Benjamin Moore Experience Centre by NDB Design Studio

With plenty of attitude, American paint brand Benjamin Moore gets a bad-boy makeover in their latest showroom by NDB Design Studio located in Jinhua, China. Art and products collide in this space that conveys the brand values and images through a series of impromptu surprises.

Breaking with convention, NDB questioned the common practice of only utilising paint for walls and looked at coating various props throughout the store to fully showcase the performance of the brand’s products. Against the greyish tone of the backdrop, vivid hues evoke sensory experiences and invite interaction. Adopting this experimental approach to the process led to a sense of discovery, as the studio conceived a space of random occurrences and sudden flashes of ideas.

Ndb Design Studio Benjamin Moore Paint Showroom Experience Center Jinhua Yellowtrace 26

Ndb Design Studio Benjamin Moore Paint Showroom Experience Center Jinhua Yellowtrace 24

Lively paint colours are combined with objects found in daily life – a yoga ball, shoes, stool, raincoat and tiles, to create a seemingly random and unfinished composition. A highlight is the Wassily lounge chair unapologetically painted in half green and white paint sitting next to the broken stool, its painted ceramic tiles strewn across the floor.

The light bulb that provided lighting for the painting process on the site, the masking tape tore off from the painted ceramic tiles, and the structural parts cut from the curved wall for length control are all retained, memories of the spatial creation process.

Unexpected moments are at every turn, from a half-painted jagged wall to the lucidly painted orange column. Chairs are turned upside down and forms are half painted in organised disarray. Common materials such as wood, stone, leather, steel tube and acrylic are presented in a tactile manner in combination with the paint. Their semi-processed state shows the dramatic fusion and contrast of material textures and paint colours, refining the value of display props.

The functions of space were not pre-set, allowing the open 100-square-metre interior to be used for multiple purposes – exhibitions, socializing, photography and events. With the props being unfixed they can be freely combined to generate various scenes and an infinite amount of possibilities for its use.

Embracing uncertainty, this unlikely paint showroom shakes off preconceived ideas and champions a guerrilla-like process to the design that feels refreshingly unique.