In Sardinia a forgotten hinge isn’t solved with a phone call: it’s solved with a ship. That’s why our shipments to the island leave complete, with a stock of hardware and components equal to around 5 per cent of the supply, and with the parcels checked on land before loading. We design and make bespoke furniture for resorts and hospitality venues in Sardinia, with installation carried out in the windows between October and April.
The ship is part of the project, not just the logistics
Scheduling starts from the loading date, not the delivery date. An unaccompanied trailer from a Tyrrhenian port to Olbia, Porto Torres or Cagliari needs to be booked weeks in advance, and space runs out in the busiest months of the year. In winter the problem is the opposite: sailings are less frequent and the mistral can halt departures for two or three days in a row. We always build a week’s margin into the site calendar between the expected arrival and the start of installation.
Two practical choices follow from that scheduling. The first is early testing: before loading, critical pieces are trial-assembled, holes, hinges and alignments are checked, and only then are they packed. Fixing a manufacturing error in Milan costs a day; in Budoni it costs ten. The second is the packing: rigid corner guards on every edge, film and corner protectors on lacquered fronts, parcels labelled by room and by floor, so that on arrival you’re not opening thirty boxes to find the right piece.
Anyone who has already run a site on an island knows which item gets overlooked: logistics inside the resort itself. Forty villas spread across eight hectares, gravel driveways and passages under porticoes mean trolleys, wide-wheeled pallet trucks and at least two people dedicated solely to moving furniture around.
Wind and salt: what actually holds up
The mistral isn’t a climate detail, it’s a load. An outdoor table weighing eight kilos in Costa Smeralda ends up in the pool. On terraces and sun decks we use weighted bases, stainless steel floor anchor plates and stackable seating that gets put away at the end of the day. Lightweight shade structures last one season; those with solid-section aluminium frames and ground anchoring last ten.
On salt, the same criteria we apply on every exposed coastline hold: stainless steel hardware and anodised aluminium instead of lightweight painted alloys, compact laminates instead of wood-based panels outdoors, solution-dyed acrylic fabrics. In Sardinia there’s also the fine sand carried by the wind, which gets into runners and bearings: no sliding tracks in open spaces, and replaceable feet everywhere. The full picture of salt-resistant materials is the same one we follow in venues in Sicily, with wind exposure here that’s more severe.
Inside the rooms the main problem is saline humidity in properties that close for seven months. A hotel sealed from October to April, with no air exchange, gives you back swollen doors and hinges that stick. Water-resistant shelves and backs, edging sealed on all four sides and a gap from the perimeter wall reduce the effect, but you also need periodic ventilation over winter, which we have written into the maintenance plan.
Resorts: repeated rooms, one-off communal areas
In properties with eighty or two hundred units, the room is an industrial piece: the same design multiplied, with two or three size variants. Here the value lies in the precision of the initial survey and in repeatability. We survey a statistical sample of rooms, check the differences and design with tolerances absorbed by the trims, so the same piece of furniture fits into a room with a 4 centimetre difference in width. Skip that check and by the fortieth installation you find out the new wing doesn’t have the same measurements as the old one.
Communal areas follow the opposite logic: lobbies, restaurants, beach bars and lounge areas are one-off pieces, often tied to local materials such as juniper wood, stone and natural fibre fabrics. They’re also the spaces guests photograph, so they absorb a significant share of the budget. On overall figures, the cost per room in a mid to upper range Sardinian resort with complete bespoke furniture sits between 9,000 and 16,000 euros, and transport accounts for 4 to 8 per cent.
The work that asks the most of us
Repeated rooms with a fitted wall unit
A single front that integrates the headboard, bedside tables, desk, minibar and luggage space. It arrives in three parcels and is fitted in half a day per room.
Furniture for bungalows and detached villas
Furniture designed to fit through 80 centimetre doors and to be moved along gravel driveways, so it’s lightweight and assembled on site.
Terraces, sun decks and beach clubs
Loungers with marine aluminium frames, tables with weighted bases, lockable service units for overnight storage.
Reception and lobby with local materials
Desks with juniper wood or raw fabric fronts, a closed technical back, and Sardinian stone worktops.
Outdoor restaurants and service kitchens
Stackable tables and seating, stainless steel trolleys, mobile buffet units designed to be brought indoors within twenty-four hours when strong winds arrive.
The installation windows, and why they’re tight
Sardinian properties open in a window running from late April to mid May and close between late September and early October. Installation is therefore concentrated between October and November, or between February and April. The first period is better for weather and ferry availability; the second is closer to opening and means you’re not handing over rooms that then sit closed for months.
The teams stay on site for the whole duration of the works, because on the island there’s no sense in travelling back every week, and this needs to be factored into the quote along with meals and accommodation. In a hundred-room resort with complete bespoke furniture, installation generally takes between six and eight weeks, with two or three teams working in parallel across the different wings.
On overall timing, allow four to five months from signing off the executive project, adding up sample approval, manufacturing and transport: the production times for bespoke furniture don’t change just because the destination is an island, but transport does. To open on the first of May, you need to sign by November. The seasonal opening checklist we hand over sets the testing ten days before staff arrive, not guests, because staff need time to learn the room. For an initial estimate of timeline and cost, a floor plan, the number of units and the opening date are enough, and from there we prepare the quote.
Frequently asked questions
How much does transport add to the cost of the furniture?
Between 4 and 8 per cent on a normal-sized project, less as a percentage on large volumes because the vehicles get filled to capacity. The biggest cost isn’t the ferry, it’s the one-off follow-up shipments: that’s why we ship with spare stock and test everything before loading.
What happens if a piece arrives damaged?
We catch it during the parcel check, before installation. If it can be replaced from stock it’s resolved within the day; otherwise a replacement takes eight to fifteen days between manufacturing and ferry, which is why we keep the testing well clear of the opening date.
Does outdoor furniture hold up against the mistral?
If it’s weighted or anchored, yes. Lightweight pieces don’t hold up, regardless of quality. We design stackable seating and tables with heavy bases, plus floor anchoring points on the most exposed terraces.
Do you also work in properties that stay open?
Yes, in batches, but in Sardinia it rarely pays off: the season is short and concentrated, so every room out of use in July costs a great deal. The natural calendar remains the one in autumn or early spring.