When it comes to faucets–or “mixers” as contemporary lingo has it–one doesn’t encounter much discussion about color. To be sure, functional tweaks and sculptural innovations are all the rage (see Pilar Pulldown, Newform’s Y-Con Touch, and Dornbracht’s Tara), but it seems there’s a silent conspiracy of sorts to confine faucet finishes to steel and brass. These materials certainly have their place, especially in the age of kitchens of splendid chrome, but Swedish firm Note Design Studio intends to push this conversation a bit past the habitual comfort level. Tasked with creating a new mixer with a novel aesthetic appeal, Note–in concert with Gustavsberg Bath–concocted Coloric, a kitchen mixer that departs from the usual formulations by incorporating the red-headed stepchild of metals–aluminum.

Coloric. Designed by Note Design Studio and Gustavsberg Bath.

Note’s choice in this regard not only renders Coloric unusually green (aluminum tends to have lower energy costs than steel or brass on both ends of the life cycle), it also makes the mixer exceptionally red, black, golden, and champagne–if you’ll pardon the hammy segue. Note’s decision to go with aluminum may have raised a few brows in the industry, since it dramatically departs from the company line. Coloric is so eye-catching, in fact, that both Note and Gustavsberg wondered whether the public were ready for such a futurist aesthetic. However, Coloric quells these fears with its classic cylindrical silhouette–“a traditional expression to complement Coloric’s clear shape and vibrant colors.”

Who would have thought that ice-bound Sweden would be the locus for an aesthetic innovation akin to installing a rainbow in the kitchen? For such is the degree to which this faucet-as-centerpiece opens up the color options therein. So to those who insist on looking to Italy (or Spain) for their daring spectral infusions, I say go North: you just might find something to take the edge off the dreary gray March sky.