We revisited the scene of our first major commercial installation at Works Bakery Cafe  in Manchester, Vermont (this past summer) for a site review and to discuss an upcoming project with Richard French, the owner. Richard (“Frenchie”) is full of energy, optimism, ideas, and is just – well – contagiously alive. A great kick in the pants – and I mean that in all the best ways! I shot some of the interior while there, as we only had installation night pictures previously, and the joie d’vivre expressed in the design scheme (the work of Richard’s lovely and talented wife Christy Bonneau ) shows through in these images. And the food is great!

Art Underfoot

We’re just wrapping up another facet of the studio relocation to the Book Press building: the new office/showroom space. A 14 x 20 area was partitioned out of the 4800 sq. ft. shop to create a dust-free and “quieter” administrative workspace and display area for our concrete countertops and other cast architectural elements. We approached the project with an intention of honoring the hard-working past by giving it a new task: providing a textural counterpoint to the displays of finely finished artisan concrete which we will showcase there in the coming months.

The pre-existing  40 year old concrete slab floor was in pretty rough shape from its former life as a printing factory – gouges, drilled holes, layers of grease, ink, solvents, oil, and other nastiness had left their industrial mark. We scraped and scrubbed off the topmost layers, then rented a diamond floor grinder to get down to the raw concrete in preparation for staining it with a wash of transparent colors. We removedabout 60 pounds of concrete dust with the machine and an attached vacuum, exposing the aggregate to varying degrees in the process. Then multiple washes and wet-vaccing to clean up all residue before we spray applied 5 shades of water-based stain to create a vivid organic land/waterscape, sealed with a satin floor sealer. The result is a walkable canvas – what we call “Art Underfoot” – which will set the space apart as befits its purpose and “wow” our visitors with implications of concrete possibilities. Stop in and check it out!

A new day dawns

One of the mantras in our concrete countertop studio is KISS (and why not?) which is an acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid (in a nice way…); we try to apply this wholesale to a wide range of activities. Including visual references – hmm, does that make them visceral references? And so, Captain Obvious would like to share an overt snippet:

Concrete Detail has just moved our artisan concrete design studio, production shop, and (imminent) office/showroom into a new facility at 22 Browne Court Unit 165 in Brattleboro, Vermont. New beginnings. And every day, on the commute into the shop from Wilmington, this is the view with which I am blessed, atop Hogback Mountain on VT Route 9: looking southeast from the foothills of the Green Mountains into New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

A long absence from concrete countertop blogging, engendered by a protracted business relocation, is nearly over. No new posts since early December – wow! But now, six or seven weeks later, the shop is fully shifted and is now morphing back into production as we unpack boxes and crates and attempt to get the office/showroom into the same condition. We have been working the customer relations end from the old location at the Cotton Mill, waiting for the new office build-out to be completed – with mixed success; apologies to our clients and contacts who have been caught in the fallout. The new showroom plans include an overlayed and acid-stained floor!

Several concrete countertop projects have transpired in the interim and pictures and descriptions are long overdue. I hope to remedy that soon with updated posts and accompanying photos showcasing our latest work, including two more kitchens, a couple of vanity tops, a fireplace surround ensemble, restaurant tabletops and countertops, and others. Many more are in the wings as we begin to enjoy our new space and settle into a more efficient and productive studio workspace at the Book Press building in Brattleboro’s north end. Stay tuned, please!