s part of its brand support activity, Granite Transformations works on occasion with television programme makers, from ITV’s 60 Minute Makeover and BBC1’s DIY SOS, to Channel 4’s Big Brother and its latest property show You Deserve This House, fronted by Amanda Lamb.
A
The company’s quarter-inch thick agglomerate material is engineered to fit over existing surfaces and looks superb, so is perfect for the ‘instant’makeovers featured on TV, while its skilled head office fitters are thoroughly familiar with adhering to tight filming schedules. Undoubtedly its most fruitful
partnership, albeit on a purely informal basis, is with TV property queen, Sarah Beeny, and her artist husband, Graham Swift. Given understandable limitations on product placement, the scope for free TV brand exposure is minimal, but the company says the association pays off in other directions, all to the benefit of its franchise owners.
“Sarah is a skilled interior designer and Graham is a talented artist with a broad understanding of the principles of colour, so they take our product in exciting new directions and extend the applications beyond kitchen makeovers,” says chief operating officer, Danny Hanlon. “In their hands, it becomes a whole palette of interior finishes, from classy to eclectic, as indeed it does with other professional designers and architects.”
Talking point One notable installation featured in
the first series of Sarah Beeny’s Restoration Nightmare and still a talking point for visitors to Rise Hall, is the emerald green bathroom serving the Tepilo Suite. It showcases Granite Transformations’Dream Green glass agglomerate, which satisfies Sarah’s ‘green’ethos on both counts, the dramatic colour and the high recycled content. Having discovered from Danny that the agglomerate backing could be shaved away to produce a translucent surface, she commissioned backlit Dream Green bath panels that allow fluorescent lighting to filter through and create an eyecatching, bejewelled appearance. “That was an inspired idea and one customer requested exactly the same design for his own bathroom,” says Danny. “It's not to everyone’s taste, but if customers see the bathroom on the
● Palm Desert.
website or a showcard, they ask about the material and look at a sample - then probably opt for cream or white!” More to everyone’s taste perhaps is
the refined Palm Desert quartz panelling, chosen by Sarah and Graham for the main bridal suite. A subtle mix of oatmeal and warm golden brown with flecks of white, grey and black, this surface exudes restrained elegance and Sarah used it to excellent effect for panelling a corner bath, creating stylish surrounds for his'n'her wash basins and boxing in a toilet and adjacent storage units. The look is ‘modern boutique hotel’, which is sure to inspire customers when planning their own bathrooms - and franchise owners when consulting on commercial contracts.
“Sarah and Graham kindly allow us to
take photographs at Rise Hall and, although this is naturally more restricting than studio sets, it provides excellent shots of real-life installations,” says Danny. “They also approve PR stories for the trade and consumer press, so our franchisees get the benefit from the resultant publicity. You’d be amazed just how appealing Sarah is to picture editors!” Sarah and Graham were particularly
excited about the large slab sizes and water-resistant properties of Granite Transformations’agglomerate materials, which they exploited in a number of bath and shower rooms. “We found the sheet slab sizes brilliant, as the fewer grout lines there are, the better a bathroom
April/May 2012
www.franchiseworld.co.uk 21 ● Dream Green glass.
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