At Milan Design Week, Studio David/Nicholas Debuts La Boiserie Wall Panel System

The best home finish products are often derived from solutions developed for specific interior projects. For San Francisco and Milan-based, Lebanese design studio david/nicholas, boiserie—decorative wood wall paneling—is a key treatment. It’s deployed through their 2022 Casa Fantasia interior project. It also crops up in a number of the practice’s collectible design furniture concepts, purveyed by galleries Nilufar and Carpenters Workshop.

When deciding to foray into the development of architectural surfaces, it made sense for the duo—David Raffoul and Nicolas Moussallem—to harness this application. Iterating different ornamental patterns and three-dimensional reliefs, they uncovered the potential of turning this finish into a modular frameworks, able to hold custom-made hanging cabinets, mounted consoles, and other furnishings.

Launched during Milan Design Week 2026, La Boiserie is equal parts bespoke craft and reproducible system. The studio’s distinct formal and aesthetic expression remains intact but the possibilities are endless. There’s a dynamic interplay of proportion, light reflection, and texture.

For Raffoul and Moussallem, harnessing age-old artisanal techniques is never about nostalgia but actually giving the savoir-faire new relevance through experimentation and subsequent innovation. The articulated geometric motifs are both historic—distilled from their shared Lebanese heritage—and contemporary—conducive to a growing need for adaptability.

The launch coincides with the opening of their new Milan studio—a converted residential space situated along the quieter, winding streets of the city’s 5VIE district. The interior is deftly outfitted in different configurations of La Bo, replete with different plugged-in components. Helping to place La Boiserie in situ are artworks from a private collection including Robert Mapplethorpe’s gold leaf and digital print composition NYC Contemporary Ballet (1980). A Dalton Paula watercolor accentuates the design’s bold geometric character.