Orange
Orange introduces warmth, depth and a sense of grounded energy to a space.
Inspired by terracotta landscapes and sun-warmed architectural materials, this colour brings natural richness and vibrancy to interior palettes. Designers often use orange to add warmth within neutral interiors or to create contrast alongside natural textures such as timber and stone. At The Design Palette, orange stone mosaics highlight these earthy tones, bringing warmth, character and visual interest to thoughtfully designed spaces.
COLOUR // ORANGE
ORIGIN + History
Orange was named after the fruit, not the other way around. The word travelled a long way to reach English: from Sanskrit naranga, the orange tree, through Persian and Arabic, into Italian and Old French, arriving in English in the late fourteenth century as the name of the fruit.
It wasn't used for the colour until the 1510s. Before then, English had no dedicated word for the shade, and described it as saffron or citrine. In natural stone, orange is formed not by fruit but by earth itself, the iron-rich minerals that give terracotta, rust and sunlit stone their warmth.
COLOUR // ORANGE
The Stones of Orange
Rosa Travertine. Formed where mineral-rich spring water rises to the surface, Rosa Travertine takes its rose, rust and terracotta tones from iron-rich minerals carried in the water, layer upon layer.
Rojo Alicante. Quarried in the Alicante province of Spain, Rojo Alicante formed on an ancient seabed around forty million years ago. Iron oxides gave it its deep red, and crystalline calcite traced its white veins.
At The Design Palette, we see orange as the colour of the earth's warmth. These natural stones remain beautiful for decades, gaining character over time rather than wearing out. In a design culture of constant replacement, that endurance is its own form of sustainability.