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A desk usually gets drawn for one room, the corner office or the study at home. i4Mariani says plainly that Nami was conceived for the home office and that it can grow to more generous proportions to take its full place in the office. That sentence is the brief for the whole design: a piece serious enough for a client meeting, quiet enough for a room in the house. Among Italian modern desks it is one that shows its structure: the top bends down and becomes the leg.
The build supports the claim. A single panel of beech plywood formed in a mold makes both top and sides before the leather goes over it, so the outline has no corner anywhere. On the guest side the desk shows Canaletto walnut veneer. Phone charging happens wirelessly, the charger hidden below a pattern of rings stamped into the leather, and next to it a hinged hatch reveals a power outlet and USB ports, USB-C included. Among leather-top desks, this one wears its leather as the skin of the structure.
Lorenzo De Grandis drew the piece in 2022, and i4Mariani, Mariano Comense, builds it in Italy. The family is small: the 67⅜ × 31½ in desk plus a drawer unit on one flank or both, fronted in walnut that follows the curve and lined inside with ash stained graphite. La Mercanti asks first for a photo of the room, home or office, where the desk will stand.
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Nami takes one or two drawers, set at the sides of the desk. Each is a separate unit measuring 16¾ × 26⅝ in, 6¾ in high, with a front that follows the leather curve. The right-hand drawer holds a compartment of roughly 11¾ × 15¾ in, sized for A4 paper and stationery. One drawer leaves a flank free toward a wall or a window; two, one per side, give each flank its own drawer.
A power outlet and USB ports, one of them USB-C. The hatch is cut into the leather of the top and opens when you need it, so a laptop and a desk lamp plug in right at the work surface. Closed, it lies within the leather and the top stays clean. Closed, the hatch is covered in the same leather as the top.
Yes. The writing surface is leather, the same that wraps the frame, so paper, notebooks and a laptop sit directly on it. The phone goes on the pressed circles, cords stay under the hatch, and the rest of the top is free for handwork. Grain and thickness are things you judge with your fingers, so a physical sample of the chosen leather is the best way to decide.
Leather is worked in cuts, and i4Mariani points out that their dimensions change noticeably with the leather category selected. The seams on the top divide over the partitions of the walnut front panel, but their exact position can shift from one category to another. If the seam layout matters to the project, settle the category before anything else.
That meeting is the design. The Canaletto walnut modesty panel closes the front between the two leather curves, and the drawer fronts carry the same walnut. i4Mariani describes the contrast between leather and wood as what underlines the curving shape and the elegant proportions. In a room with wood floors or paneling, the walnut ties the desk to the architecture while the leather sets it apart.
One size, one curve, one or two drawers: Nami asks for a few layout decisions before it arrives. Here is the order in which an architect would settle them on the plan.
Nami is 67⅜ in wide, 31½ in deep and 29½ in high. Mark that rectangle with painter's tape where the desk will stand and walk around it: the clearance behind the chair and in front of a guest seat shows up in minutes, long before any crate is opened.
Top and sides form a single bend in leather. i4Mariani speaks of a wave set against the stricter lines of an interior, so put it near them: a bookcase, a run of windows, flat paneled walls. That contrast is the whole point of the shape.
The leather top has a hatch with a power outlet and USB ports, one of them USB-C. Orient the desk so the nearest wall receptacle is on that side, and the cord stays short and hidden from anyone sitting opposite you during a meeting.
Each side drawer is its own unit, 16¾ × 26⅝ in. Keep enough floor on that flank for the drawer to open all the way, and fix at order time how many drawers there are and which flank each one takes.
In the catalog, Nami is set against a wide expanse of glass with a garden beyond and light raking over the top. Where the plan allows it, give the desk natural light from the side: the two materials and the curve read best that way.
