Colourful kitchen countertops and bathroom vanity units for the break rooms of logistics company
When Velox Oy.'s giant logistics warehouse needed office, kitchen and dressing room facilities for the staff, CEO Markus Autio gave interior designer Minna Jones free rein. When Minna got to know the windowless hall, which was full of brown cardboard boxes, she realized that the break rooms needed something completely opposite: light and colours.
"I got to design a whole of about 500 square meters area from floor to ceiling. I wanted these spaces to be a complete contrast to the rather colourless hall space where the staff mainly work. I decided to change my own rules, after all, my handprint is usually quite restrained and based on natural colours. In this case, I ended up with a bold splash of colour. The design was also strongly guided by the desire for domestic choices," says Minna.
"Finnish Durat fit this plan perfectly. Now we went ahead with the colours and you can really find a wide selection of colours from Durat. I chose Durat as the material for the bathroom and kitchen worktops at a very early stage. The material was already familiar to me, of course, but I hadn't used it before.
The plan turned out to be very colourful, and perhaps only at the end did I realize that the blue-yellow colours of Ukraine were chosen for the kitchen. When planning work began, the war had just begun. It must have subconsciously affected my mind. The fact that some of the hall rooms also had to be suitable as a bomb shelter may also have played a role."
According to Minna Jones, users have received the space well. Although at the very beginning one of them had been shocked by the colours, but has now later said that he has changed his mind. It was hoped that the kitchen would be suitable for proper cooking, there was no micro-heating space in the search. The new facility has proven to be functional and easy to maintain.
Even the building inspector had noticed the special nature of the design. "He said he had been doing his job for 20 years, but he had never seen a similar colour scheme," laughs Minna Jones.
