Porte Italia- “The Doors to Italy” | Season 3 Episode 11

In today’s episode, Toma Clark Haines, CEO of The Antiques Diva & Co, talks to Emilio Lenarduzzi of Porte Italia. The name Porte Italia literally means “the doors to Italy”. Over the years, Emilio and Toma have discussed the name of his family-run Italian furniture company. Emilio wondered if the name was appropriate. Toma’s response is always, “Most assuredly, yes,” because the Lenaduzzi’s open the doors to Italy to their clients by helping international buyers source handmade, hand-painted Italian furniture.

All of their furniture is made in in the Veneto (the region in which Venice is located). Every region of Italy has its own traditional cottage industry. For over 400 years, the Venetian tradition has been using these same traditional paint techniques that Porte Italia uses today. 

What the Porte Italia family-run business does aligns perfectly in conjunction with antique dealers who run concept stores selling more than antiques. While the furniture may be newly crafted, the Venetian traditions and techniques have been around for centuries. Porte Italia is selling tomorrow’s antiques in their finely crafted furniture that honors the traditions of old and will last far into the future. 

Toma proposes a few ideas to Emilio on how Antique Dealers could work with Porte Italia. While carrying their line (or a few piece from a collection) in their store is an interesting idea – Toma points out that Dealers don’t necessarily have to carry Porte Italia’s line in their store to sell it. They could offer these products for sale by catalog to their clients as a 3rd party seller. Porte Italia does custom – so dealers could have their favorite pieces eplicated – creating their own co-brandsd line -– or choose to redecorate a piece in the Porte Italia collection with their own pattern and color ways. 

Toma ask Emilio “What if a client has a picture of an 18th century bed – could the dealer work with Porte Italia to have a custom bed created from a picture for their showroom, and then clients could either purchase the bed outright from the dealers showroom or have the product available to be customized and drop shipped internationally?” “Absolutely” says Emilio.

Finding an antique bed isn’t easy. When/if the dealer is able to find an antique bed to sell, they will have to order a custom mattress, and custom bedding made that is the sizesof the antique beds are not modern standard sizes. There are some things – such as beds – that are simply more practical as contemporary pieces. Porte Italia makes fantastic work of scaling these antique pieces up for more contemporary interiors while maintaining the beauty of the original antique. Porte Italia’s amazing four-poster beds are one of Toma’s favorite things in their store.

Toma has been a personal client of Porte Italia since before her move to Venice. Because of their devotion to going above and beyond in customer service, she became quick friends with the family. As luck would have it, she found her home in Venice near the Porte Italia store. She pops in regularly with a new idea for their artisans to create – or she confesses – she has bribed Emilio more than once with a glass of wine to come over to her apartment to help her change a lightbulb! Now that’s customer service! 

Emilio’s father founded Porte Italia and has been forging relationships with Venetian artisans since the beginning. Emilio shares that these artisans are not only their colleagues but their friends. 

Porte Italias offerings go far beyond beds. They do handmade, hand-painted furniture of all kinds including chairs, side tables, chandeliers, Venetian mirrors, lampshades of any kind, hand-painted canvases, and more. They even send their artisans around the world to install painted-ceiling canvases that are custom-created for