Expect a stay filled with colour in this latest offering from Pantone, the colour company. Against a largely white canvas the unique Pantone colours pack a highly colourful punch

Architecture: Olivier Hannaert
Interior designer: Michel Penneman

Interior designer Olivier Hannaert and architect Michel Penneman (both Belgian) have completed a hotel in the centre of Brussels for colour company Pantone. A daring addition to the ever-expanding Pantone Universe – an expanding line of colourful products – the hotel has seven floors, each decorated with a different, rainbow-bright colour palette. For hotel owners Avi and Ilan Haim, it’s an imaginative addition to one of the city’s more glamorous districts, popular for shopping as well as being one of the city’s key business areas.

The hotel still has the sober Seventies facade of the original building, but coloured films have been applied to part of the glazing, giving the outside that stand-out Pantone feel. The interiors, from the lobby and beyond, are predominantly white and made up of several zones, each separated by vertical magnetic partitions in white lacquered steel. The partitions are designed to accommodate interchangeable magnetic strips in Pantone colours, giving the option to personalise the lobby for events. The reception desk is made of white Corian, the floor is polished concrete and the space features furniture by Arper, Finn Stone and Belgian company Sixinch. Display cases show Pantone products such as mugs, cufflinks and weighing scales, all for sale, and bicycles with the Pantone label are also there in the lobby, reinforcing the prominence of the Pantone brand.

The Pantone bar is located beneath the lobby and is classed as an ‘area of relaxation where clients are submerged in colour’. A patio opens out from the end of a cafeteria creating a visual link with the lower part of the hotel, while a terrace on the 8th floor offers 360-degree city views.

As with the lobby and the rest of the hotel, the 59 guest rooms are painted in white and colour is applied dramatically, though sparingly. A backlit canvas of a unique photograph taken from a selection commissioned from Belgian photographer Victor Levy, is above every bed head and forms the basis of each of the rooms’ colour schemes. Pantone colour swatches are positioned close to the photograph to represent a Pantone analysis of the primary, secondary and tertiary colours of the image. Particular rooms can be requested at check-in, when guests are asked to choose ‘a mood’ and a room is assigned to them accordingly, ranging from the tranquillity of a room decorated in Pantone 298C (a turquoise) to the hotel’s signature Pantone 200C (a red).

A small work table in stainless steel and heavy laminate is in each guest room and a plexiglass sphere is positioned above each table containing Pantone products such as mugs and boxes. Guest bathrooms are pure white – the only colour here is provided by the exclusive Pantone toiletries.

The hotel library is stocked only with books about colour – what else? – a humorous touch that further enhances the Pantone Hotel experience.

As a draw for business guests, Pantone ‘colour consultants’ are available, by appointment, for colour consultations or to present educational seminars.