Start with Art – 28th April 2016

The Minoli flagship Showroom in London, The Surface Within, became the centre stage for guest speaker Paula Lent, the Art Consultant and Director at Artmasters, and for the latest collections of Minoli’s porcelain tile ranges. Paula entertained guests with an enlightening talk on how art can add value and enhance the interior design of a new build development or renovation project.

Minoli’s stylish flagship showroom was a fitting setting for the event. Over 100 guests attended including interior designers from Ralph Lauren, LINLEY, DAPA, Honky, OS Designs and many more notable brands, as well as leading house builders, developers and retailers.

The evening was supported by Santome Prosecco, in keeping with Minoli’s Italian roots, while Home House, the private members club on Portman Square, adjacent to the Minoli showroom, supplied the canapés and service, which as ever was second to none.

Guests were able to take advantage of exploring the very latest Minoli launch of Italian produced large format porcelain tiles during the event. Star billing went to the new Marvel XL, an extra large addition to the exquisite Marvel series, in 120 x 120 and 120 x 240 cm sizes. The new Marvel Brick also caught the designers’ eye, an extension of the Marvel series that subtly emulates a brick wall pattern to bring texture to bathrooms and kitchens.

Paula treated guests to an exploration of the relationship between the art industry and interior design. Offering examples of case studies that she had previously worked on whereby she had worked with interior designers both, on properties where they designed around the art collection, and cases where the art was added afterwards. Paula demonstrated how it is possible to mix 18^th century art with photography and contemporary pieces and illustrated her presentation with stunning imagery of the various projects in her extensive portfolio.

Suiting a range of budgets, Paula tailored her talk to appeal to every guest in the room. Paula’s expertise and commercial acclamations have been demonstrated in the examples of her previous work in £50 million mansions to £500,000 apartments. Her skill of combining fine art with work from graduates to photography was evident throughout her presentation and appreciated by guests.

Jonathon Minoli commented “Minoli have a history of supporting and recognizing the value that art gives a home. Our products can be used in many interesting ways to enhance a home and it was interesting to learn how to combine the old with the new in Paula’s presentation.”

Paula appropriately ended the talk by discussing porcelain as an art form, using a examples of the new porcelain ranges within the showroom demonstrate the artistic link.