
White means fresh and friendly
Managing Director Ralf Wiedemann talks about Stiegelmeyer’s new fashionable colour
Mr Wiedemann, what made Stiegelmeyer decide to offer healthcare beds and furniture in white?
This is a new and surprising development that runs counter to the old trend. White has been popular for cars and in the furniture industry for several years, but in inpatient care, people associated this colour with a clinical look and tended to prefer more homelike wood tones. For some time now, however, there has also been a growing demand for white beds from large providers in the care sector. This is why we are now satisfying this requirement with our new chalk decor. We are currently supplying two major customers with white care beds from our Venta and Elvido series along with matching bedside lockers, tables and cupboards.
Where does this new interest in the colour white come from?
It looks good and can be combined with many fresh colours. I’ve already seen one of our customers’ new rooms.
The flooring, panelling, lamps and supply strips are in yellow or other striking colours. The overall result is very friendly and positive.
Please can you describe the chalk decor?
It is brilliantly white, without a shimmer of beige or grey. And it doesn’t have a grained or any other structure. If customers don’t want this for all of their interior furnishings, they can successfully combine our new chalk decor with tables and cupboards that have a structured white finish, for example, such as Pfleiderer’s W10300.
Are white decors more high-maintenance than wood decors?
Dirt is more likely to be visible on white surfaces than on grey surfaces – everyone who drives a white car knows that. But of course, our chalk decor has the same good hygienic properties and high quality as all of the other decors and is easy to clean.
Do you think that this white trend will prevail?
Yes. I believe that white will establish itself, particularly in combination with wood decors such as Lindberg Oak, Truffle Baron Elm or our new Oak Style Cinnamon. This is precisely the style that major furniture manufacturers were presenting at trade fairs last year. White rooms with doors or applications in oak were to be seen everywhere. In the past, such trends arrived in care establishments with a delay of a few years, but nowadays this happens much faster.