Iroko outdoor furniture from Alison to Rivera

Minotti furniture for the outdoors began with iroko. Alison, the first outdoor piece the company made, drawn in 2006 by Rodolfo Dordoni with Roberto Minotti, still stands on an exposed iroko frame. Teak later took over most of the range, but iroko stayed on two families, Alison and Rivera, and buyers ask us how it compares.

Iroko, the wood

Iroko is a dense hardwood that copes well with rain, damp and strong sun. Minotti uses the heartwood, the dark core of the trunk, which holds up best outdoors. It weathers much like teak. Left alone in full sun, the natural brown turns silver gray within a season or two. A yearly oil keeps the original tone.

On a terrace, most eyes will not tell iroko from teak after a year in the weather, since both end in the same silver. The difference shows in the design: Minotti gives iroko to its two most architectural lounge families, one square and one retro.

Alison: the square frame

Minotti Alison is a modular outdoor sofa system with an exposed iroko frame of straight edges and a 45 degree joint on each arm. Thick, padded seat, back and arm cushions repeat the square outline, so strict wood meets soft upholstery. You can join the pieces into one long sectional or keep them apart as single sofas.

Three versions sit on this site. The iroko sofa has been in the catalog since 2012. A dark brown stained version arrived in 2014 with reworked cushions: high resilience polyurethane foam of varying density, wrapped in a water-repellent fiber, with a stain chosen to sit with the Art Lifescape 02 outdoor fabrics. Alison Iroko Nature, a natural finish added in 2023, lets the wood deepen to a warm, muted tone as it ages. See the Alison collection.

The detail to look at sits under the frame. The iroko versions stand on stainless steel tips set into slots in the wood, and the dark brown version rests on low anodized aluminum blocks stained to match. Both keep standing water and damp away from the timber, which is where outdoor wood suffers first.

Rivera: iroko with a woven back

Minotti Rivera, from 2015, is Dordoni's take on retro Mediterranean lounge furniture. A slim base in solid iroko heartwood carries a wraparound back woven in polypropylene fiber, in the open cannage pattern of bistro chairs, in light gray or dark brown. The family covers two and three seat sofas, armchairs, an ottoman, a coffee table and a chair, plus Rivera Little, a compact version for tighter terraces.

The feature people notice first is the ledge. On the armchair and on both sofas the iroko base extends past the seat in a cantilever, and the flat end holds a glass, a phone or a small plate. You need fewer side tables around a Rivera group. Dordoni pictured the set on a lakeside veranda or a terrace facing the sea. See the Rivera collection.

Care for iroko

Treat iroko the way you treat teak. Wash it in spring with mild soapy water and a soft brush along the grain, rinse, and let it dry in the sun. To keep the brown, oil the dry wood once a year and wipe off the excess. To let it go silver, wash and leave it.

On Rivera the polypropylene back needs only a rinse with the hose. On Alison the cushions are the part to plan for: in a long wet winter, store them indoors or under a cover, and give the frame a cover that breathes.

Iroko on the plan

Alison wants a long wall or a view. A run of modules along the edge of a deck, with a low table in front, is the classic setup, and it carries a lot of seats in a strip of floor. Rivera wants a corner. Two armchairs and a sofa around a coffee table make a group you can walk around, and the ledges save the space that side tables would take. Both suit a covered loggia as well as open sun.

Mixing iroko with the rest of the range

An iroko sofa sits well beside teak tables once both have weathered to silver. If you oil one, oil the other, or keep them in separate zones. Stone pairs well with iroko too. A Block coffee table on its teak base with a Pietra del Cardoso top, or a Bellagio table in Basaltine, gives a Rivera group a heavy center.

For a house with a long history, Alison makes a strong case. Dordoni designed it with the Lifescape idea in mind, furniture meant for both indoor and outdoor rooms, so the same squared profile can run from the living room to a loggia or pool deck.

Say in the form below how your terrace is laid out and whether you want the wood to go silver or stay warm brown. You get the Alison or Rivera configuration that fits, its finishes and fabrics, and the price in writing. Production starts on your approval, and the timing is on the quote.