Inside track: The yacht interior design brands to know this season

If you're looking for custom artwork, sculptural furniture or a show-stopping centrepiece for your superyacht then London-based design firm DKT is the one to call. Priding itself on a site-specific approach, DKT's skilled craftsmen can turn their expert hand to almost any form of decorative work, including mosaic, sculpture and bas-relief in metal, glass and stone, trompe l'oeil, gilding, paint finishes and mirrored artworks, and have undertaken commissions for no fewer than 62 superyachts. Recent projects include custom designs for Ulysses, Joy, Dilbar and Plvs Vltra.

Visit dkt.co.uk.

Many brands claim to provide comfort and functionality, but few strike the balance with such finesse as Loro Piana. Its clothing and accessories are made from the world’s finest raw materials and enhanced by innovative in-house engineering — its revolutionary Storm System treatment, for example, will make even the most lavish of fabrics, such as vicuña wool, 100% waterproof.

It’s no surprise, then, that the company is well established in the yachting industry. Loro Piana Yacht Interiors has cleverly adapted to the unpredictable conditions of life at sea without losing an ounce of quality. More than 600 varieties of customisable materials and special blends, including tussah silk woven with wool and horsehair, and fine merino wool blended with linen or silk, are employed in its stylish yet durable wall coverings, cushions, upholstery and light-blocking curtains.

Visit loropiana.com

“Veneto is full of artisans and is famous for its furniture, textiles and glassware. It’s very much the fashion here to have everything made by someone local,” explains Allegra Marchiorello. “Every little house in this corner of Italy has its own company in the backyard.” It’s one of the reasons Marchiorello co-founded Once Milano with his long-time friend, linen aficionado Valeria Piovesana Thompson. The house’s Italian-made linen is of the highest quality, made from the longest threads, using flax grown near Milan. The weave is the smoothest, strongest and most absorbent money can buy: cooling in the summer months, cocooning in the winter.

When the company was approached to produce a collaboration with Sanlorenzo, it seemed a very natural fit. “Linen is the perfect material on a boat: it’s light, low-maintenance and understated, yet incredibly luxurious,” says Piovesana Thompson. “That’s the beauty of it,” agrees Marchiorello. “It never looks contrived. It’s also all custom-made — we’ve worked with clients to create bespoke finishes and have included their monograms.”

Designing a collection for boats proved an interesting challenge. “It’s quite different to designing for a home,” says Marchiorello. “For starters, the water is such a central element, and the space you’re working with is contained. We wanted to create something that was sophisticated yet highly refined.” The brand’s covetable Piping Collection was born from this collaboration, and Once Milano enjoys a good working relationship with Jonathan Fawcett, one of the UK’s leading luxury supplier to superyachts.

Visit oncemilano.com

As part of luxury Italian linen house Pratesi’s ambitious five-year plan towards international expansion, it has launched a new range specifically for yachts. The collection of sumptuous bedding, table linens and towels is made to order, with customisation options including bespoke monogramming available.

Run by the fourth generation of the Pratesi family, the house is focused on delivering faultless craftsmanship, drawing on the skill of its team of designers, weavers and embroiderers, who create the linen in its Florence headquarters. COO and future CEO Simone Bocchio and president Federica Pratesi bring a personal insight into the yachting industry to the production of timeless, elegant linens.

Visit pratesi.com

“All projects start as dreams in the mind of an owner.” This is the philosophy of the Italian company that has designed the interiors of some of the world’s finest superyachts and most luxurious hotel suites and palatial private homes. FM Architettura d’Interni was founded by the architect Francesca Muzio and the interior designer Maria Silvia Orlandini in 2009, and in a few short years, has amassed an incredibly impressive portfolio of clients in all corners of the world.

The company made its name by creating yacht interiors that are effortlessly elegant, yet at the same time have an inviting, natural feel. As its reputation grew, it was commissioned for high-profile interior design projects such as the luxurious Presidential Suite of Shangri-La at The Shard, London - along with other Shangri-La properties in China and the Philippines — as well as premium residential properties stretching from Bahrain to Beverly Hills.

Despite the long list of people lining up to benefit from their expertise, Muzio and Orlandini never forget the views of the most important person in any project: the owner. Whether the commission is for a yacht or a penthouse, the pair consult at length with the client so his or her “uniquely personal wishes” can be fully reflected in the interior that FM Architettura d’Interni will go on to create.

Visit fm-arch.it

Tai Ping has been making and supplying one-of-a-kind carpets to discerning clients all over the world for 50 years. Its first-ever commission, from the Grauman’s Theatre in Los Angeles, was for a carpet so large it needed to be constructed in a tent erected outside the factory. Today, the Hong Kong-headquartered company has five distinct divisions and showrooms across Europe, North America and Asia.

New for 2016 is a collaboration with award-winning florist Jeff Leatham. The artistic director at Paris’s Four Seasons Hotel Georges V, Leatham is famed for creating stunning floral installations and bouquets for everyone from the Dalai Lama to Oprah Winfrey.

The Bloom collection comprises 14 handmade wool-and-silk rugs that were inspired by geometric shapes and the organic forms of solid, liquid and vapour. Each of the custom-made designs explodes with colour, with even Leatham admitting to feeling “chills” when he saw them realised for the first time.

Visit taipingcarpets.com

William Morris famously said one should have nothing in the house one “doesn’t know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”. Someone who knows more than most about exquisite fine art for your superyacht is antique dealer and gallery owner Adrian Sassoon.

For more than two decades, Sassoon has been honing his craft as a specialist in contemporary decorative art and French 18th century Vincenne and Sèvres porcelain. Whether the delightful, conch-like sculptures of Shochiku Tanabe, from Japan’s foremost bamboo-art family, or the fine, Chinese-style porcelain vases by the Australian ceramicist Robin Best (above, €71,100), a piece from Sassoon is both a shrewd investment and a marker of taste.

Visit adriansassoon.com

Back in 2012, when Frank Pollaro was commissioned to create a desk for Brad Pitt’s château in the South of France, little did he know a new partnership was about to be forged. On delivering the piece, he noticed the actor’s sketchbook was full of furniture sketches and suggested they make them a reality.

The Pitt-Pollaro Collection is designed by Pitt and crafted by Pollaro. It demonstrates the attention to detail the likes of Robert De Niro have sought out and majors in art deco-inspired pieces in opulent materials, such as the decadent Statuario Venato marble Toi et Moi bath (above, in a limited edition of three), which can accommodate two well-heeled people. Should you require further credentials, Pollaro has designed yacht furniture for tech giant Larry Ellison, and Pitt-Pollaro was one to the top luxury and interiors brands at the Monaco Yacht Show.

Visit pitt-pollaro.com

Stunning stone doesn’t begin and end with marble. Solid Nature sources the finest alternatives from across the world for the ultimate in bespoke floors and walls.

Its semi-precious line is perhaps the most extraordinary, comprising as it does those not usually available in large slabs — rose quartz, lapis lazuli, amethyst, malachite and petrified wood, among others. Onyx options, meanwhile, range from a honey hue with white veins to caramel clouds and speckled Maldivian azure, while matte travertine comes in neutral taupe, rusty ochre and gold. If you simply must have marble, there’s an array of colours, from gold-streaked smoky-grey Portoro to yellow moonstone and even zebra stripes.

Visit solidnature.com

Championing an aristocratic flair in its furniture, Visionnaire works closely with key players in the yachting industry, and draws on high-end fashion and culture for reference. However, while its history is steeped in Italian craftsmanship techniques, the company is also surprisingly innovative. It has continually invested in sustainable materials, modernising many of its product lines accordingly. Its latest development comes in the form of an “eco-leather” called Materiko, which was the catalyst for a range of outdoor designs, including the Sunny chair (pictured) by Alessandro La Spada. Materiko’s hard-wearing characteristics make it a prime choice for nautical environments as it is both impermeable and UV-resistant.

Visit visionnaire-home.com