Colourful living. This is the uplifting signal from the latest Salone del Mobile.Milano. Further confirmation that not it is not only the Black & White duo that are synonymous with elegance and contemporaneity, but that other colours can also make for a stylish domestic space. Furthermore, colours are attention-grabbing and have the power to sway our emotions. After a surfeit of Millennial Pink, what are the upcoming and bang on-trend palettes? Certainly dense colours such as blues, greens and earthy hues that create atmospheres and take us back to nature – the true protagonist of living spaces when it comes to palette and decor, or materials and textures – harnessed by fabrics for upholstereds and chairs, lacquered furnishing panels and interior finishes.
The outsider shades that bring a twist to all this, anticipated in fact by Living Coral – the Pantone Institute’s colour of the year – belong to orange. Incredibly theatrical and joyful, orange channels the warmth of red and yellow, both radiant tones, which is why it is seen as the warm shade par excellence. It’s a colour that reminds us simultaneously of oranges at the time they are harvested and of falling leaves. Its spectrum ranges from warm, earthy tones to the more delicate and less vivid ones of apricots and peaches, which conjure up a soft warmth.
We saw an assortment of colours ranging from jolly and vibrant at the Salone – used in upholstereds by Vitra, Campeggi and Sancall and chairs by Kartell, Magis and Sawaya&Moroni – to the opulent, succulent tones that have taken over A Lot of Brasil’s entire range and attempted to do the same at Flou; from the deep, spicy nuances of AlfdaFrè and Caimi to those veering on coral – as preferred by Arper, Moroso and Missoni Home – to the more muted shades of brown which lend an exotic touch to sofas and chairs by Kristalia, Mascheroni, Zanotta, Poliform and chairs by Pedrali. It is a bold, eclectic nuance that is also prevalent in fabrics, as demonstrated by Glas, Antonio Lupi, Cleaf and Coedition.
It is an “easy” colour for furnishing producers, because it marries well with blue, purple, yellow and green and can be astonishing with white and black. Theirs is a joyful coexistence, anarchic, more instinctive than rational. Basically, orange creates a wow effect, powerful and unexpected, which eschews the banal and makes the spirit of any place and space in which it is used vibrate. Definitely worth a try.