tuesday to Friday: 10:00 – 19:00
Saturday: 10:00 – 18:00
Sunday and Monday: By appointment
Workshop
Via Sciesa 40
20821 Meda (MB)
Visits on the first Friday of the month.
Contact
+39 02 0000 0000 · showroom@materia.example · trade@materia.example
Getting there
Metro M2 to Lambrate, then a six-minute walk. Paid parking on Via Ventura.
Form
Book a visit or ask a question
We reply within one working day.
Trade
Architects and dealers: technical sheets and 3D files are on each product page. For trade prices, mention it in your message.

Forms and footer

Fields
Name · Email · Phone (optional) · City and country · I am · About · Piece · Finish · Quantity · Preferred date · Message
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After sending
Thank you, Giulia. The showroom will reply within one working day. (This is a demo: nothing was sent.)
Sample autofill
Giulia Ferrante, Bologna, Italy
We are furnishing a small restaurant in Bologna and would like six Sella chairs in smoked walnut. Could we see the finish samples at the showroom on Saturday?
Footer
Furniture and lamps made in the Valli workshop in Meda since 1964, under our own name since 2014.
Matèria is a fictional brand made as a design concept. Products, people and addresses are invented, and the forms send nothing.