Six Furniture Surfaces celebrate their Premiere
- Changing trends – design and function in harmony
- Premiere: skai PureLux enhances furniture with premium properties – honored with the Interzum Award: Intelligent Material & Design 2021
- Premiere: skai Flagstaff Oak combines pristine wood and shiny metal
- Premiere: skai Justus Oak tells an exciting story
- Premiere: skai Viking Oak possesses the charm of a free spirit
- Premiere: skai Salazar is the perfect partner when mixed with wood or plain colors
- Premiere: skai colore Ultra Solid impresses with its robust elegance
Cologne, Germany, May 4, 2021 – The technology company Continental will be presenting new surfaces for the global furniture industry at interzum @home from May 4-7, 2021. The world’s leading trade fair for furniture production and interior finishing is being held in a completely virtual form for the first time. Within this framework with different digital formats – product highlights, chat tools, video streaming – Continental will be showcasing a wealth of innovations and concepts and thereby providing impetus for the design of tomorrow's living spaces.
Changing Trends
When it comes to the design of furniture surfaces for the kitchen, bathroom and living areas, things are becoming more colorful and striking, with high-contrast colors and vibrant decors playing a major role. As a reaction to restrictions and deprivations, people strive for a new optimism, would like to celebrate joy and lightness, let their immediate surroundings inspire their body, mind and soul. As a result, the combination of a wide variety of patterns, colors and shapes according to the mix-and-match principle takes up a lot of space. The deliberate setting of strong contrasts says it all, for example when the futuristic is combined with the old, the natural with high-tech, the real with the digital. Analogous to the design trends, a constant and often recurring change is not only identifiable, but also represents a challenge. For example, a current trend is the demand for specific properties such as disinfectant resistance, antibacterial finish, anti-fingerprint properties. These specific properties are integrated into the surface without affecting the look or feel.
Design and Function in Harmony
In the case of furniture surfaces, it continues to be the wooden decors – and here again expressive oak variants – that impress with their great naturalness and satisfy people’s needs for a feeling of coziness and warmth. The authenticity of the look and feel, plus technical-functional performance, continue to be successful on the market – and are a matter of course for Continental’s skai surfaces. For the haptic experience, soft matte, super matte and ultra-matte qualities continue to be in demand – or embossing that matches the visual decor structure – and are adapted to the materiality and application on the furniture. Stone looks also continue to feature – especially in mixtures.
For Added Value in Terms of Furniture
.Premiere: skai PureLux design laminate significantly upgrades kitchen, bathroom and living room furniture. The new PET-based furniture surface has special anti-fingerprint properties and a high level of scratch resistance. Here in the colors Manhattan and Marsala. Honored with the Interzum Award: Intelligent Material & Design 2021.
With skai PureLux design laminate, Continental is presenting its customers with a PET-based innovation for the first time. The sustainable next-generation matt surface sets the standards: It combines an extremely pleasant feel with unprecedented anti-fingerprint properties. In terms of its look, feel and function, the surface represents Continental’s claim to be a premium product – combining opposites in a very special way. The reason for this is that despite the velvety matt surface, which goes hand in hand with an extremely pleasant soft-touch feel, skai PureLux design laminate also impresses with its robust properties such as maximum scratch resistance. This innovation does not compromise on the aspect of hygiene either: It is easy to clean and resistant to disinfectants. Furthermore, skai PureLux design laminate possesses the potential to use recycled raw material and therby conserve natural resources. With this surface, Continental is once again pooling is experience, design and technology expertise in one product. Developed and manufactured in Germany, skai PureLux design laminate gives customers a head start and creates added value in terms of the furniture. It is available in nine trendy colors right from the start. The surface satisfies the highest quality standards and therefore noticeably enhances any bathroom, kitchen or living area – even in high-end surroundings. Fittingly, this new product has just been presented with the “Interzum Award: Intelligent Material & Design 2021” for its high product quality.
Oak going once
Premiere: The pristine old wood look of skai Flagstaff Oak is broken up by noble-looking metal fillings in the striking cracks. This creates special effects – here in the color Nature.
Among the decors, one type of wood continues to dominate – versatile oak. The new, striking skai Flagstaff Oak impresses with its rustic pristine old wood look. One special feature of this decor is the distinctive cracks, which are not black, but filled by hand with noble metallic materials. The result is an expressive design with a special effects character that enables many possible combinations. Both materials – wood with all its facets and metal – complement each other perfectly and set the stage for one other. Uniqueness, recognition, nature and finishing are brough together in skai Flagstaff Oak in an exclusive and particularly high-quality look.
Oak going twice
Premiere: A 400-year-old beam was the inspiration for skai Justus Oak. The decor tells an exciting story with its features and impresses with its great naturalness. Here in the living area in the color New Brown.
The inspiration for the new skai Justus Oak decor comes from a 400-year-old beam from the Allgäu region of Germany. As a result, the oak decor tells an exciting story with its primed putty, dark traces of water and fissures that have turned black due to aging. Each of the three shades of skai Justus Oak contains a high degree of naturalness – and its soul. Whether light or dark: The narrow-grained oak decor is a perfect ‘mixing partner’ for rough materials such as metal and stone or resistant plain-colored surfaces.
Oak going three times
Premiere: The wild character of skai Viking Oak quite naturally impresses with its individual details. Here in Scandinavian style in the color Nature.
The new product skai Viking Oak is a free spirit which has been able to develop individually without any constraints. The wild oak from the far north is characterized by irregularly placed, distinctive features that give it a charm all its own. The decor impresses not only with the three color shades, which also go well with the Scandinavian style, but with its courage to be imperfect. So much wildness is captured by the clean look of skai Viking Oak.
Perfect Partner
Premiere: skai Salazar can be perfectly combined with plain colors and wooden decors. The lively play of colors comes into its own particularly well in the Ceramics color.
The terrazzo design of skai Salazar emanates from the realm of stones. Inspired by antiquity, yet current in the here and now and in the future, it combines marble, limestone and dolomite in one decor, while appearing timeless and open. Terrazzo offers itself as an elegant partner of plain colors and wooden decors of all kinds. With four colors, skai Salazar opens up a wide range of possibilities.
Robust Elegance
Premiere: skai colore Ultra Solid is the name of the surface for the classic, robust, yet elegant application. Blackberry is just one of many refreshing colors.
The new surface for the classic, solid range is called skai colore Ultra Solid. This new product with the fine sandy feel is also the right choice for those who are particularly demanding. As a trendy matt single plain color, the surface stands on its own; in combination with stone, concrete, terrazzo or metallic effect decors, it ensures attractive contrasts. With an optional mother-of-pearl effect, skai colore Ultra Solid is the new all-over highlight for the high-end sector – an attractive eye-catcher.
Axel Schmidt
Head of Communications
ContiTech Surface Solutions