How I Curate My Space: Martina Mondadori’s Magnificent Milan Apartment

The most eye-catching element of Martina Mondadori’s living area is unquestionable: a vast floor-to-ceiling mural that adorns the walls of the Milan apartment she moved into 18 months ago. It is the handiwork of her partner (life and professional) Ashley Hicks, using a technique she has admired previously – hand-painting onto hessian. “Ashley was so good at finding the idea of something Italian – the ruins of Paestum – for an Italian girl going back to Italy… When I saw what he proposed as a mock-up, I was convinced immediately,” says Mondadori of the chosen subject, as she settles in front of the commanding trompe-l’oeil in her sitting room.

The co-founder of Cabana – the taste-making, bi-annual publication, started in 2014, that has now inspired the brand’s covetable collections of homewares – relocated from London back to her hometown, with her three children, during the pandemic. Having only viewed the apartment once, she was prevented from going back to see it again when lockdown started. “I decided to jump in the dark and confirm it.”

She and Hicks spent the summer putting together ideas for the décor and, once the hessian canvas was on the walls, painting took around four months. Then, she started to bring in the furnishings – some came out of storage, some were custom-made, some were sourced from shops, dealers and flea markets. As is the case with Cabana, influences from her globe-trotting travels and places that are meaningful to her are apparent throughout. A banquette sofa was made in Italy using English fabric; raffia pouffes that used to live in her father’s countryside house were brought out of storage; she added a side table with a teak lamp that came from antique dealer Robert Kime in London; and a flowery armchair that she discovered in Milan.

“I never finish a room the moment I move into a place,” she says. “I think it’s by living in a space, especially a living space like a sitting room, that you actually understand how people move in it, how the light comes in during the day, where you like to sit, what you like to do. I think the most successful rooms are the ones that layer over time.”

The room is rich with natural textures – the hessian on the walls, bamboo chik window blinds, a sisal rug – and dotted with ceramics, plus, of course, plenty of Cabana pieces. The neutral color palette was dictated by the walls, while earthy tones extend throughout the apartment. “The dining room has a lot of terracotta in it, and reds and burgundy. Colors of nature.”

“I love that we put the TV on a painters’ easeI. It’s always hard to have a TV in a beautiful space and to make it look OK – and we didn’t want to hang it because we thought it would be a pity to ruin the wall.”

“My collection of Cabana magazines, from issue one to 17, are displayed on a shelf under one of the side tables. And then all my reference books: decoration books, textile books and art books are all here. I work within the universe of home and, for me, there’s a big connection between a space like this and my work life – because a lot of the inspiration to design a new collection or for a new issue of Cabana comes from books.”

“I had seen what Ashley had done in Albany, his London apartment, which was a view of Constantinople. I thought it would be amazing to do a room like that, so it was a matter of finding the right subject – and that was up to him because it’s not only [finding] the right subject for the person living in it, but it also needs to fit the room.

“[I am particularly drawn by] the perspective of the Paestum columns represented on the walls – it has an almost immersive escapism. It’s like armchair traveling, dragging you into a distant place and time.”