Bentley Home in UAE
Thirteen Years of Bentley Home with Ben Saltmer
EXPERTS
Bentley Home unveiled its latest collection at Milan Design Week, marking thirteen years of partnership with the automotive brand. We spoke to Ben Saltmer, Head of Product & Lifestyle Design, about new materials, timeless silhouettes, and why comfort sits at the heart of every piece.
Q: Ben, congratulations on unveiling Bentley Home’s latest collection at Milan Design Week. With such a strong focus on materiality, craftsmanship, and comfort, what was the vision behind this new chapter?
Thank you! Building on 13 years of partnership between with Bentley Home continues to be inspiring each year.
The evolution of new materials felt like a natural starting point – we introduced new textiles and materials to this collection including light and durable alpaca wool and mohair; cool, textured linen; and lacquered natural resin. The layering of these materials creates a depth and richness that gives the collection a highly tactile look and feel. Smooth, shiny surfaces, combined with sumptuous rich fabrics – it’s really a sensory landscape.
The silhouette of each piece within the collection should feel familiar, with designs such as the Embrace sofa and armchair revisiting Bentley Home lineage but with newly refined and developed proportions. The Continuum chair, with its dramatic open frame, and the Dovedale coffee table are new shapes that would slot beautifully into any personal collection of Bentley Home furniture, for those looking to build on and complement their existing pieces.
Q: You have described comfort and materiality as being fundamental to Bentley. How do those values influence your design process, and how do you translate them into pieces that feel both contemporary and timeless?
Firstly the design should look comfortable and inviting. We take painstaking care to design each piece thoughtfully, so that these elements are considered at every stage of the process. In crafting furniture by hand, in Bentley Home’s Forli workshop, we can test the functionality of a design during the prototyping phase ensuring comfort is paramount. Materials go through extensive examination prior to being used, as they not only need to look and feel beautiful, but also to stand the test of time and enhance the comfort of the design. The materials have to be the finest available and contribute to the overall comfort.
To achieve a contemporary aesthetic with timelessness, the formula is more simple than you might think. We lean on traditional methods of craft, rich woods and natural textiles that have already stood the test of time when it comes to timeless style, and focus on simple but statement silhouettes that have both modern and period influences.
Q: Your work sits at the intersection of automotive design and lifestyle design. When creating for Bentley Home, how do you ensure the pieces embody the spirit of Bentley without feeling like direct references to the car itself?
The important distinction is that Bentley Home furniture is not created to look like a car, but to absorb subtly recognisable elements of Bentley brand DNA into the shapes and forms and lines. Sculptural and chamfered details create a familiarity for fans of Bentley Motors that feel at home within furniture. Materials such as wood and leather have been present throughout most Bentley Home collections for the past 13 years, so the scent and touch of the furniture evokes a similar feeling. As Bentley Motors began introducing newer materials over the years such as stone veneers in its cars, simultaneously Bentley Home brought in subtle touches of stone to its furniture collection.
However the beauty of Bentley Home is that the materials can go far beyond anything that would be introduced to our vehicles, but as long as the lines and silhouettes consistently hold Bentley’s design DNA, the collections feel faithful to the brand.
You will always see nods to Bentley Motors within the finishing details of the furniture too. From bolder embossed or embroidered logos to more nuanced touches such as diamond knurling and patterns that you might have seen in previous collections.
You have spoken about design as a form of storytelling. When starting a new collection, what story are you hoping to tell?
I don't think we ever begin with a fixed story that we're trying to tell. It tends to emerge naturally through the design process. Usually we're responding to how people are living today and the materials, forms and craftsmanship that resonate with that.For this collection, there was certainly a focus on tactility and comfort. We wanted to create pieces that invite interaction – beautiful, authentic materials that invite touch, and elegant sculptural forms that welcome the viewer to sit or engage. Ultimately, the story is about creating environments that feel special and people genuinely want to spend time in.
Penthouse at Bentley Residences, Miami
Q: Bentley Home often feels rooted in atmosphere as much as furniture. Are there particular places, experiences, travels, or even materials that consistently inspire your creative thinking?
Inspiration can come from almost anywhere. Travel is always important because it exposes you to different cultures, architecture and approaches to craftsmanship. Nature is another constant source of inspiration for Bentley Home, particularly in the colours, textures and materials we work with.
I'm also fascinated by the way people interact with spaces and objects in their everyday lives. The materials have to be the finest available and contribute to the overall comfort.
Q: Milan Design Week is one of the most influential moments in the global design calendar. What did presenting this collection in Milan allow you to communicate about the evolution of Bentley Home and the wider lifestyle vision of the brand?
Milan Design Week is always such an incredible melting pot of ideas. Seeing the new collection we have designed in situ at the beautiful Bentley Home Atelier in the Palazzo Chiesa is such a special moment. It also gave us the opportunity to style these iconic Bentley Home pieces from the last 13 years using new pattern executions and materials new to our collection.
This year, we presented a film that demonstrated the journey of the Bentley Home brand over many years in a cinematic environment which was a wonderfully visual experience for visitors to the Atelier during Design Week.
Private Worlds explores the growing desire for spaces that offer retreat, comfort, and a sense of control. Why do you think privacy and emotional wellbeing have become such defining themes in luxury design today, and how is Bentley responding to that shift?
I think our homes have become more important than ever. In a world that's constantly connected and busy, people value spaces that help them switch off, recharge and feel at ease. Luxury furniture design has evolved alongside that shift. It's not just about how a space looks, but how it makes you feel. At Bentley Home, we respond by creating exceptional levels of comfort and through the careful use of materials, creating environments that feel calm, welcoming and personal.
Bentley Home's Hyde Picnic Collection
Q: After more than fifteen years working across design roles and now leading Lifestyle Design at Bentley Motors, how has your own understanding of luxury evolved?
Cultures, regions of the world, all have their own view and interpretation of luxury – but it is wider ranging than that. Every single person has a view on what luxury is. With the prevalence of social media, we’re probably more armed with opinion and references year on year. My experience of dealing with clients of luxury products - it all comes down to storytelling. The bandwidth of these stories is as varied as the personalities of these clients. The more extroverted luxury customer can display boastfulness of cost and exclusivity. The quieter introverted end values the hours of craftsmanship and rarity of material.
In short – there is a bandwidth to luxury that we deal in. You can’t please everyone on the planet with one offering, but if you have an architecture that can be adorned with beautiful, harmonious materials to hit anywhere on that axis you can create an enduring product. We see this with the cars at Bentley. Curated choice in a world of abundance.
