We installed the aforementioned bath surround yesterday – signed, sealed, and delivered to Whitingham, Vermont. It is made to accomodate a white soaking tub with a Roman filler and hand spray and has a built in bench seat at one end for a dressing area. Poured in a dark gray and with a medium grind to expose a bit of aggregate for texture, it features a custom formed edge to coordinate with the Kohler Memoirs fixtures and embedded glass mosaic tiles in a foursquare pattern. The backpainted glass tile pick up the  floor field tile color; the gray base color picks up the floor border tile and the soapstone vanity top; and the foursquare pattern echoes the window sash  in the brightly daylit room. This project showcases the ability of concrete to unify diverse elements into a cohesive design statement, simply and elegantly.

A new home for a local (retired) chef features concrete countertops from Concrete Detail in the beautiful, expansive kitchen. The tops are wetcast in Thunder gray with a light polish, eased edges, and feature an integral drainboard, a recessed cutting board/cooling rack, a pantry pass-through, and two undermount sinks.

The kitchen milieu is completed with natural cherry cabinets, a cork floor, a soapstone island top (from NBC Solid Surfaces), cathedral ceilings, stainless commercial appliances, and a bona-fide French trained chef!

These are shots at installation. Color differences are caused by lighting (snow reflections). Finished shots coming soon…

As in any small business, there are usually a number of things going on at once, at many levels: bookkeeping, marketing, networking, researching, and in our case, forming and casting. The latter is the “glamorous” part, but the former are what keep it running like an (let’s be honest) occasionally-oiled machine.

What’s on the casting tables these days? (no, we don’t have a couch)…

We just poured a tub surround and bench seat in five sections, for a soaking tub in a new home (in which we just installed a full kitchen; film at eleven). A wetcast dark gray which will receive a medium grind to expose sand and a bit of coarser aggregate, it has a molded leading edge (reverse 1/2 inch scotia),  a total of five knockouts: a three hole filler set and a hand spray with control, and embedded back-painted glass mosaic tile in my typical foursquare pattern. Two days old now, it is wrapped up for wet cure and looking “full of promise”.

We also just cast a five foot long tub ledge cap, with three formed integral soap/shampoo recesses. This is a hand-pressed natural white concrete (more off-white as a result of the native sand used), which will get backfilled with silver gray and chocolate brown. This is made to match some wall caps we created last month for a kid’s bathtub surround in an area contractor’s home. We made a small concrete vessel with the leftovers, for kicks, and a sample panel for a Jerusalem limestone-style project we may be getting involved with soon. They are all safely wrapped up in wet blankets, too.

And that’s just the concrete… more to come on the other bits.