Our Story
Our name is new, but our story goes back generations
We are TELA. We get our name from the Italian word “tela”, which means “canvas” or “fabric”. Our lives are individual canvases that we color to create our own unique expression. Our mission is to provide exquisite handcrafted Italian luxury furniture that allows you to color the fabric of your life—and of your home—with the beauty of Italy
Our Passion
We started our company with one desire—transform the American home with the beauty, comfort, and quality of furniture handcrafted in Italy by Italian Artisans
Attention to Detail
For us, details matter and nothing compares with the fine detail work of luxury products handcrafted by Artisans. It begins with their selection of the best materials. This same detailed approach guides the cutting, sewing, assembly, and finishing of each product. Our Italian Partners take great pride in their meticulous effort to ensure that each product is made to the highest standards. We think you will love the result
Mission
Our mission is threefold—to provide:
- Exquisite Italian luxury furniture with a modern high-design and style
- Handcrafted Artisanal Furniture that is 100% Made in Italy with the highest quality material and the greatest respect for the environment and sustainability
- Products that are made specifically for you. Our Partners will only begin handcrafting your furniture once they receive your order—our products are not premade “off-the-shelf”
Design
The creation of each exquisite model of furniture begins with a Designer. That is why our Partners collaborate with some of the best award-winning designers in the world, including designers who work with fashions houses, such as Prada, Tod’s, Dolce and Gabbana. While most designers are from Italy, primarily the fashion and design centers of Milan and Florence, our Partners also work with designers throughout Europe, including an Italian / Japanese design studio collaboration
Materials
Our Partners use only the very finest materials, with a keen regard for the environment and sustainability.
Leather is tanned in Venice, using an environmentally friendly world-renowned vegetable tanning process that ensures only natural products come into contact with your body. Fabric and Synthetic / Vegan Leather are provided by world leading manufacturers, providing the finest quality and comfort.
Great effort is made to use Wood that meets FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification standards, which ensures all forests are responsibly managed forests.
With Plastic, more and more products are made with recyclable or recycled materials
Partners
In our desire to provide the finest in Italian furniture to you, we travelled throughout Italy looking for the perfect Italian Partners. In the end, we agreed to partner with a small number of artisanal firms. We are very proud of our Partners—they are renowned for producing some the finest furniture in Italy. They are all small family-owned businesses; for some, their furniture making tradition goes back generations. All their products are 100% Made in Italy with the highest quality material and the greatest respect for the environment and sustainability. Also, we placed special emphasis on finding artisanal firms that would bring a fresh unique style not seen before in the US
Our Founders
Simply put, our passion is Italia. After living in Rome for years Polina and I grew to fully appreciate and embrace the Italian style of life–their food, wine, coffee, art, history, fashion, design, style, and most importantly, their relaxed and balanced lives–La Dolce Vita, ”The Sweet Life”.
We believe that to fully live our lives of purpose, we need moments of repose, relaxation, and rejuvenation. We want to provide furniture that allows us to break from our busy hectic lives and calls us to immerse in the refuge of fine Italian furniture style and comfort. Transporting us to both the splendor of Italy and to the deeper roots of our being. Thus, refreshed and restored we can live more meaningful and mindful lives.
We are a wife and husband team, who returned to America with a desire to bring you the very best that Italy has to offer. As you look through our website, we hope you find something that catches your eye and touches your heart. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
La vita è bella! (Life is Beautiful!) To your beautiful life and your beautiful home!
Polina and Mark Giulieri
As we continue our TELA journey, we will share our stories with our Italian Partners and friends. We know you will be fascinated to read, see, and hear from our Italian friends and learn about how they make their beautiful furniture.
Each of our lives is a “tabula rassa”, a blank slate or blank canvas. Our desire is to provide you with Italian handcrafted works of beauty and comfort that allow you, like an artist, to transform the “canvas” of your house into the home of your dreams.