Bright hues abound in the stunning Udine hideaway of the Italian designer.
An Italian oasis to call home is on a lot of people’s wishlists. Few, however, would think to look for it in Udine, the northeastern city in the lesser-known Friuli-Venezia Giulia region – unless you’re Patrizia Moroso, that is.
Despite the Italian design scene revolving around the Lombardy capital of Milano, it was here, 20km from the Slovenian border, that the Italian furniture designer discovered the hideaway she was to make her home 15 years ago. Although she has had a long history with the city by virtue of it being where her parents founded their design company, Moroso, in the 1950s and where she has worked as art director since the 1990s, she discovered her sanctuary quite by chance. “I was pregnant with my third child and my two eldest were crazy, terrible boys! I needed a house with a garden so they could live outside,” recalls Moroso, who was living in an apartment not far away in the historical centre with her husband, the artist Abdou Salam Gaye, and growing brood. “One day, I was out walking with a friend and I looked over a fence and saw a kind of wild paradise full of plants and trees. I tried to find the owner to see if they would sell the place.”