In the fourth of the series of Sofa Chats, top interior designer Fleur Peck talks about why she loves working with us, using Minotti furniture in her designs, and which are her favourite pieces.
Hit the play button below to watch the full conversation, or read the full transcript below:
Casey Morrison: Thank you so much for coming, Fleur. It’s lovely to have you here.
Fleur Peck: Absolute pleasure. Lovely to be here, and amongst all your amazing furniture.
Casey: I was going to say you’re looking absolutely fabulous on the Jacques set today.
Fleur: Thank you. I think I’ve coordinated myself.
Casey: Now, Fleur, are you able to tell us how you first heard about Minotti?
Fleur: Absolutely. I’ve known about Minotti for a long time. They’re a wonderful furniture brand. I probably didn’t know a huge amount about them though up until about five years ago when I was lucky enough to go to your factory in Italy, which was wonderful in the summer.
Sun shining, but more importantly, to see how your pieces are manufactured and really hear about the Minotti family story, and really get to know the breadth and depth of your furniture. So that’s when I guess I got to know Minotti really well. And it’s been great to then be able to, as projects come along, to be able to find the right projects that work with your furniture.
Casey: So what made you consider Minotti for your latest commercial projects?
Fleur: So one of our most recent projects, Ninety One, which finished last year, and the clients absolutely love it and dying to start using their terrace on the top floor, which is enviable of many restaurants in London and possibly even better than a lot of restaurants.
Casey: We’re waiting for our invite.
Fleur: Yeah, I know. Honestly, the chef is amazing as well. I’ve got such an amazing spot, and the view’s over St. Paul’s. For us though, really getting to know Ninety One, and we really understood, they wanted to break away. They demerged from Investec Group. And so they wanted to really make their own mark and their own statement. And they wanted to set themselves apart from other similar businesses and their competitors, effectively.
And then once we got to know them and their South African heritage as well, and also the breadth and depth of who they are, they wanted to use their space, not only for their people and create amazing space for their people, like the restaurant that’s on the top floor, but also have a space that they can invite their partners and their customers and host events.
So we have an amazing event space on the ground floor, that’s flexible. There’s lots of your Tape furniture that’s gone into that. Which works really well because it’s lightweight, and you can move it around easily for the events, but it also looks very permanent when it’s set up in its usual type of statement arrangement. So they really wanted to be able to attract those customers and create spaces that they could bring their clients to.
The eight floor is a client floor that has predominantly meeting rooms, but then we’ve created this sweeping staircase that goes up ninth floor, which is the restaurant, and the cherry on the top of the entire space.
And it was great to be able to use some of your wonderful outdoor furniture up there as well, with the Quadrado sofas, which just look amazing up on that terrace. And such a large terrace, they really fit well up on that space. As you come in and arrive at the top of the stairs, you can see the sweeping views across the city. And the furniture really makes a statement up there.
Casey: Was there any particular Minotti piece that caught your eye for this project, that made you think, “Yeah, this is definitely one for this one.”?
Fleur: The two that I really loved were the Tape furniture, so for which I think I mentioned earlier. So we didn’t just use it in the event space where it lent itself to be easily moveable and flexible, we used that also in the client suites and we applied a variety of different materials as well. So we’ve got velvets and then we’ve got really beautiful textured fabrics like this one, and woven fabrics, which really mixed it up.
And depending on where we were putting it, it created a different look and feel. So that was a great suite as well, coming in armchairs and the tables and the sofas as well.
And then of course the Quadrado outdoor sofas, which if you’ve not sat in one, you need to go have a seat in one.
They are amazing, and just to be able to curl up in one of those sofas on the terrace. But be able to create also team environments, it’s not just about beautiful furniture, these pieces have to work as well. And the Tape furniture‘s great because it is quite an upright sofa, so it works very well in a corporate environment, an office environment where you are trying to have meetings within the spaces as well.
Casey: Is there anything, as we were together, that stood out, particularly working with Minotti London as a brand?
Fleur: It was wonderful to be able to have you on hand when we came to visit and to really have you when we were talking through the finishes, and of deciding on how all the different pieces went together. Because, we did have a wide range of furniture going into the building. And the great thing about Minotti furniture is that it sits really beautifully with other furniture as well.
You create amazing statement pieces, but also they fit very well with everything else. I think a brand, in that sense, is that it really is such high quality and such unique pieces, but also can sit amongst everything else, and easily amongst the design that we created as well.
Casey: It’s perfect. I think that’s really nice within a brand that it does sit well with other pieces, it can be manoeuvred. And I think a lot of the pieces here are very timeless, and so that’s a nice way then to keep the longevity for the future. Talking about the future, are there any pieces that you would love to see Minotti release, or anything that you hope to be coming out in the future?
Fleur: Oh, well I was just sitting on one of your wonderful new dining chairs, now I’ve forgotten the name of it already, but you’ll be able to remind me over there.
Casey: Lovely Angie.
Fleur: Yeah, Angie. It’s always great to have a really great dining chair that can be used particularly in the commercial world, in client meeting rooms as well. Because often we have, and we had at Ninety One, we had a couple of meeting rooms that were easily transferable into dining rooms.
So you need those sorts of pieces that are versatile enough to be everyday meeting and then turning into the dining room at night, like that little black dress furniture, I guess.
Casey: With the Minotti glamour on top, perfect.
Fleur: Exactly.
Casey: So I guess lastly, if you could pick one piece for your own house, Fleur, what would it be here?
Fleur: Oh, gosh. Right, well, if I had the space, I would have to go to the Quadrado sofa and the coffee table, and the big armchairs that go with it. Having that as a big statement piece on nice terraces. I’d have the whole showroom, as I said to you earlier, I’d happily live within this showroom.
Casey: Let’s move in. That’s perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Fleur. It’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you, and it’s really not nice to hear a little bit of insight into the way that the design mind then becomes actually into completion. And it’s been really great working with you.
Fleur: Absolute pleasure to be working with you, and have such an amazing collection of furniture. Great to see your new Fynn chairs, which are a really beautiful nod to the 1920s, thirties era, and really statement modernist pieces. And I think that they sit really beautifully with some of your more traditional furniture as well.
Casey: Hopefully we can sit on them in the next one, Fleur.
Fleur: I agree.
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