Meroni & Colzanicabiate · brianza · mcml Enter the request

Cabiate, Brianza

two benches, one name

One workshop cut and joined. The other stuffed, sprung and covered. They were neighbours in the same district for three generations before the name on the door became one.

Enter the request
Where
Cabiate, Como, Italy
Together
Since the 1970s
Catalog
89 families, 139 pieces
Price
On request
Meroni & Colzani Bellagio furniture, sofa, photographed in a room
Bellagio, sofa

Cabiate, between Como and Milan

Cabiate is a small town in Brianza, the strip between Milan and Como that has made furniture for longer than anyone there can date. The district is dense with benches of twenty or thirty people, each one good at a single part of the job, and the whole trade runs on that division.

Meroni is the joinery half: carcasses, frames, turned legs, veneered panels, stone and glass tops set into bases the workshop welds. Colzani is the upholstery half: webbing, foam, fibre, the covers and the tailoring that shows on the seams.

Neither half is a factory in the sense of a line that runs without an order. Every family in this catalog is built after somebody asks for it, in the cover and the finish they picked, which is why no price is printed anywhere on this site.

what the fifty years bought

Three generations on each bench is the whole argument for the catalog below, and it shows in the places nobody photographs: the corner of a drawer, the seam where a leather arm turns, the way a stone top is carried by a base that will not rock.

The number in the corner of every page on this site is that span, and it is the one figure here that is not on request.

  • Joinery, veneer, turning and stone from the Meroni bench
  • Webbing, foam, fibre and covers from the Colzani bench
  • Rope, iroko and painted metal for the thirteen outdoor families
  • Nothing built before the order, nothing sold from stock
1234width: on the quoteheight: on the quote1coverfabric or leather, by grade2paddingfoam and fibre over the web3suspensionelastic webbing on the frame4framesolid wood, joined in Cabiate
How an upholstered seat is built up, from the cover down to the frame. Drawn to be read, not to scale. The numbers are not on it because the factory publishes none.

the same bench, out of doors

The outdoor line is the newer half of the catalog, and it comes from the same two benches rather than from a separate shop. What changes is the material: a braid of polypropylene where the indoor piece has fabric, painted tube where it has a wooden frame, iroko where it has walnut.

The drawing beside this text is the outdoor seat in section. It names the parts and leaves the numbers alone, because the factory publishes none and this site does not invent them.

both benches work on most families

which bench does what

  1. 01 / 03

    Meroni

    Since
    Three generations
    What it makes
    Carcasses, frames, turning, veneer, stone and glass tops
    Where it shows
    Storage and tables
    Price
    On request
  2. 02 / 03

    Colzani

    Since
    Three generations
    What it makes
    Webbing, foam, fibre, covers and the tailoring on them
    Where it shows
    Sofas and armchairs
    Price
    On request
  3. 03 / 03

    Both, outdoors

    Since
    Since the newer line
    What it makes
    Braided rope over painted tube, iroko, quick-drying cushions
    Where it shows
    The outdoor line
    Price
    On request
The two workshops, and the part of a piece each one owns

the outdoor line, first in the ledger

a first page to open

an order

ask the two houses

Write with the room or the terrace, and the families that caught your eye.

After you send it A person reads it, not a robot, and the reply comes by email within one business day. It carries the covers and the finishes that are open on those pieces, the lead time the workshop gives, and the freight to your city. Nothing is charged on this site and there is no cart anywhere on it.

The city, and the room or the terrace. It sets the freight and the covers.

Families and finishes, and a date if you are working to one. A floor plan or a photograph can follow by email.

Your address is used to answer you and for nothing else. No list, no third party.