#dune sofa

Pierre Paulin’s Dune Sofa is made for living

A couple of years ago, Frank Ocean posted a selfie of himself laid out on a huge diamond-latticed sofa—electric blue, with peaks and valleys. The couch called the Dune, was conceptualized by the late interior designer @paulinpaulinpaulin in the early 1970s and is today considered a masterpiece.

In an interview before his passing in 2009, Paulin shared that the concepts failure to go into production was his biggest regret, as he believed it may have changed furniture norms and types. It wasn’t until 2014 that the couch was brought to life—with help from Louis Vuitton—as part of a stewardship initiative called the Pierre Paulin Program, formed by the designer’s family to revive his old works.

PPP produces just a handful of Dunes a year with every new model made to Paulin’s original, exacting specifications. “They’re handmade on-demand by artisans in the south of France,” says Paulin’s son, Benjamin who now keeps his fathers vision alive. “It’s a very small production, it’s complicated to make, it’s not made to be industrialised. We work a bit like a gallery and I can honestly say that I know everyone who owns a Dune.”

Each of the modules in Paulin's Dune collection cost around €4000. Once you have a set, there are various ways you can arrange the modular pieces together. Some iterations are ideal for entertaining, like one with a table surface nestled between two raised mounds. Benjamin says the best set-up is 25 units as he has displayed in his own home, which also doubles as the PPP showroom. “You can be 1-10 people sitting here, whether it’s with the kids reading books or enjoying as a movie room.”

An illustration of a medium-sized, modern backyard kitchen with a pergola.