How to bring nature indoors: Flou

In life, design inspiration can be found anywhere and everywhere, and with 4 billion years of experience, the constantly evolving natural world features, perhaps, the most advanced design found anywhere on the planet.

Italian furniture brand Flou performs annual design research into the world around us. Inspired by the elegance, intelligence and emotion of the natural world, the company’s latest collections feature new shapes, materials, finishes and textures which invite the beauty and harmony of nature into the home.

The brand’s research-led 2021 collection brings together the six fresh colour palettes of Amethyst, Arctic, Magma, Ocean, Oasis and Quartz, each representing a different aspect of our changing environment. Within these palettes, bold nature-inspired fabrics can be found, such as the rough, uneven finishes of Marvin or Zelda, respectively replicating the perfectly imperfect textures of earth or bark; Fred’s thick, bushy appearance of summer or autumn forests (Oasis and Magma) or cloudscapes (Arctic); and the bold statement fabric, Vermont, with multiple contiguous parallel lines, mimicking multiple natural formations such as a tree’s cross-sectional growth rings (Arctic), topological green landscapes (Oasis), or mesmerising tide marks left in the sand (Quartz).

Two of the colour palettes, Magma and Ocean, combine to form two new finishes for furniture and accessories such as Flou’s modular Foglio system. Hand-painted by expert craftspeople on a canvas of sheet metal, the resulting finish of either explosive, volcanic red or startling, chasmic blue creates a constantly shifting surface with varying hues, depth and intensity.

These changeable surfaces reflect the uniqueness of the natural world, as do many of the collection’s products themselves. The aforementioned Foglio system, for example, is crafted from a single sheet of expertly curved metal. The system’s sideboards, units and shelves balance a simple and elegant profile with an immovable solidity, like naturally-formed rock formations; while either the front or rear of the units feature a mirrored surface reflective of a still lake, quietly accompanying a rocky mountain range.

Meanwhile, at the softer end of nature, sits Flou’s Flora system. Beginning with a lone seat and extending to double, triple versions – allowing for an array of imaginative seating arrangements – the botany-inspired seat’s form imitates two petals, freshly plucked from a flower’s alluring crown.

Unlike its natural namesake, however, Flora’s fabric won’t wither and fall, but neither will it renew each spring. Instead, a removable cloak sits atop a washable cover, both washable, ensuring the chair sits comfortably in both interior and sheltered exterior oases. The former provides additional comfort and a contrasting colour or texture from Flou’s extensive fabric range, while the latter’s black zips run along the edges of the seat and backrest, highlighting its curvature.

Another product from Flou’s 2021 collection that highlights and celebrates its own curves, this time with the application of exposed stitching, is the Taormina bed. Like the shell of a conchological creature, Taormina seems to have grown around the sleeper to uniquely cocoon their slumber.

Taormina provides the perfect home for drowsy shell dwellers to cosy into, but unlike other armoured veterans, it’s anything but a tight squeeze. Built instead for opulence, the smallest Taormina bed houses a 160x200 cm (King) mattress. For a complete palatial experience, however, the options run all the way up the illustrious 200x200 cm Emperor size.

Then we move back to natural rock formations and on towards the coast, with the Pierre chair. The chair’s seat and backrest take on the form of a pair of pebbles sitting together on a beach, taking us directly into their world where no line is straight, but all of them are unique. ‘A project born from compass and curvilinear, in search of harmonic and sinuous shapes combined with the rigour of modern sculpture.’ Says Pierre’s designer, Studio Contromano.

Mix and match seat and backrest covers encourage contrasting and complementing combinations of Flou’s nature-inspired palettes, textures and finishes, bringing personality and originality to indoor or sheltered locales.

Through a combination of research alongside creative inspiration, Flou’s 2021 collection breathes fresh air back into life; connecting our increasingly interior lives back to the natural world from where we came.

© Architonic