Combining Nordic inspiration with Mexican craftsmanship talent, CACAO’s pieces are based on three elements: local manufacture, high-quality materials, and a fair price.

Criollo, the brand’s first collection, features everyday functional pieces that highlight the warmth of natural wood and the solidity of the steel.

Founded in 2019, CACAO, a Mexican design firm, melds creativity with practicality and strikes a balance between artisanal and industrial production of objects to harmonize both ideas in the brand’s furniture and decorative items.

Its designs take the utilitarian elements of mid-twentieth-century Danish carpentry and combine them with the expertise of Mexican artisans — authentic master woodworkers and blacksmiths — who collaborate to cultivate matchless contemporary design.

In CACAO’s pieces, masterful attention to detail with material preservation is immediately noticeable at first glance, an inherent feature in the trades and traditions that, for generations, have been used in woodwork (oak, tzalam, and walnut) and metalwork.

Different interpretations of local features are exhibited through clean-lined shapes and geometry, respect to natural finishes, chromatic ranges of terra cotta, as well as mustard, and burgundy hues that contrast with gray, black, and the marbled texture of terrazzo.

The Criollo collection – whose name refers to one of the different varieties of cacao – focuses on the artisanal craft of merging steel solidity and wood. The collection includes furnishing such as tables, a credenza, bedside table, bookcases, and its most recent addition: the Criollo bed, with base and headboard, which fuses textiles with wood and electropainted steel.

Among CACAO’s designs– all of which balance shapes, volumes, and textures– two pieces stand out: Its signature wall mirrors and “Los Panaderos” centerpiece, a limited edition piece from the “Miscelánea“ collection from the Mexican Design Gallery (Galería Mexicana de Diseño). Solid steel is softened by the incorporation of flowing curves into the designs. Fluid, circular shapes are set atop a rounded wood piece, seeking to achieve harmony between the two materials.

CACAO is known for its constant innovation, exhibited in past creations such as the “Inédito“ chair, which was presented in the latest edition of Design Week as a preview of Forastero 2021, its first outdoor furniture collection.

The brand’s first collection is indicative of its foreseeable future success, where its designs seamlessly mesh with modern, elegant homes found around the world. Sun-lit homes with floor to ceiling windows and a spacious layout make for the perfect display for CACAO’s modern yet unpretentious designs that instantly warm up a home. A barren stone countertop would do well to invite a CACAO centerpiece to add character and texture to the space, wouldn’t you agree?

Photos by Amy Bello unless otherwise stated