Answering the demand from bathroom designers, retailers and developers for a generous splash of colour in the cloakroom or en-suite, the Horton basin has been launched by Thomas Crapper. Arguably, cloakrooms are important as they are the destination for most visitors to the home or hotel bar!
Inspired by one of the company’s original fireclay basins from the 1901 catalogue, the basin comes in Forest Green, Indigo Blue and White. The tap portfolios from Thomas Crapper are equally stylish and, for a contemporary setting, the semi-matt finish looks great with the polished brass Spitfire taps, pictured here.
The basins are hand-crafted from fireclay ceramic in Lancashire and are available in two- or three-tap hole options. Dimensions are W420mm x D324mm x H334mm while the integral back accommodates wall-mounted brassware. The Forest Green and Indigo Blue retail at £539 inc. vat while the White costs £479.
Established in 1972, KBB distributor, PJH, turned 50 this year and has been celebrating its Golden Anniversary throughout the year, with the most recent event being a UK-wide summer BBQ for its 550-strong workforce.
From Glasgow to Greater Manchester to Enfield, colleagues across ten PJH offices and distribution centres have been treated to VIP brunches, lunches and dinners as well as 50th themed goody bags (which included £3,000 worth of scratch card winners!), to celebrate this fantastic 50th milestone.
Welcomed by PJH CEO, Richard George – who gave a brief overview of the company’s journey so far, highlighting the importance of this historical company achievement – staff were treated to a spread of food and drink, and even the appearance of an Ice Cream Van at some of the larger sites.
Hosted from 50th themed and decorated marquees and venues throughout the PJH regions, there was also over £10,000 worth of prizes up for grabs too with staff winning vouchers, extra days holidays and bubbly or beer as part of a special 50th Anniversary Raffle.
Richard George, CEO, PJH, said: “We are all really proud of turning 50 this year. It’s a fantastic achievement for our business and we wanted to thank all our colleagues for their ongoing support, hard work and loyalty to PJH, by jointly celebrating across our sites. It’s been a great opportunity for staff to enjoy meeting colleagues from other departments to celebrate this fantastic achievement.”
This recent 50th ‘getogether’ forms part of a regular schedule of PJH regional ‘events’ where the company encourages colleagues to mix with other departments and have a relaxed ‘catch-up’ over lunch. This is an integral part of PJH’s enhanced ‘Wellbeing’ employee programme focussing on the social wellbeing of every member of staff.
Richard concluded: “The business has changed considerably over the years, growing tremendously to become one of the UK’s largest distributors and we continue to have ambitious and exciting growth plans for the years ahead – so here’s to the next 50 successful years!”
Riobel is expanding its brassware collection in the UK by introducing its latest bathroom tap collection, the GS. An attractive addition to any bathroom, the beauty of the GS lies in the simplicity of its form.
Already launched in Riobel’s native Canada, the GS is part of a product portfolio that spans contemporary kitchen and bathroom taps with a range of matching accessories. The GS is one of four stylish new taps in the Riobel bathroom collection, with additional taps due to launch throughout the latter half of 2022.
The GS collection is an example of Riobel’s mastery of geometric forms. Its elegant simplicity makes it suitable for a wide range of bathroom design styles. Available in a Black or Chrome finish, it is an asset to any bathroom.
The GS collection boasts geometry with sleek lines to create a modern aesthetic for bathrooms with a contemporary feel. The GS series is meant for both minimalist décor and transitional styles, as its organic shape complements both beautifully.
Virtual Worlds trainer Maarika White has been promoted to training manager for the design solutions provider.
Joining the company last autumn after several years as a kitchen sales and graphic designer, Maarika has helped kbb retailers get the most out of the innovation-led software, including Virtual Worlds 4D Theatre. In her new role, Maarika will oversee the training team to ensure Virtual Worlds continue to maximise on the potential of the software.
Prior to joining Virtual Worlds, Maarika worked for Schmidt, where she gained experience of selling kitchens with the use of virtual reality and saw first-hand the effect the 4D technology has on the showroom floor.
She comments: “With Virtual Worlds we can eliminate a number of customer concerns, particularly around being able to imagine the space and how will it look, making the sales process shorter and simpler.”
Virtual Worlds managing director, Nathan Maclean, comments: “Maarika has impressed us with her drive and enthusiasm since she joined the company and we’re really excited to see her ideas come to life as we develop our training offering.”
Virtual Worlds is the UK market leader in innovation-led CAD technology for the KBB market. Since launching in 1998, it has broken boundaries in virtual technology innovation – being the first company to develop 3D design software for KBB retailers and, most recently, launching its new 4D Showroom Technology. Virtual Worlds is a division of Logicom Computer Services (UK) Ltd
The natural beauty and superior durability of Meteora Gris from CRL Stone has been recognised with a top design award, as the surface wins the prize for Best Bathroom Surface at the Livingetc Style Awards 2022.
Picked up by the judges out of the hundreds of entries received, Meteora Gris is recognised as being among the best in modern design. Awards judge and Livingetc Editorial Director Sarah Spiteri comments: “It’s a great material, with a beautiful textured finish and it’s also cost-effective over large surfaces.”
Meteora Gris is an MDI surface, exclusively produced for CRL Stone by Inalco. For seamless, minimal styling with no grout lines in the bathroom at just 6mm thick, it is the perfect wall cladding solution, creating a spa-like shower area.
The textured finish of the material enhances its natural beauty, adding to the feeling of wellness in the bathroom, while the distinctive stone-effect patterning in on-trend grey, combines harmoniously with a myriad of colours and materials, acting as a blank canvas in the modern home.
Meteora Gris has practical appeal too, with the non-porous, scratch and stain resistant material supplied in a slab format to make installation straightforward, even over large areas. For more information call CRL Stone on 01706 863600 or visit www.crlstone.co.uk
As part of the London Design Festival 2022, as well as Clerkenwell Design Trail 2022, VitrA London will host an immersive colour experience using artwork by Milan-based art and design duo, Carnovsky. The new collaboration continues the brand’s 2022 theme of colour, which launched globally this year.
On show in the VitrA Clerkenwell showroom from 19 – 23 September, the unique artwork by Francesco Rugi and Silvia Quintanilla – professionally known as Carnovsky – experiments with the interaction between colour in print and light form.
Rugi and Quintanilla started working together in 2007, having met at Milan’s Domus Academy – where they both studied design – three years prior. On first reflection, Carnovsky’s artwork – named RGB – is a mix of lines, shapes and colours intertwined; yet when you superimpose red, green and blue filters over the top, the different layers within the art are revealed.
According to Carnovsky, RGB is about “the exploration of the surface’s deepness”, creating “surfaces that mutate and interact with different chromatic stimuli”.
The artists add: “Working with coloured lights, we understood that each colour works in a different way because they have different wavelengths – red the longest, blue the shortest, green in between – and we use this characteristic for the narrative of the image.”
What viewers experience is unexpected and disorienting, yet mesmerising. “The idea behind RGB is that there are many different levels of meaning in things,” says Carnovsky. “What you see for the first time may hide other meanings, other worlds, and what is supposed to be flat may not be.”
In addition to Carnovsky’s installation, the VitrA London showroom will run a series of free virtual reality (VR) experience sessions on Tuesday 20 September.
VitrA’s Virtual Worlds software transfers bathroom designs into 4-D, enabling individuals to experience them on a whole new level. At each session, the user will be given a VR headset to explore a fully immersive virtual bathroom space, including turning on a virtual tap and interacting with the latest bathroom collections from VitrA.
What’s more, to coincide with the brand’s colour theme, selected settings on Virtual Worlds have been created to provide inspiration for how to incorporate colour within the bathroom.
To round off Clerkenwell Design Trail 2022, VitrA London will host an evening of drinks, nibbles and conversations for the design industry – including architects, designers and specifiers – on Wednesday 21 September. Free to attend – click here or email london@vitra.co.uk to RSVP.
“RGB Colour Experience by Carnovsky” is at VitrA London from 19 – 23 September 2022 (09:00 – 18:00). Free to attend – click here for more information or to register your interest. VR experience sessions run from 10:00 – 15:00 on 20 September 2022. Free to attend but booking required.
Bathroom product specialist Aqualisa has announced it has once again been honoured with the RoSPA Gold Award, an internationally-recognised accolade for demonstrating the highest health and safety standards.
Organisations that receive a RoSPA Award are recognised as being world leaders in health and safety practice. Almost 2,000 entrants compete each year to achieve the top prize in the UK’s longest-running health and safety industry awards.
Mat Norris, CEO at Aqualisa, commented, “Aqualisa has an ongoing commitment to health and safety best practice throughout the business. I am extremely proud of our people, who consistently strive to ensure that the company maintains the highest standards at all times – delivering a safe working environment whatever their role or location. Receiving the RoSPA Gold Award is testimony to everyone’s hard work over the past 12 months, and I thank my team for their dedication.”
Julia Small, RoSPA’s achievements director, said: “This is a fantastic and well-deserved accomplishment. All our award entrants demonstrate their unwavering commitment and passion for keeping people safe at work. By receiving this recognition, Aqualisa joins like-minded businesses and organisations worldwide, who represent the very best in their approach to health and safety. I would like to add my personal thanks for all the work that it has taken to secure this well-deserved award – congratulations to all those involved, who champion and drive up health and safety standards every day. You are a fantastic example to others in your sector.”
TOTO’s two new award-winning automatic taps feature its new ECO CAP technology to reduce water consumption.
Perfect for residential and hospitality bathrooms, these collections were both recognised with the international Red Dot Award and Green Design Award for outstanding design. Available in a wide range of different versions, there is a perfect tap for every washbasin – from self-rim and undercounter washbasins to furniture washbasins and vessels.
The round and square tap collections each have five different versions – all of which are touch-free and use very little water. One special feature of TOTO’s touch-free tap is the SELF POWER technology, which can also be called an integrated “hydropower plant”: One of the smallest sensors in the world is installed in the spout, registering people’s hand movements to activate the flow of water. A second technology is also at work inside the faucet: A generator converts the energy from the flow of water to power the microsensor.
Water-saving technology creates a pleasantly full stream of water
Another new technology is TOTO’s ECO CAP, which adds air to the water to reduce consumption and create a comfortable sensation: The stream of water feels very gentle and full, but the tap only uses two litres.
The perfect tap for every washbasin
Each of these faucet collections – square and round – is available in three heights and two different wall spout lengths. The perfect tap is available for all types of washbasins – from self-rim and undercounter washbasins to furniture washbasins and counter basins and vessels. The two collections impressed the judges for the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2022 in February 2022: The design experts praised the “minimalistic design approach” and “expressiveness”, recognising the collections as winners. These two touch-free faucet collections also won the Green Good Design Award 2021. The “harmony of the design with its surroundings” played a role in the award, as well as the factor of “user-friendliness”.
Touch-free in the bathroom – TOTO taps, shower toilets and more
Society’s experiences with the pandemic over the past few years have sensitised people in a variety of different respects, especially when it comes to hygiene. Cleanliness is important whenever several people use the same bathroom. The fewer surfaces people have to touch, the more comfortable. Touch-free faucets and hand dryers were once found exclusively in public washrooms but are increasingly found in private homes today. In addition to its touch-free taps, TOTO offers a number of other products that help elevate hygiene: shower toilets with automatic flush (WASHLET™), automatic soap dispensers, hand dryers and washbasins with especial dirt-resistant ceramic surfaces.
Today we hear from Toni ElKadi, head of global project business at Duravit AG who explains how he feels Duravit helps upgrade processes, from providing water-saving products to easy-clean options.
The bathroom plays an important role when it comes to selecting a hotel. A high-quality, contemporary interior is a key factor in securing bookings. As a supplier of complete bathrooms, Duravit offers a wide range of durable and sustainable design products that are a perfect fit for a modern hotel bathroom. Whether in a three-star city hotel or a five-star luxury resort: comfortable, spacious bathrooms with perfect hygiene solutions are a solid foundation for satisfied hotel guests.
Mr. ElKadi, at Duravit you oversee Global Project Business, part of which involves interfacing with hotel operators from around the world. How important is the bathroom within the interior design of a hotel?
In an era of online booking portals, positive guest reviews are more important than ever for hoteliers. We need to see the bathroom as being a key factor in customer satisfaction and enhancing the quality of the guests’ stay. Guests are more susceptible to the bathroom than other areas of the hotel, no other space is as intimate for the guest as the bathroom.
What are your recommendations to hoteliers for their interior bathroom concept in terms of design and colour? Are there any materials that hoteliers should avoid?
It’s not about avoiding a specific material, but rather selecting high-quality materials that meet the needs of both the environment and the guest.
Rectangular bathroom furniture with open space is recommended for smaller areas, as they can increase the usability of the room.
Use authentic, natural colours for furniture. This creates a relaxed environment and helps the guests feel comfortable and can enhance the overall experience of a stay, as the guests enjoy the tranquility of the bathroom.
For 5-star hotels and resorts, comfort, design and materials play a decisive role, especially for bathtubs. The innovative DuraSolid® is a material with a unique look and feel. Duravit’s freestanding bathtubs such as Zencha, Luv or Cape Cod can be rectangle, round, oval or even square and entice guests to enjoy a unique bathing experience.
With its all-encompassing product portfolio, Duravit provides designers and operators with inspiration and a wide variety of design concepts – whether modern, traditional, or contemporary. The operator finds in Duravit a reliable brand not only for durability, quality, conformity, sustainability but for the after-sales service too.
Which surfaces are best suited for the sanitary equipment in hotel bathrooms? What makes them suitable for this environment?
The quality of the product is the deciding factor, in addition to the attention to detail in terms of design. Duravit offers highly developed products made especially for wet and damp environments.
As an example, I’d like to mention our innovative matt lacquer surfaces as these are scratch-resistant and are easy to care for. Several coats of a special water-based lacquer are applied by hand, producing a surface of an extraordinary quality with innovative properties. The anti-fingerprint coating makes fingerprints disappear, the surfaces have a pleasant feel, and they are easy to clean.
Cleaning and cleanliness also play a central role in the hotel business…
Exactly, a further aspect is of course hygiene. The hotel bathroom is a place that needs to guarantee the utmost in cleanliness and hygiene. That’s why the right equipment is essential and why the hygienic qualities of the products need to be considered, such as the Duravit Rimless® technology.
The open rim design promotes hygiene thanks to a powerful water flow and represents a cost-effective or the housekeeping team – the overall cleaning time can be reduced, and efficiency guaranteed.
What role does sustainability play in hotel bathrooms?
Alongside design, sustainability is naturally a key principle in decision-making. All Duravit furniture is manufactured at our plant in the Black Forest and is PEFC®-certified, meaning it is made from wood products from sustainably managed forests.
Water consumption is also a key factor. This can also be reduced by the optimum flushing of toilets. The innovative HygieneFlush flushing technology provides a powerful flushing flow. Independent tests show that this new flushing technique optimally cleans the entire inner surface of the toilet.
Similarly, the focus of the development of the faucets is on creating sustainable and durable products. Durable products are characterized by timelessly modern design, high user-friendliness, and intelligent functions.
All washbasin faucets are limited to 5 l/min, and the MinusFlow option even reduces this to 3.5 l/min. save energy and costs, especially with large projects in the hotel area.
How can technology in the bathroom enhance the guest experience?
As the world becomes ever more digital, innovative products that enhance the user’s comfort are finding their way into the bathroom. This is the product of a customer-focused research and development process that combines technology, functionality, and design in a meaningful way. To give a few examples: shower toilets, mirrors and faucets.
With shower toilets, hotels can offer their guests a comfortable experience with optimum hygiene – because nothing is as purifying as water. SensoWash® is a by-word for contemporary, gentle, and flawless hygiene. The SensoWash® Starck f shower-toilet is iconic and minimalistic in equal measure.
Light is another important topic for designers and operators. With the use of Duravit mirrors, the light atmosphere in the bathroom can be covered for any structural conditions – whether in terms of mood, ambience, experience, design or technology. Finally, sensor basin mixers: touchless faucets offer a hygienic and smart solution for public areas.
Inspired by America’s mid-century modern design movement, Crosswater has launched Canvass, a new furniture collection that balances traditional design elements with modern craftsmanship to offer highly functional and stylish bathroom solutions.
Canvass features classic silhouettes, calming palettes, and hard-wearing materials that work together to provide a timeless and durable collection that compliments both traditional and contemporary bathroom designs. The collection comprises a wall hung countertop unit that can be paired with coordinating height adjustable legs for a floor standing option. The Double Drawer Unit is available in four sizes, 485mm, 600mm, 700mm, and 900mm, and four flawless finishes, which include Sage Green, Deep Indigo Blue, Storm Grey Matt, and White Gloss. There is also a choice of three different handles, modern, knurled, and classic, available in a range of different finishes for a uniquely customisable offering.
Canvass features soft closing, push to open drawers and, for those that want optimum functionality and extra storage, an optional internal drawer. The Double Drawer Unit features a Carrara Marble Effect Worktop that pairs beautifully with Crosswater’s wide range of countertop basins, including Circus, Navona, and Castellon.
Available fully assembled for a quick and easy install, the Double Drawer Unit is crafted from sustainable sources and finished with a matt lacquered finish to protect the wood from bacteria, fingerprints, discolouration, and fading. The worktop is easy to clean, highly heat resistant, and impenetrable to dust, dirt, and bacteria.
With prices ranging from £1,090 to £1,785, Canvass is available from independent bathroom retailers throughout the UK, as well as several online bathroom retailers.
