B&B Italia

B&B Italia at 3330 M Street NW is the Georgetown showroom of the Italian furniture manufacturer that has been among the most significant forces in the international modern furniture design market since the company was founded by Piero Ambrogio Busnelli in 1966. The company’s name, which stands for Busnelli and Busnelli, established the family partnership that has produced a company whose collaborations with the world’s leading industrial designers, from Mario Bellini and Tobia Scarpa through Antonio Citterio and Patricia Urquiola, have made B&B Italia’s furniture catalog one of the most historically important in the field of postwar design.

The B&B Italia product line covers the full range of domestic furniture, from the sofas and seating that the company became most associated with through its early collaborations, through the bedroom systems, the dining room furniture, and the outdoor collections that the company has developed across six decades. The sofas that B&B Italia has produced, particularly the Charles sofa designed by Antonio Citterio in 1997 and the Le Bambole by Mario Bellini from 1972, have achieved a canonical status in the history of industrial design that places them in the permanent collections of design museums worldwide.

The Georgetown M Street showroom at 3330 is in the commercial block adjacent to Cady’s Alley, the design district that has made this section of M Street and the alley behind it Georgetown’s concentration of high-end furniture and design showrooms. The B&B Italia showroom anchors the M Street end of this design district alongside bulthaup, Calligaris, BoConcept, and the other furniture brands that have established the block.

Hours run from 10am weekdays and Saturday, and noon Sunday. The B&B Italia showroom at 3330 M Street serves the Georgetown design client who is specifying furniture at the level of the international design investment: the B&B Italia sofa or chair is not a furniture purchase but a design object acquisition, and the Georgetown collector who buys the Charles sofa by Antonio Citterio is acquiring an object with an established place in the history of postwar design. The Georgetown residential market for design-grade furniture is sustained by the neighborhood’s concentration of diplomatic and professional residences whose owners have the cultural literacy to engage with design at the brand and designer level and the financial means to make the investment that B&B Italia’s price points require. The ambassador who furnishes the residence in Georgetown with B&B Italia pieces, or the Georgetown architect who specifies B&B Italia for the renovation project of a professional client, are the customers that the Georgetown showroom serves. The design consultation service that the B&B Italia showroom offers alongside the product display allows the Georgetown client to work with the brand’s designers to specify the furniture for a specific project. The color, the configuration, and the material options that the B&B Italia catalog provides are extensive enough to require professional guidance for the client who is not already familiar with the product line. Hours run from 10am most days and noon Sunday.