BY JO WERNE
INFORMATION
MBM Miami showroom is at 130 NE 40th St. in the Miami Design District. Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Contact showroom manager Angie Castillo at 305-571-7117 or visit www.mbmpureoutdoor.com
Florida Finds is a weekly feature about purveyors of home products in South Florida. To suggest stores, craftspersons or manufacturers to profile, e-mail newhomes@miamiherald.com.
Wicker furniture can be brown, beige, white or any other color. Whatever the color, it can also be “green.”
MBM makes an environmentally friendly synthetic wicker line that’s on display in the company’s showroom in the Miami Design District.
No trees are destroyed to make the furniture with Mirotex, a synthetic fiber developed by MBM. The initials stand for Muenchener Boulevard Moebel, a German furniture manufacturer. Mirotex is made of a nontoxic, recyclable, high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
The furniture has the look and feel of natural materials, but is far superior in weather resistance. It is resistant to harsh temperatures, sun, salt and chlorine.
”This furniture is totally for outdoors,” says Angie Castillo, MBM showroom manager. “This furniture is produced in Indonesia and it’s extremely well made.”
But it’s pricey. The Bellini seating collection, made of Mirotex on aluminum frames, includes a large, sectional sofa with cushions and throw pillows priced by the module: corner module is $2,672 retail; the middle section is $1,600; the lounge arm chair is $2,800.
Sectional cushions are available in apple green, white or red, ”but we can make custom cushions in any color,” Castillo says, adding that almost everything in the showroom is in stock.
Besides the Bellini collection, MBM makes umbrellas, glass tables, dining chairs, a chaise longue and ottomans. The company fashions many pieces out of yellow balao, a hardwood.
”Yellow balao weathers to gray like teak, but it doesn’t weather as fast as teak,” Castillo says. “It weathers smoothly — no splinters.”
An intriguing item in the showroom is the Heaven Swing, a single-seat indoor or patio fabric swing ($1,600) suspended from a ceiling with acrylic rope.
Glass-topped patio tables are nothing new, but MBM gives them a twist with colored glass tops. An apple green or teal glass table and six chairs cost $3,800. The chairs are stackable, ”up to 28 chairs,” Castillo says.
MBM furniture made a circuitous route to Miami. Founded in 1954 iin Bavaria by Josef Duna, the company went to his sons, Bernd and Markus, when the elder Duna died in the early ’90s. They decided to focus on outdoor furniture.
In 2002 MBM opened its first subsidiary in South Africa. In 2012 the company became established in Argentina. Then a year ago, the Miami store, with 2,500 square feet, opened on Northeast 40th Street. It’s MBM’s first showroom in the United States.
