As part of its major new product launch for Summer 2020, Utopia has introduced a highly innovative new super matt, soft touch foil finish, available in four of the newly launched colours – Blush, Sea Green, Azure Blue and Storm Grey.
According to Utopia, these new finishes are at the very forefront of material technology and offer a truly luxurious soft touch feel and a sense of quality. They feature a higher light absorption threshold giving that super matt finish and the micro-structure technology helps in reducing the impact of grease marks like fingerprints.
Helen Clark, Head of Marketing at Utopia Bathrooms, comments “These beautiful new finishes not only look and feel sensational but they also open up exciting new opportunities in terms of design possibilities.”
Utopia is the UK’s leading supplier of rigid bathroom furniture, specialising in quality products designed to meet the particular requirements of British bathrooms.
In addition to fitted and modular furniture, Utopia offers a complementary range of baths, sanitaryware, brassware and work surfaces. Utopia products are sold through professional bathroom retailers throughout the UK.
We’ve rarely so longed to be outdoors, on holiday or enjoying the unrestricted freedom of travel as now. As the manufacturer of premium bathrooms, Kaldewei shows how you can satisfy your craving for a holiday or a relaxing break – at home in your own bathroom. Kaldewei has put together a few design ideas for the bathroom, so you can create a carefree sense of holiday, sun and rest into your home.
The lush green of the rainforest, the turquoise Mediterranean or the dazzling blue sky with white fluffy clouds on a Tyrolean mountain are all sensual impressions of holidays which stay with us all our lives, providing the indescribable feeling of untrammelled freedom, relaxation and contentment. There is no better place than the bathroom to think upon these moments, snatch back that elation and free ourselves temporarily from the many constraints we face in daily life. With the right design, you can switch off from everyday life here and enjoy a real holiday feel in your own home.
Almost like the rainforest: natural materials meet natural decor
Immerse yourself in a virtual rainforest with maximum comfort for showering, bathing and freshening up at the washbasin. Natural materials for the flooring, bathroom furniture and accessories such as wood, velvet or silk go perfectly with the sustainable bathroom solutions from the Kaldewei Emerso line and the Nexsys channel showers, creating a harmonious effect in green, white and brown. Aside from tingling rain showers, natural decorations on the walls and plants in the bathroom all combine to create the impression of a natural paradise. This impression is reinforced through the use of steel and glass – fused together into unique Kaldewei steel enamel – whose elements also come from nature. Creating a wellbeing space that feels like the rainforest when combined with accessories such as comfortable chairs and cushions, can be made into the perfect space for quiet and rest at home.
Mediterranean lightness in the bathroom: focus on curves and delicate design
Turquoise water surrounded by cliffs and that sense of lightness that is integral to the Mediterranean – both are reflected perfectly in the combination of turquoise and grey as wall and floor colours, together with the alpine white of an exclusive Kaldewei trio:
All multi-award winning classics, the Kaldewei Nexsys shower surface, the freestanding Meisterstück Centro Duo Oval bathtub and the Miena washbasin bowls are stand-out features in your holiday bathroom thanks to their curves and delicate design. The advantages are the bathtub’s curved corners, the delicate fine edges of the washbasin bowls and the shower’s integrated waste channel. The design of the shower area with the floor-level transition further opens up the room and accentuates the sense of unrestricted freedom in the bathroom.
Kaldewei Meisterstücke: Blue mountain sky meets ocean-like waves
Whether it’s a reminder of the dazzling blue of the sky on a Tyrolean mountain with a scattering of fluffy clouds, or of the roaring Atlantic’s crested waves: sky blue combined with white is trumps in your holiday bathroom at home. The bathtub and washbasins of the freestanding Meisterstück Emerso line and the Kaldewei Nexsys shower surface in alpine white offer a vivid contrast to the wall colour and bring back beautiful memories of long-past holidays. As you enjoy the pleasant feel of Kaldewei steel enamel on your skin as you bathe, you will be reminded of sea cliffs washed smooth by the water. And when you gaze over the slightly raised edge of Arik Levi’s beautifully designed Meisterstück, you get a sense of waves ebbing and flowing.
Kaldewei Emerso Meisterstück Bathtub & Washbasins Nexsys sm
These are sensual impressions that you can only experience in a Kaldewei bathroom thanks to the balance of natural materials and exceptional design. Because the surface of Kaldewei steel enamel is ultra easy to clean, your holiday buzz won’t be destroyed by laborious scrubbing– it will stay with you long after your bath or shower. Holidaying at home also means far less pressure on the environment. Longhaul flights will be difficult and no-one wants to spend soul-destroying hours in traffic jams. Kaldewei steel enamel with its natural raw materials which can be 100 % recycled further boosts this awareness of the environment.
Providing the perfect contrast to the bold décor and neon lights chosen to reflect the beautiful bustling Hong Kong streets, RAK Ceramics has supplied its Cementina series floor tiles for a new restaurant and cocktail bar in Dubai.
Located on The Pointe, a waterfront complex of upscale shops, restaurants & entertainment along a seaside promenade within the popular Palm Jumeriah district, the interior of the Fat Chow Cantonese restaurant, has been designed by Aces of Spaces to reflect the culture of the cuisine. RAK Ceramics Cementina tiles feature throughout the dining area of the restaurant, with their scorched cement appearance lending a prominent and amiable appeal to the setting.
Ideal for such a high traffic area due to its high durability and ease of care, the RAK Ceramics tiles lend an industrial, raw element to the atmosphere, combining with street art posters on the walls, bright signage and mix of textures to create a one-of-a-kind dining experience.
The robust tile is ideal for commercial flooring use such as with Fat Chow, due to its sound technical characteristics, with its rustic styling adding to the authenticity of the venue and helping the exterior and interior to flow seamlessly.
“Congratulations to our team in UAE for securing this project, which is a reflection of the type of high profile projects our UK team is also focused on,” comments Ben Bryden, Sales and Marketing Director at RAK Ceramics UK. “The whole venue of The Point is very prestigious and designed to a very high calibre, making RAK Ceramics products the perfect choice, one of the many reasons why UK customers are also keen to specify with us.”
GROHE has once again been nominated for the German Sustainability Award 2021 following last year’s successful top 3 ranking in the category “Germany’s Most Sustainable Big Companies 2020”. The brand, which is best known as a manufacturer of integrated bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings, is now looking forward with excitement to this year’s award ceremony on December 4th, 2020 in Düsseldorf.
For the 13th year running, the German Sustainability Award Foundation will honour companies that combine economic success with social responsibility and environmental protection in an exemplary manner. “We are really very pleased with the nomination and the recognition it brings. We have been pursuing our sustainability goals for many years with high pressure and full conviction,” says Thomas Fuhr, COO Fittings LIXIL International and CEO Grohe AG. “This year we have again been able to reach important milestones. It encourages us to constantly scrutinise and improve our internal processes in the interest of a better environment.”
GROHE switched to CO2-neutral production in April 2020. Since July 2019, GROHE has been using green electricity at all five LIXIL EMENA production sites, which produce exclusively for the global brand, and in the German logistics centres.
In addition, the brand is also investing in solar technology, combined heat and power plants and innovative, manufacturing processes such as 3D metal-printing that conserve materials to ensure a value chain that conserves resources.
In order to offset CO2 emissions that could not be reduced in the past, GROHE is also supporting two compensation projects. However, the brand’s commitment does not stop there: By 2021, GROHE wants to make its sales offices climate-neutral and increase its energy efficiency by its own means in order to reduce the share of compensation.
Since 2018, GROHE has also been actively engaged in avoiding plastic with its “Less Plastic Initiative” which aims to replace plastic packaging with more sustainable alternatives. This initiative has to date already saved around 10 million items of product packaging made of plastic. By 2021, this figure is to be increased significantly to up to 35 million.
For GROHE, sustainability is an integral part of its corporate strategy alongside quality, technology and design and it is therefore deeply rooted in the brand’s DNA. GROHE sees itself on a continuous journey in terms of its sustainability initiatives – looking to the future, but also motivated by the numerous successes in recent years. In addition to repeated top rankings in the German Sustainability Award, the sanitaryware brand was awarded the CSR prize of the German Federal Government in 2017 whilst GROHE CEO Thomas Fuhr was also GROHE’s first 3D metalprinted tap ICON 3D
For further information about GROHE and its sustainability topics go to green.grohe.com
As part of its major Summer product launch, Utopia has greatly extended the colour choice for its Symmetry, YOU, i-Line and Geo furniture collections.
In all, 11 new finishes have been introduced taking the overall selection to 24 door finishes, the widest choice ever available at Utopia. The new colours are Azure Blue, Blush, Burnt Copper, Coastal Oak, Glacier Grey, Glacier Grey Gloss, Latte, Pewter Fusion, Silver Fusion, Sea Green and Storm Grey. Of these, Azure Blue, Blush, Sea Green and Storm Grey are the brand new super matt, soft touch door finishes, featuring an innovative material technology that results in a luxurious feel with the added benefit of repelling grease marks such as finger prints.
In addition to the new finishes, the collections have also benefited from further range developments. Symmetry, the elegant curved furniture range available in fitted, freestanding and wall mounted configurations, has been extended with the addition of a central two door washbasin unit and curved single base units in left and right hand options as well as two additional cladding panel finishes in Glacier Grey and Coastal Oak.
Geo washstation in new Burnt Copper with White Gloss
For the popular YOU modular collection, a slimline ceramic basin has been added to extend the choice of slabtop and sit-on washbasins within the range, offering a sleek, lower profile. Finally, Geo, the collection that offers boutique hotel style, also benefits from the 11 new door finishes and two further new carcass options – Glacier Grey and Coastal Oak.
Helen Clark, Utopia’s Head of Marketing, comments “With this greatly enhanced colour choice, we are offering an incredible range of colour combinations from dazzling new on-trend options through to tried and tested favourites. Our newly extended Visualise interactive planning tool on the Utopia website allows consumers to experiment with their own choices quickly and easily until they find their ultimate combination.”
It has often been said that the 1970’s was the time that style forgot; but not everyone agrees. To the north of Copenhagen, in Vedbæk you will find a large number of architect-designed classic homes from the 1970s. The transformation started in the late 19th century when the wealthy citizens of Copenhagen started to construct summer villas along the coastline. Vedbæk was just a small fishing village then; location was ideal close to the city yet surrounded by forests, fields and water.
Today the 1970’s designed houses with their beautiful yellow bricks and sharp, yet functional shapes line the leafy suburban roads. Among the lucky home-owners in Vedbæk, is 34-year-old Mads, a self-taught handyman, his wife and their daughter.
As well as working hard to get their holiday home at Rørvig into shape, they have now thrown themselves into doing up their house and they are documenting the changes in their blog.
The bathroom in his 1970s house in Vedbæk, it’s the most recent transformation – one of the largest of its kind the bathroom has had the full treatment. Everything has been replaced with new, exclusive materials crating a hotel style bathroom. The floor-standing toilet has given way to a wall-mounted model, the old skylight has been replaced with an electric roof window and Unidrain takes pride of place on the floor and on the walls.
Unidrain raises the bar The shower cubicle, like the rest of the room, has changed dramatically. The shower area itself is enclosed by our GlassLine shower screen, which ensures that the water does not splash out into the rest of the room: “Unidrain has made an elegant glass wall for the shower; the glass is recessed into a frame so the joins to the floor and the wall are as invisible as possible. A really nice result and a high quality solution,” Mads writes in his blog.
Unidrain’s HighLine Custom drain was used; here the tiles merge with the drain, separated only by a narrow groove: “I think Unidrain’s Custom tile drain is an impressive feature in the shower, the drain is almost invisible and blends in perfectly with the tiles,” Mads continues.
The final touch to the bathroom is the Unidrain Reframe soap shelf, the attached shower scraper is held in place by a small invisible magnet.
Mads wanted to change this into a room that people wanted to spend time in and he definitely achieved his goal.
Established in 2003 this design company has gone from inventing the linear floor drain to creating a leading international brand, spreading Danish design ethics and Nordic minimalism to the rest of the globe.
From five star hotels in the Maldives, to the Award winning Herman K in Copenhagen Unidrain products and accessories play a key role in the look and feel of the most stylish bathrooms on the planet.
On Monday August 10, 2020, tennis star Dominic Thiem and Duravit signed a cooperation agreement at the Duravit Design Center Hornberg. For the next five years, the number three in the ATP world rankings will be an ambassador for the Duravit brand. The amiable Austrian sportsman and the designer bathroom manufacturer from the Black Forest share a commitment to sustainability, a love of precision, and expect the very highest from their own performance, making them a perfect match.
“I am really excited about the partnership with Duravit. It’s a company with a rich tradition and a fascinating product portfolio. They set themselves high standards and really value precision. These are also the key pillars for success in tennis – and their commitment to sustainability is inspiring. This is going to be an exciting partnership for me!” said Dominic Thiem.
Duravit’s CEO, Stephan Tahy, added: “Dominic Thiem is a really popular figure and a perfect fit with Duravit thanks to his commitment to sustainability and his high expectations for his own performance. We are really looking forward to working with him!”
Dominic Thiem
After Thomas Muster and Jürgen Melzer, Dominic Thiem is the third Austrian to make it into the top ten of the world rankings. In addition, Thiem, who has enjoyed particular success on clay courts, was the first Austrian to win an ATP title on grass and is currently ranked number three in the world. Born on September 3, 1993, he grew up in Lichtenwörth, a small town in Lower Austria. He turned pro in 2012 and soon had his break-through on the ATP tour. His win against Nicolas Almagro in 2016 in Buenos Aires put him among the top 15 players in the world. In 2017 he won his second ATP 500 title in Rio.
In November 2017, Dominic Thiem achieved his careerhigh thus far as No. 4 in the ATP world rankings. In Indian Wells Dominic Thiem won the 2019 final against Roger Federer – his first Masters title. At the Barcelona Open he won his third ATP-500 title in the final against Daniil Medvedev.
Duravit’s involvement with the sport of tennis goes back a long way. The designer bathroom manufacturer sponsored Alexander Popp, another tennis great, at the start of the 2000s.
UK manufacturer, Kudos, has created a new 28-page customer brochure that summarises its vast range of showering enclosures, screens, trays and wetroom solutions.
The new bijoux format complements the full 150-page perfect bound brochure that displaying retailers use as a reference guide when designing a new bathroom. The new addition is a great hand out to consumers showing an overview of each product group. It includes a step by step guide to choosing the perfect shower enclosure and compares ranges at a glance, offering sound advice for buyers to minimise mistakes.
Kudos has been designing and manufacturing shower products at their Cumbrian facility since 1999. Visit their website kudosshowers.co.uk, call them on 01539 564040 or email info@kudosshowers.co.uk.
Designed in house by a specialist technical team, every Kudos product is hand built in its own factories by dedicated staff, tested to the highest European standards and are individually inspected before leaving us to ensure complete customer satisfaction.
Their portfolio includes shower enclosures, shower trays, over-bath screens and wet-room solutions sold via KBB showrooms and merchants across the UK. With complete control over all aspects of the components they specify and the manufacturing process, they are confident in maintaining the highest standards of quality and performance in all products that leave their premises.
Each product is made to deliver the very best in functionality, performance and value.
Saniflo UK is reporting immediate success with the launch of its Kinedo Kineprotect screens, designed to keep people safe in work and public spaces. The Kineprotect glass screens are mounted on aluminium profiles and feature stainless steel feet, making them durable, warp-free and immune to clouding from cleaning products, unlike plastic options. Kineprotect screens blend seamlessly into the working environment and don’t take too much working space,
Island Street Deli – an upmarket artisan coffee shop and delicatessen in the popular seaside town of Salcombe in Devon – opted for Kineprotect screens when it opened at the beginning of July. Deli owner Mark Khaury was keen to ensure safe transactions between customers and employees, without spoiling the chic setting of the Café Deli.
Three Kineprotect screens have been installed on the serving hatch each featuring a gap through which to pass consumables and to take payments. The screens blend seamlessly into the working environment and don’t take up too much working space, providing Mark and his team with a great solution.
“We had been looking into the availability of screens in readiness for opening. We have socially distanced the tables in the coffee shop, but required some panels for the counter to separate customers from staff. To be fair the Kineprotect panels are very stylish and hardly noticeable, so it doesn’t affect the atmosphere in store at all. They are easy to keep clean and maintain which is a big plus. Customers have been overwhelmingly positive at all the measures we’ve taken and we are getting compliments about the screens,” says Island Street Deli owner Mark.
The team of employees at Island Street Deli have returned to work safe in the knowledge that they and their customers are adequately protected. Now, they’re all looking forward to a busy summer season.
For more information please visit www.kinedo.co.uk/kineprotect-glass
Oxfordshire based VitrA Bathrooms is part of one of Turkey’s most prominent industrial groups, the Eczacıbaşı Group. Throughout the Global pandemic, the Group’s 13 production facilities have maintained supply of bathroom products for VitrA. VitrA has grown steadily in the UK for over 25 years thanks to enduring design and hygiene features and benefits that have always been core to the company’s product development.
Turkish culture has a long heritage with health, hygiene, and well-being, all evident in the VitrA portfolio. At a time when preventing the spread of Covid-19 has made cleanliness and handwashing critical for all, VitrA is fully equipped to meet the need for heightened hygiene. All VitrA ceramic wear comes with a VitrA Hygiene glaze as standard. Alongside this, many VitrA WC’s can include no-touch sensor control flushing. The rimless designs on VitrA’s Rimex WCs also eliminate the nooks and crannies where germs can lurk. VitrA Fresh is another hygiene-enhancing product which dispenses detergent or disinfectant into every flush. VitrA Bathrooms portfolio has had hygiene at its heart for decades. According to VitrA, these features and benefits enable them to help their retail customers offer their consumers bathroom designs and products that are accessible, beautiful, and that will provide help to ease worry over hygiene in the home for years to come.
Hygiene at the heart of beautiful design
VitrA Fresh WC dispenses detergent with every flush.
VitrA FreshWC pans feature an integral tank that dispenses detergent with every flush and is available on WCs within the M-Line series. The detergent tank sits on top of the pan and is concealed by a removable lid, so refilling is easy. “Combined with the touch sensor flushing, it offers the ultimate in safe hygiene,” explains Margaret Talbot.
Cleanliness is also at the heart of VitrA’s Rim-ex technology. Rim-ex WC pans are rimless, eliminating the area where germs, grime and limescale can gather and multiply, making cleaning faster and easier.
The VitrA Smart Panel is one of a host of no-touch flush plates available in an array of stunning designs. Specified in conjunction with a wall-hung (clear of the floor) WC and in-wall frame this creates a secure, safe, and hygienic WC facility that makes cleaning easy and fast and means the user need never touch the unit. The VitrA Smart Panel can be linked to an app and controlled by either the user or housekeeping staff to flush and adjust flow rates.
VitrA Rim-ex WC pans available on selected WCs have no rim for germs to lurk.
The aerosol effect where bacteria can be carried in invisible drops of water from flushing has always been a concern where there is no lid to close to contain the spray. VitrA waterless urinals solve the problem and feature a new cartridge that speeds up the flow of urine away from the bowl. The cartridge is easy to replace.
V-Care pans feature VitrA’s Rim-ex design which means there is no rim around the inside of the pan for germs to lurk. V-Care is also perfect for multi-generational bathroom,
VitrA’s V-Care Comfort wall-hung WC features a sensor that opens the lid as the user approaches, adjustable washing and drying functions, a heated seat and more. The integrated shower function puts an end to the need for toilet paper (an environmental benefit). It can be activated at the touch of a button on the remote control, which is intuitive and very easy to use. The remote can also be used to control the temperature of the ergonomic heated seat. Essential functions of the WC can be controlled via touch buttons on the right and left sides of the pan.
VitrA Miniworx tiles which can be supplied with VitrA Shield, shown with VitrA Sento bathroom furniture range.
Inevitably people touch wall surfaces in bathrooms and public toilets. VitrA Shield tiles are self-cleaning thanks to the photocatalytic features activated by light and humidity in the air while ensuring biocidal protection with their hygienic properties. The advanced technology of VitrA Shield eliminates unpleasant smells and airborne pollutants in spaces where the tiles are used. www.VitrA.co.uk
