Never asleep: Flou

For decades, the colour white was associated with cold, minimalistic interiors. But times are changing. In the hands of contemporary designers, white is a colour with unlimited potential.

For 2019, Italian bed and furniture brand Flou has reinterpreted its own relationship with the colour, making it the bedrock for a gallery-like approach to interiors. “It is not the stark white of past decades,” says Flou president, Massimiliano Messina. “This use of white interprets an exhibition concept in which the design matrix is clearly identifiable, original and not standardised.”

This softer shade of white, combined with a neutral palette of cream and grey, creates a bright base for Flou’s bold designs and two rich, feature pigments for its textiles – pumpkin orange and forest green. “The white base becomes a platform to highlight the intrinsic value of the products, creating a dynamic and surprising experience,” explains Messina.

Founded in 1978 as a bed-focused brand, Flou has seen many colour trends come and go but has remained steadfast in its commitment to innovation when it comes to combining textiles and furniture design.

The company cemented its reputation with ones of its very first product releases – the Nathalie bed designed by Italian designer Vico Magistretti. With its distinctive bows, the bed was the first of its kind to feature a removable textile cover. With Nathalie and its successors, Flou played a significant role in transforming the concept of the bedroom, from a static place to sleep into a sanctuary within the home.

Today it produces more than 40 beds as well as a wide range of complementary furniture and accessories, and also other pieces for the rest of the home. In 2013, it also launched a new brand, Natevo, which specialises in furniture with incorporated light fittings.

For 2019, Flou is taking a holistic approach to interior furnishings with its home collection. Drawing inspiration from the fabrics used in men’s tailoring, the textiles feature Prince of Wales checks and fabric designs inspired by Viennese raffias as jacquard patterns and micro designs more usually found in designs for neckties. These small details help create a distinctive aesthetic, combining robust, strong woven textiles with soft and luxurious textures.

“The colours are strong – the pumpkin orange and forest green that contrast with the classical white – and define three distinct colour zones, while the neutral shades of milky white and charcoal gray reveal new harmonies,” says Messina.

Magistretti’s distinctive Nathalie bed remains at the heart of the collection, reimagined in 2019’s new colours and textiles. It is joined by the new Koi bed by Carlo Colombo – a double-sized bed with a distinctive metal structure that frames the vertically quilted headboard and carries on down into the feet.

For the bedroom, Flou has also added a bench design by Matteo Nunziati, New Bond, with a deeply upholstered seat resting on cylindrical metal legs, and the Binario sofa by Pinuccio Borgonovo with large feather cushions that echo the relief stitching on the armrests and balance out the sharp, geometric lines of the frame.

Other new additions include the Myplace sofa and coffee table by Emanuela Garbin. Designed to provide an informal personal space within the home, the sofa comes in three different depths, with modular armrests, seat backs and seats that can be arranged in different formations. The tables take on irregular shapes to complement the form of the sofa, with hand-brushed cement surfaces.

Existing designs are also returning in new, rich colours, like the Olivier sofa by Garbin and Mario Dell’Orto – a generous, deep seating system “designed to satisfy the changes in the universe of contemporary living, where the boundaries between the sleeping and living quarters are blurred”. Meanwhile, Natevo is launching the Ashaa lamp by Stefano Bigi, with a structure formed by eight, slim wooden slats that form a column and support a blown-glass ball.

“The desire to reinvent contemporary interior design is clearly identifiable in the new products,” says Messina. “It is a concept where elegance and comfort are integrated into a harmonious whole.”

© Architonic