Plumbing World Showroom

Outline Design refreshed the exterior with a bright white, offset with crisp dark accented features, including bollards and window frames.

The installation of full height shop front windows gave uninterrupted visibility from the street into the dynamic space, with pivoting panels displaying hardware and the use of block colour to add interest, break up the large space and lend personality to each bathroom setting as well as the showroom as a whole.

Using colour and form to create ‘rooms within a room’ display pods and vertical colour bands on custom joinery in the same palette are eye catching, drawing the customer into and around the showroom. Photographs of completed colourful pods are applied on the high level windows of the building to further entice customers and give a flavour of the displays inside.

As a contrast to the light palette, the design includes a dark black steel frame that forms a transparent ‘room’, showcasing a freestanding bath, without compromising views to the rest of the product on display. An inspired solution for the basin display was to float the product against a vertical black background, making the vessels almost sculptural in the space.

Clients have reason to pause at each ‘room’ which helps them to take time to make decision. The personality of each room is influenced by the colour, with each pod appealing to a variety of customers. Using one colour on all surfaces creates an experiential engagement that allows the product to be hero.

Achieving maximum impact in a space that required flexibility for changing product displays while adhering to budget meant that paint was a logical and creative answer, with colour being integral to the design solution.

In deciding the palette, global colour trends as a starting point, while keeping the palette relatively timeless. The palette includes:

• Resene Paris Daisy – yellow – bright and cheerful. Yellow attracts our attention like no other colour, catching attention from the street and drawing customers inside. Resene Paris Daisy made the room feel full of light (which helped with the low stud), added warmth, is vibrant and reflective, landing an upbeat energetic personality to the yellow pod.

• Resene Blanched Pink – soft pink – a hot colour trend, versatile, both fun and daring, elegant, soothing and peaceful. A womb within a room. Pink added a gentle, nurturing personality to the pod.

• Resene Powder Blue – baby blue – soft and comforting, tranquil with a classic cool tone, referencing water. Blue brought restful, calming personality to the blue pod.

• Resene All Black – the matt black display wall was designed in stark contrast to the colour pods and white base walls. Acting more like a gallery wall, each vessel becomes something of an abstract piece, which works well to visually describe the shape of each basin. The wall recedes while the product ‘pops’.

Vertical bands of colour on the joinery break up the length of the wall displays. These relate to each of the four pods and add cohesion to the design. All the colour pods sit as a foil to the one woodgrain finish in the series of four.

The rest of the palette was neutral with doors, frames, timber and solid surfaces finished in Resene Lustacryl semi-gloss waterborne enamel and plasterboard in Resene SpaceCote Flat, both in Resene Double Alabaster. The trade area floor is finished in Resene Uracryl tinted to Resene Quarter Stack.

The walls are finished in Resene Lustacryl semi-gloss waterborne enamel with the floor finished in Resene Uracryl, chosen for its durability and excellent resistance to abrasion with people walking into/onto the pod floor. Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen is used for shadowlines.

The exterior palette is monochromatic with Resene Lumbersider in Resene Black White, bollards in Resene Uracryl in Resene All Black and window recesses and soffits in Resene Triple Concrete.

In a showroom of this size, it was important to break the space up to make the shopping experience less intimidating, and colour was an integral device in achieving a more human scale. All fixtures and fittings were required to be removable so that product can be replaced as new stock arrives in the showroom. A painted finish was ideal as this could be touched up with relative ease should there be damage.

The key colour theme integral to the concept is proposed to be adopted throughout their showrooms nationwide, with each showroom using a different palette that reflects the location/region it is in, as well as being mindful of fashion trends.

While still early days since completion of the fit-out, the colour-centric design has resulted in a 30% increase in foot traffic – one of the primary goals set during the initial brief.

Building contractor: Cubicon Interiors Ltd
Client: Plumbing World
Interior designer and colour selection: Outline Design
Joinery: Morrow Joinery
Painting contractor: South Pacific Wallcoverings Ltd
Photographer: Mark Scowen
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2018