A series of spectacularly inconspicuous furniture. Its discreet elegance allows it to be present in the modern office without distracting from the things that actually matter. One grey, RAL 7044, since 2016.
16:59, a film by Lernert & Sander, 2016
Leave room for colour
Aidsfonds and Soa Aids Nederland, Amsterdam, by Hollandse Nieuwe. The colour is theirs. The grey is ours. Photo Ewout Huibers.
Sony Music, Amsterdam. Interior by Beyond Space with Space Encounters. Photo Peter Tijhuis.
Collection
Everything the office needs, in one grey.
24 products, one colour, all in stock. Desks that go up and down, chairs that are ergonomic in practice, cabinets that lock, a coat stand that stays upright. Order five desks or fifty in one go, and add one next year without anyone noticing.
Projects
In offices by architects.
Leave room for colour. When the furniture is grey, everything else can thrive and stand out: the pink carpet, the wooden ceiling, the plants, the art, the people. It makes it much easier to decide where an office should be about, and to keep it there. Architects have known this since 2016. It works just as well without one.
Photo: Ewout Huibers
Story
A frustration that became a business plan.
In 2015 there were only white desks and black chairs, and they ruined the interiors we had worked so hard on. So we made our own, in one grey. It launched in Milan in 2016, won an award for being boring, and has been quietly continuing ever since. A chair from 2016 still matches a desk from today. That was the plan.
The Boring Mobile, BIG ART 2021.
Journal
Things that happened to a collection that tries to avoid them.
Winner of the Milano Design Award 2016, best concept. Since then: a six metre tower in Cologne, a sea of paper balls in Milan, forty two clocks turning the wrong way, a complaints desk in Rotterdam. The collection stays in the background, the attention goes to everything else. The journal keeps the record, reluctantly.
Sustainability
One colour is the most sustainable decision we ever made.
Because everything has been the same grey since 2016, every part still fits every piece: a castor, a top or a new fabric is a phone call, not a new chair. Chairs come back after ten years, get refurbished and go out again. Nothing gets thrown away, it just changes desks. Add recycled wood tops, metal that survives and fabric made from bottles, and it adds up without a campaign.
For business
Everything you need for the office in the same colour of grey.
For five desks or five hundred, and for the person who has to arrange it all. One supplier, one price list, one delivery, one invoice. From stock within two weeks, assembly on request, lease or Pay for Use if you would rather not buy. Datasheets for every product, so the paperwork is as boring as the furniture.
In The Yard, Drongen near Ghent. Interior by 5AM, 2024. Photo Skinn Branding Agency.