The Lacquer Room: Inside ULTRAMOBILI's Italian Finishing Atelier

There is a moment in the making of every ULTRAMOBILI piece where the machinery stops and the artist takes over — and that moment, it turns out, is the most important one. Lacquer finishing at this level is a deeply human art: it is experience, touch, and trained judgment that determines when a surface is ready for the next coat, how long it needs to rest, and whether the final result has achieved the perfection the process demands. The skill of the artist is not a step in the process. It is the process.

It's why we're so deliberate about how we're bringing lacquer into the Design Public portfolio. Not as a trend play, but through a brand whose entire reason for being is the mastery of this singular finish. Meet ULTRAMOBILI — an Italian atelier that has spent decades treating lacquer not as a coating, but as a medium.

The gradient finish fades from warm greige at the crown to deep midnight at the base. Venus 4 Door Storage Cabinet by ULTRAMOBILI

A Process, Not a Product

Every ULTRAMOBILI surface begins with paraffin-coated polyester — a material that demands patience and precision before a single coat of color ever touches it. From there, polyester paint is applied in three to five coats, with exacting drying intervals between each pass. Between coats, the surface is sanded to perfect smoothness — but the judgment of when to sand, how long to wait, and what to look for belongs entirely to the artist doing the work. No specification sheet captures that. It lives in years of experience.

Once the substrate is perfected, the lacquer finish is applied and cured. Matte finishes receive a protective acrylic layer. For the high-gloss finish the brand is most known for, two to three coats of crystal-clear gloss are applied to both sides of each panel, then treated with rotating brushes that bring the surface to its final, flawless state. The result is something that has to be seen in person to fully understand — light moves across it the way it moves across still water.

All of this happens inside pressurized spray booths, an environment engineered to protect the work at its most vulnerable: wet, open, and perfect. Go behind the scenes at the atelier and watch the painting process, live.

Inside the pressurized booth at the ULTRAMOBILI atelier, an artist applies lacquer in long, even passes. The pressurized environment is essential — a single airborne particle at the wrong moment can compromise the entire surface.

On Gradient: Where Lacquer Becomes Painting

The most breathtaking expression of ULTRAMOBILI's artistry is their gradient lacquering — a technique that requires the artist to blend two or more colors across a surface in a seamless, continuous fade. There is no masking tape, no digital guidance. The gradient lives entirely in the artist's hand: applied with gradual shading, read by eye, adjusted in real time until the transition is exactly right.

The result is furniture that behaves less like an object and more like a painting in a room — one that changes character as the light shifts throughout the day. A credenza that dissolves from near-black at the base to warm greige at its crown. A surface that rewards the kind of attention most furniture never earns. And because each piece is painted by hand, it carries the subtle signature of the artist who made it.

Fresh from the finishing booth: the six-door credenza on the factory floor. The gradient transition runs the full length of the case in a single uninterrupted movement.

An artist examines the gradient transition at the ULTRAMOBILI atelier. The quality of the fade is assessed by eye on every piece.

Clear Lacquer: When the Wood Is the Story

Not every ULTRAMOBILI finish is about color. The brand's clear lacquering program — where layers of high-gloss polyester are applied over fine wood veneers — exists to do the opposite: to disappear, and let the material speak. The result amplifies the grain, depth, and natural variation of the wood beneath while sealing it in an impossibly refined surface. It's furniture that looks better the closer you get to it.

Mina Vintage Corner Library by ULTRAMOBILI

The Art of Taking Your Time

There's a reason furniture made this way is rare, and it has nothing to do with materials. It's time. It's the willingness to let each coat cure fully before the next one begins. To sand by hand between passes. To assess a gradient by eye until it's right — and to start over when it isn't. ULTRAMOBILI has built an entire brand around that patience, and it shows in every surface they produce.

What you get is a piece that doesn't look like everything else. A finish that rewards attention. A kind of beauty that, once you know what you're looking at, becomes the only thing you can see.

ULTRAMOBILI is now available through Design Public. Explore the collection.