New Colorways for 1966 Collection

With the addition of six new color options for Richard Schultz’s classic 1966 Collection, your patio and outdoor spaces can emulate the colorful cabanas of the tropics.

Consisting of an array of bright, electric hues (plum, yellow, lime green, blue, and orange) and one more earthy, atmospheric tone (green), the new color options extend the palettes originally developed for the Olivares Aluminum Chair and Washington™ Skeleton Aluminum Side Chair, respectively, to the powder-coated legs of Richard Schultz’s outdoor collection. Customers can now coordinate patio products from four different designers—Richard Schultz, Jonathan Olivares, David Adjaye and Daniel Stromborg—to create a diverse, yet unified outdoor color scheme.

New colorways for Richard Schultz's 1966 Collection.

In determining the colors for his first collaborative design with Knoll, Olivares originally cited two key influences: Knoll Design Director Benjamin Pardo and British artist David Hockney. “We developed the colors with Benjamin Pardo, he was totally instrumental in developing the palette. We were looking at David Hockney paintings and wondering what are good outdoor colors? What are good outdoor, artificial colors? We were drawn in by [Hockney’s] paintings’ acceptance of artificiality,” Olivares recalled, “a die-cast aluminum and powder-coated chair is an artificial object. We wanted to be very clear that it was inspired by nature but man-made.” The choice is especially fitting given that Hockney, himself, recently exhibited a number of paintings he composed en plein air on an iPad at an art gallery in San Francisco.

“We were looking at David Hockney paintings and wondering what are good outdoor colors? What are good outdoor, artificial colors? We were drawn in by the paintings’ acceptance of artificiality”

—Jonathan Olivares

New patio and outdoor furniture at the Knoll Showroom in New York, NY, 2015.

David Adjaye’s Washington™ Collection also betrays a painterly influence. A close friend of the accomplished British painter Chris Ofili, David Adjaye exercised his keen eye when choosing colors for the Washington™ Skeleton Aluminum Side Chair, which is available in a subdued matte color palette (green, black, grey and white) along with two reflective finishes (copper and brushed nickel). Chris Ofili, in turn, incorporated the striking silhouette of Adjaye and his designs into a confettied painting titled Lime Bar, which features the designer, his wife and a Washington™ Skeleton Aluminum Side Chair cast in black.

Applied to the equally eye-catching and functional non-corrosive 1966 Collection, the new and extended colorways will make a fetching addition to the patio collection of any committed modernist.

The Outdoor Sale is going on now, offering 15% off list price and free White Glove Delivery, so if you’re ready for summer, don’t hesitate to dive in on the deal. 

More Inspiration

 Palettes Annika von Holdt's Scandinavian Home

 Palettes Where They Live

 Design Pulse Harry Bertoia at Salone Internazionale

 In Conversation Tanja Hollander