Written by Matheus Ximenes Pinho, founder and managing director of Vista Furniture Co.
We wrote a guide to ABIMAD before this year’s edition, covering how to get there, how to register, and how to work the floor. This is the other half: notes from actually being there. Diego and I spent our days at ABIMAD ’42 walking stands, sitting in chairs, running our hands over finishes, and talking to the people who actually build what Brazil’s high-decor industry is showing the world right now. Here is what stood out.
The International Lounge is worth mentioning on its own. ABIMAD built a specific space for buyers coming from outside Brazil, separate from the general floor traffic, and it is a useful signal of how seriously the fair now takes its international audience. We used it as a base between stand visits, and it is a good place to sit down with an exhibitor away from the noise of the main hall.
Upholstery: heavier, softer, and more architectural
The clearest trend across the seating stands this year was scale. Silhouettes are getting more sculptural, arms and backs reading as a single continuous curve rather than assembled pieces, and boucle and heavy-weave fabrics are everywhere.
Ponto Vírgula’s stand captured this well: a lineup of armchairs where the boucle upholstery and the frame read as one continuous shape, several with a genuinely architectural silhouette rather than a conventional club-chair profile. It is a look that photographs beautifully and, more importantly for a buyer, tends to require real skill in the upholstery itself to pull off cleanly, since a poorly executed version of this style shows every seam and every inconsistency in the fill.
Brazilian leather, presented with intent
Toro Bianco’s stand made the strongest case of the fair for Brazilian leather as a genuine material story rather than a commodity input. The presentation leaned into raw hide patterning on the rugs and cushions, a warm tobacco-and-caramel palette across the sofas and poufs, and open swatches showing the range of finishes available.
We talked with the team about how they think about leather sourcing and finishing for buyers outside Brazil, and it was a useful reminder that leather carries its own origin and traceability questions, a point we cover in more depth in our guide to sourcing upholstered furniture from Brazil. A stand built this deliberately around the material itself is exactly the kind of conversation worth having in person rather than over email.
Solid wood dining, done with real craft
Morada Dec Móveis had one of the more traditional stands at the fair, and traditional here means something specific: real joinery on display, not hidden under an upholstered shell. We stopped at their dining chairs specifically because the construction was worth a closer look, tapered solid wood legs, a visible mortise-and-tenon joint at the seat rail, and an upholstered seat pad that sat cleanly into the frame rather than overhanging it.
This is the kind of detail a catalogue photo never shows and a buyer only catches by picking the piece up. It is also exactly the discipline we cover in our guide to how to vet a furniture factory, and seeing it done well on a fair stand is a good sign of how the factory behind it likely builds at scale too.
Universum’s pavilion, and the fair’s growing design ambition
Universum built one of the most architecturally ambitious stands on the floor this year, a freestanding structure with a rippled, fin-like facade that stood out from a distance across the hall. Inside, the display leaned into natural materials and organic form, solid wood dining tables, ceramics, and sculptural accessories arranged like a real interior rather than a trade booth.
Stands like this are a useful barometer for where Brazil’s high-decor segment is investing. A brand does not build a structure like this unless it is serious about competing for attention at an international design level, and Universum’s presentation would not have looked out of place at a European design fair.
Ideale, and the return of curved, colorful seating
Ideale’s stand leaned hard into color and curve this year, an arched entry structure leading into a lounge built around a burgundy sectional and a striking rust-orange swivel chair, the Afago armchair, shown on a lit plinth as the stand’s centerpiece.
The Afago chair itself is worth noting for buyers tracking Brazilian design specifically: it carries a Salone del Mobile Milano credit on its display card, a reminder that pieces developed in Brazil are increasingly shown and recognized on the international design circuit, not only sold domestically.
Outdoor, and a Cumaru detail worth a second look
Butzke’s stand was a good stop for anyone thinking about outdoor furniture specifically, and it gave us the clearest hands-on example of the wood species argument we make in our guide to Brazilian woods for outdoor and bathroom furniture.
The stool’s tag read simply “Madeira Cumaru,” and it is a small thing that says a lot: a factory confident enough in its material to label it by species on the sales floor, rather than a vague “solid wood,” is usually a factory that takes the material seriously in production too. It is exactly the kind of detail we tell buyers to look for, and it was good to see it in practice rather than only in a spec sheet.
“Quality for Export”: a certification worth knowing about
One detail from the floor is worth flagging for any buyer researching Brazilian manufacturers independently. Several stands carried an ABIMAD-issued marker, “Quality for Export, ABIMAD Certified Company,” identifying factories the association itself has recognized for export-ready quality standards.
A certification like this is a useful signal, and it is not a substitute for a buyer’s own verification. It tells you the association has recognized the company at some level, not that the specific factory suits your specific product, volume, and destination market. We cover why that distinction matters in our guide to furniture factory audits in Brazil. Treat a marker like this as a reason to look closer, not a reason to skip looking.
What this trip confirmed
Walking the floor for a few days does something a spec sheet cannot. It confirms which factories actually stand behind their construction when you pick up the piece, which brands are investing seriously in international-level design, and which details, a species tag, a visible joint, a certification marker, are worth paying attention to versus which are just good staging. Every stand mentioned here is a company we can speak to directly, having stood in front of their work and talked with their team, not a name pulled from a catalogue.
If you are planning to attend a future edition yourself, our practical guide to ABIMAD 2026 covers how to get there, register, and work the floor efficiently. If you cannot make the trip, this is a reasonable substitute for at least part of what a walk through the fair delivers, and we are always glad to go back with a specific brief in hand.
Talk to us before your first order.
About the author
Matheus Ximenes Pinho is the founder and managing director of Vista Furniture Co. He has spent more than twenty years designing, curating, and building furniture in Brazil, working across product design, manufacturing, and digital retail. He advises international retailers, brands, hotel groups, and developers on sourcing furniture in Brazil with less risk and better decisions.
About Vista Furniture Co.
Vista Furniture Co. is a buyer-side furniture sourcing consultancy founded by veterans of Brazil’s furniture and home industry. We work with global retailers, brands, and hospitality buyers in two ways: qualifying suppliers and reducing risk before the first order, and developing collections built for the buyer’s market. We are buyer-paid and independent. You buy directly from the supplier you select. Talk to us before your next order.
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