The workshop is located in a stone and brick building dating back to ancient Florence on San Niccolò Street, also known as the “Craftsman’s Street”.
On our first visit, we were confronted with a space steeped in art and history but faded by time. A curtain of dust covered the antiquarian workshop and all its paintings and restoration tools. Right from the start, we focused all our attention on giving new light and life to the environment. We removed the layer of white from the walls, restoring the original brick structure and the characteristic archers surmounted by brick crosses.
The floor was also recovered through targeted restoration practices. The shop now opens onto the streets of Florence, ready to welcome its customers with deep blue walls and carpets in the same colour - a special alchemic blue, distinctive of the Sileno Cheloni brand. An intense shade that required much research and many attempts to achieve.
It was paramount for us at Capponi General Contractor to align our modus operandi with that of the perfume experts. We imagined an interior not just of simple smells but traits of fragrances resembling invisible clouds and intangible ribbons rolling from the refined entrance stumbling up to the master’s counter.
Once the interior ambience was set, Riccardo Barthel’s Company selected the furniture, opting for clean items in line with the 16th-century Florentine fashion. Fabrics and frames light up, struck by the warm gold lighting running through the space, carving out shade segments around the gravestone vaults. A climax that embraces its protagonist just like the notes of a fragrance.
This charming space is intended to be an experimental workshop where the world of perfumery opens up to a wider public, showcasing the precious raw materials and ingredients. By thinking out of the box, we were able to create a new, refined atmosphere in line with the intimate experience of the customer.
To this day, Sileno Cheloni workshop is one of the most beautiful perfume laboratories in Florence. And as those responsible of the renovation project, we are proud to have provided a home to the extremely rich olfactory library - more than 2000 essences- and the intense sensory experience it offers.
