We received the latest and greatest photos our glass offerings this week and I thought it might be fun to share some of them here. They are all fantastic in their own right, but I have a special affinity for some of the new designs (or patterns). Our glass partner, Omni Decor, teams up with prominent European designers about every other year to come up with new, fresh options.
The DecorGem colored options seem to have caught on the fastest, particular with the use of the Ice White Clear glass as a markerboard material. But we see big things for this glass in our market. See something you like? Comment here to let us know.
OBM International recently finished a residential project on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The kitchen in this contemporary-style european home features stainless steel tambour doors from EFI. These doors are a fantastic solution for applications requiring easily accessible concealed space and sleek styling.
While we are excited to be part of this project and think that the doors look great, what is most striking is the setting in which this home was placed and how this design takes such great advantage of them. The views are incredible and so is the craftsmanship. If anyone is looking for an upscale primary or vacation residence in the Virgin Islands, you should really check this place out.
Additional applications of this product, available in custom sizes, are provided in our Kitchen and Bath Showroom.
Congratulations to the folks at OBM! Really well done.
Have you ever wanted to get the drawers in your cabinets and furniture to close without slamming shut? It is easy to do with the INDAmatic soft closing accessory!
This simple addition can be added to standard wood drawers with metal drawer runners and really upgrade these drawers to close like those fancy high end drawers shown in the kitchen show rooms today. They are easy to install on any euro style cabinet, and can be added for an easy upgrade offering to customers. There are also brackets to allow them to be added to the single wall metal drawer systems provided by many of the hardware companies. All this, and there is no modifications required on your standard drawer box construction!
Dampers are becoming standard products for most hardware these days, and this one is a really simple, easily mounted solution.
Bringing jobs to the US has always been one of our goals.
Several years ago, there were over 50,000 European Kitchens sold in the state of Florida. From the beginning, our vision has been to provide the American Manufacturer a chance to compete with the European companies. We have done this by travelling to Italy and Germany to the various trade shows as well as visiting our vendors on a regular basis. This has allowed us to discover trends that are fresh and current in Europe and fast forward them to the US. After all, a box is a box – it’s what you do to it or set on it that sets your project apart.
We produce doors, but we also import high quality functional hardware and LED lighting systems to accessorize our clients’ American cabinet or furniture offerings. We began by importing our doors. After a few years and more air freight bills than you would care to hear about, we established our manufacturing facility in Kernersville, NC. You got it. Our doors are made in the USA.
Bringing fresh ideas to the US market while keeping jobs stateside continues to be our goal. This is good for us and it is good for you. It allows us all to compete in a market demanding custom-sizes and short lead times.
Innovative design and quality product are what we all demand of ourselves. Thank you for allowing us to be a small part of your team.
One of the most innovative materials we have had the pleasure of working with this year has been glass markerboard. An idea originally brought to us by one of our commercial office customers, it has become a mainstay of some EFI products.
Ice White Clear glass is probably one of the top two or three choices as an insert material in our doors and drawer fronts. Our glass markerboard solution is simply the Ice White Clear glass (usually the 4 mm thick variety) with a thin gauge steel sheet adhered to the back. This combination of materials results in a magnetized product that can accept markings by either a dry erase marker or a Sharpie. Dry erase markings are easily wiped off with an eraser. Markings made by a Sharpie have a little more staying power. They can be removed from the face of the glass, but you do so with the aid of a cleaning product (like Windex).
Glass markerboard has some significant advantages over traditional centurion markerboard. Have you ever encountered residual markings on traditional markerboard? Someone else's notes, or perhaps your own, stick around long after they are gone - like a ghost reminding us of the past. This does not happen with glass. As a more rigid, less porous material, the dry erase ink does not find its way into the deep recesses of the material where it commonly likes to hide. Because the ink stays out of the product, it holds its aesthetic value for a significantly longer period of time. Because you are able to use a Sharpie on the glass, markings that you want to have longer life can be made less temporary. For instance, you have a long term project plan that you need to keep track of. Or you have his and her to-do lists that are perpetually being changed. Or maybe you just want to draw a pretty picture without risking the possibility of someone quickly removing it. Beauty. Durability. Flexibility. It's all here.
We were recently featured in an article by Architectural Record speaking to the increasing popularity of glass as an aesthetic choice in the architectural community. The author does a fantastic job of addressing the fact that, historically, the primary role of glass in exterior applications was to remain "invisible" so as not to detract from the beauty of the architectural design itself. Recently, modern architecture has begun to feature a much more attractive and versatile brand of glass in these projects.
The partnership of EFI with Omni Decor makes the architectural glass so popular in many of the newest European projects available to the North American market. You can browse some great examples of these in our glass showroom. Here is a short video that provides a little more insight on the subject as well.
We would love to hear what ideas you have for the application of glass in modern architecture.
"Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future." Charles Kettering
We are proud of our partnership with Omni Decor, a leading European producer of finished glass and pioneer in the chemical treatment of glass. Sharing our concern for enviornmental responsibility, Omni Decor has worked to achieve an ISO 14001 certification for their chemical etching process. Although a little-known fact to many people even within the glass industry, the etching process is entirely safe to the environment if the chemicals used are treated properly after the process is completed. Take a few minutes to learn a little more about this important partner to EFI.
Our partnership allows EFI to take advantage of some fantastic opportunities to incorporate innovative glass into our product lines. Two of the most common Omni Decor offerings you will find within EFI product are the DecorGem and DecorFlou. Each offers its own unique features designed to meet your design needs. The following short videos shed a little more light on what these fantastic products can bring to any project.
