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If you’ve watched Luca Guadagnino’s 2009 film I Am Love then you’re familiar with the Rationalist architecture of Piero Portaluppi, whether you realize it or not. The mesmerizing Milanese manse Portaluppi designed in the early 1930s for the industrialist Necchi Campiglios serves as the luscious background for Guadagnino’s tale of familial intrigue. Its iconic veranda with crosshatch marble floors host impromptu meetings; its stone staircase allows for more than one dramatic entrance.
“Luxury, as most people perceive it, doesn’t really exist in this house. It’s very severe, and [it] feels almost unmovable, like a piece of rock,” Guadagnino told The New York Times in 2010. Trimmed in walnut, parchment, and, most memorably, richly hued stone, it is at once decorative and disciplined. For many of us these days, that is luxury defined.
“It’s almost like Portaluppi painted with stone,” says Hester Hodde of Gregory Rockwell Interiors, who chose Verde Alpi (what she calls the quintessential green Italian stone) for Paloma Elsesser’s Brooklyn kitchen island. That project—AD’s February 2025 cover story—seemed to cement something we’d been seeing for a while: The Portaluppi palette—deep green, merlot red, and rich wood tones like walnut or rosewood—is having a moment.
In the pages of AD, this distinctly Milanese look has taken root. Consider the Verde Alpi sinks spotted in a Milan pied-à-terre conjured by Giampiero Tagliaferri for a young art collector, or Massimiliano Locatelli’s slick apartment in the same city. Meanwhile, the doorways trimmed in green marble in a Paris apartment by Luis Laplace recall a similar feature in the Portaluppi-designed Massimodecarlo Gallery, one of more than 100 buildings he lent his hand to around Milan.
“We often incorporate deep, lacquered tones of brown, green, and red in our residential and commercial projects,” explains Tagliaferri, who used this spread in his inaugural collection for Minotti, which debuted last year. “These rich colors allow us to either emphasize an architectural element or make a space subtly recede, creating a sense of depth and mystery.” In the aforementioned Milan apartment, for example, he used a dark burgundy hue on the doorways to make them disappear; meanwhile, at the Sant Ambroeus restaurant he designed in Aspen, he used slabs of green marble and a deep forest-hued color on the ceiling.
In the market, this color combo has been finding particular relevance in the bathroom, where countertops, hardware, and more are turning up the drama. Kallista’s new Bezel faucet sports a green stone handle, for example, while Emtek debuted the Rosso Levanto lever in their Select Cabinet hardware line. Ann Sacks, which recently expanded into furniture, showcased a console table at KBIS this year in a rich, veined oxblood that feels straight out of a Milanese entryway. In Elsesser’s jaw-dropping primary bathroom, we see the look retooled for maximum impact, with slabs of red Rosso Francia marble paired with walnut millwork and a Benjamin Moore pistachio hue on the walls. “Red and green together is such a traditional combination—bold, but also classic—and it really lends this historical feeling,” Hodde explains.
“Portaluppi is an interesting reference for our studio, not only for his masterful use of geometry and rich materials but also for his ability to create spaces that feel both grand and intimate,” Tagliaferri explains. “Looking to his sophisticated yet playful approach as an example helps us craft interiors that feel immersive, elegant, and timeless."
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