There’s no hiding the fact, Wildflower is a niche business. But what they do, they do very well and there’s no shortage of businesses and people who want a little or a lot of Wildflower to permeate their company or lifestyle. Having a showroom and office that can quickly articulate and explain what they do is all part of the process.
Cara Stizza and Robyn Levin are the Design and Creative Directors of Wildflower, respectively. Each share a love of furniture, art and design that has seen their business become a “go to” for industry professionals, architects, businesses and individuals seeking special, curated, interesting and apt pieces and products for their projects and developments.
Or as Levin puts it dryly, “we're just the furniture part of interior design... we can't put that on the website, but it does explain it.” There’s a little more to it, but if you want it, they can find it.
Having an office that represents their style and the fluid nature of acquisition and placement is paramount to their existence. Making sure clients, in an instance understand they’re in safe hands, while also demonstrating their work and flair, is an essential part of that communication.
“We're trying to sell people nice offices, so it's really helpful when they come here and they kind of go, okay, this is well considered, these people know what they're doing,” says Levin.
Their office, like their brand - take a look at their website - is bold and memorable and like their digital world uses colour with ease and confidence. The arrival at Wildflower is a slim staircase with a tricolour carpet arrangement. It alludes to so much – creativity, fun and control, but more than anything, it’s a subliminal note to say, ‘you’re in the right place.’
Once upstairs, all is revealed. It’s not a kaleidoscope, but a controlled application of colour and texture. And of course, artwork and furniture. Wildflower worked with Made For, a workplace consulting studio that specialises in architecture and design, to realise the space, but Stizzo and Levin personally drove the development of the palette and styling of the space.
Obviously, the new office was a chance for the team to flex their creative muscles, but the need to blend the practical with the aesthetic was central to the move. “We were growing as well, and we desperately needed it [the space] because we get a lot of jobs that turn over very quickly. All the styling comes in and then in three days it goes out to site,” explains Stizzo.
Both Stizzo and Levin talk of the boardroom being neutral and calm and place to talk about client’s work first and foremost, but even here their touch is clear and style apparent – you can’t miss the amazing signature red island in the kitchen, with its irregular, block legs and its glossy wet paint finish top. Immediately the idea of engaging Wildflower to procure your furniture feels clear - where do we sign?
Surrounding the kitchen and into the office itself, Laminex Blackbutt TrueScale™ in AbsoluteGrain® finish tempers the boldness. It’s warm, comforting and familiar, carrying with it all the characteristics that make it so: tactile, textural and earnest. Still, it’s application is extensive – full height everywhere except for the lower portion of the galley kitchen (in Laminex Steel Blue) - and delivers the impact without stealing the attention from mood boards and presentations. Aluminium shelves - cut on a diagonal - at the corner of the kitchen and office act as a soft demarcation of either space, adding another texture and colour, bringing cooler tones and subtle refraction.
As you’d expect, the details are excellent. Furniture and artwork are first class, well considered and part of a whole. Chrome legged stools in the kitchen from Grazia & Co and the Gio Ln14 pendant from &Tradition quietly assert Wildflower’s nous while art by Alexia Vogel (Otomys Gallery) and Sarah Contos’ Steel Flowers (Station Gallery) exert an enviable soft power.
Staff and clients enter the boardroom via a steel framed door with ripple glass, the kind of door you might see in a 50s detective noir or spy drama: there’s a John le Carré Tinker Tailor palette to it all; secrets and desires will be revealed. It’s comforting and familiar, while remaining fresh and personal; serious with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Open the Laminex Blackbutt TrueScale™ cupboards to reveal the interior Laminex Pale Honey panels, a detail that elevates the whole and subliminally you’re aware of Wildflower’s dedication to such things. It also happens to avoid the jarring nature of what a typical white carcass might do with harmonious reassurance.
A striking red bookcase continues the themes in the office, simultaneously providing oomph and purpose. This sense of function is carried over to the sit/stand desks in Laminex Paperbark with their bases housed in the same Laminex Blackbutt TrueScale™ in AbsoluteGrain® finish found throughout. A Dane Lovett piece from Station Gallery hangs at one end of the office as if to say, ‘this could be you’. Like all the artwork found here, it adheres to Wildflower’s signature blurring of the line between residential and commercial.
Wildflower never hides away from the fact that colour is important, and their new HQ is, as they say, bold and memorable. Yet perhaps the takeaway from this project is the small palette. By no means minimalist, it is nevertheless, a controlled and succinct one, never losing sight of its purpose, nor forgetting to be fun and entertaining. It reminds that successful design can be many things, but maybe remembering to be fun is an essential ingredient we can’t live without.
Learn more about Wildflower's furniture curation and procurement services on their website.
Credits:
Design: Wildflower & Made For
Build: In-Line Projects
Cabinet Maker: The Joinery Workshop
Styling: Wildflower
Photography: Dylan James
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