Interior stylist and product designer Sarah Ellison has teamed up with the Pantone Colour Institute, creating a rich, coffee-brown hue for her recently released FLOAT sofa. The modular sofa is available in three-piece and four-piece styles, reinterpreting a 1970s silhouette for contemporary homes. Drawing inspiration from conversation pits, the sofa takes on a low profile and features puffy horizontal channelling.
“We are seeing more people embracing the style of furniture that enables an ease of storytelling. The trend is being driven by proximity with a sectional sofa facilitating conversation,” notes designer Sarah Ellison. “The embrace of a bulbous, low-slung, textural centrepiece such as the FLOAT sofa offers a level of comfort and simplifies the human connection that has been lacking in recent years.”
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Marking the first time the global colour authority has collaborated with a designer within the home category, the resultant shade of Piccolo is a deep, warm brown that taps into the overarching themes of connection and conversation.
“As a product designer, I have not only relied upon Pantone for colour inspiration but also to define and control the use of colours within specific finishes and materials in my collections,” explains Ellison. “The dialogue with Pantone began from my desire to create an organic colour that would represent the theme of connection and complement my FLOAT sofa design. After several years of global disorder and disruption, I was inspired to design this piece as a means of encouraging conversation, and the colours we selected were going to be a key component to help communicate this idea.”
“This particular shade of brown came through much discussion and collaboration with the team at Pantone to find a tone that signified in colour, the essence of human connection,” says Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Colour Institute. “Together we felt the need to embrace a colour that encouraged rejuvenation after a period of particular darkness and upheaval, and this shade of brown had a powerful unifying and grounding effect.”
Serving as a way to bring an element of the outdoors into the home, Piccolo taps into the grounding, life-giving nature of soil. “The planet remains the biggest inspiration for interiors as we seek to capture the connection to the outside world through shape, texture, and colour,” explains Pressman. “The colour brown helps to fulfil some of today’s greatest needs; the warming depth of brown can help us to feel connected through the network of nature.”
Upholstering the plush FLOAT sofa in Piccolo velvet provides textural and sensorial depth, serving as a means of comfort and connection.
Words by Theo Rosen
