"Everyone claims to be a 'luxury' brand," Frank Pollaro, founder and CEO of Pollaro Custom Furniture, says to AD PRO. "But to me, that's a very special word that is reserved for the finest example of any given product."
This definition of the word happens to apply quite well to Pollaro's work. His business, which he founded at the age of 21, has grown to occupy the highest echelon of bespoke furniture. His team of around 40 includes everyone from furniture makers to gilders to those who specialize in the lost art of eggshell inlay. Here, he gives us the details on three of the custom pieces he’s bringing to New York’s Salon Art + Design fair, taking place November 14–18.
AD PRO: You don’t participate in many fairs. Why Salon?
Frank Pollaro: We don't participate in anything that's not at the highest level. The only other show we do is the Monaco Yacht Show. What I love about Salon is, it brings the best of the design world and the most sophisticated people. We're making highly complex, highly sophisticated pieces, and it takes a very discerning connoisseur's eye to see and appreciate this.
AD PRO: Tell us about the Radiant Table.
FP: I think we put something like a thousand hours into that table. We had a parcel of Aucoumea crotch wood that had one of the most active and spectacular grain patterns that I had ever seen. The wood grain drives the design, and I think that's a really nice way to work. We like to let the wood do the talking—we kind of let Mother Nature speak her own voice.
AD PRO: And for the Aquatic Art piece made partially out of eggshells, the shells came from your own chickens.
FP: We wanted large brown eggs, and we wanted a bird that was capable of being okay in the weather here [in New Jersey] during the winter, because they do hang out outside. So, these are hybrid chickens called Red Stars.
AD PRO: How many eggs did you use?
FP: There’s got to be a few hundred.
AD PRO: It’s very intricate work.
FP: Two people worked on that, and it probably took six or seven months. It's slow going. With that eggshell, we only lay maybe a six-inch by six-inch area in a day.
AD PRO: On the other end of the spectrum, your Club Chair has more than meets the eye.
FP: Half of our production every year is chairs. We tailor each chair to the exact dimensions of the client who's going to sit in that chair. It's like a tailored suit. And many client couples will come to us with two very different body types, shapes, and weights. We can make them a pair of club chairs that look identical, but [feel] completely different, because they're tailored to the body of each person.
AD PRO: The Club Chair is made of teak and titanium—how did you decide on that?
FP: This was born out of a conversation with Larry Ellison that we had probably in 2006 or 2007. We had furnished his yacht, and he and I got to talking about materials. He said, “You know, you really ought to do something using titanium as an accent; it’s completely impervious to all salt.” And we wanted to build it to withstand the elements. These things are being put onto the decks of superyachts, and they're also being put on terraces in backyards.
