Revolution in the Bathroom

Falling in love with the House Doctor

2007-09-07T04:15:00.000-07:00

There are few people who would argue with Anne Maurice, The House Doctor. So when she recently declared "We love the selection at avante bathrooms", we weren't about to turn round and disagree with her either.

Writing in the September edition of at home with Anne Maurice, the great conveyor of all that is right and tasteful in the bathroom was kind enough to feature us in an article about basin essentials in the modern bathroom.

As Anne explains - "a bathroom refit adds around £3000 to the value of a property". This would be some return on a couple of hundred pounds well spent on some of our eye catching new ranges such as the fantastically dynamic red glass basin below at only £159 from http://www.avantebathrooms.com/.

Gary Baker
avante bathrooms
www.avantebathrooms.com
0113 201 2259

New natural stone basins from avante bathrooms

2007-08-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

The Swan vanity unit with integrated basin from avante bathrooms is a sleek new exclusive design that blends the calm tones of limestone with up-to-the-minute style. This elegant unit has been specially commissioned by avante for the UK market as part of its drive to offer classical natural stone products with a contemporary feel. The Swan is shown here contrasting with the eye-catching ‘Zeta’ grey marble tiles from a new collection of natural stone mosaic wall tiles also about to be launched by avante to complement its superb range of natural stone basins and vanity units.

The Swan measures 900mmx500mmx150mm and is available together with concealed wall brackets for £599 including VAT.

The Carina square basin from avante bathrooms combines strong design with the unique variety of natural colours and veining found in ‘Alize’ white marble. Quartz flecks in this elegant marble add a further reflective quality to this countertop basin.

The Carina measures 400mmx400mmx150mm and retails for £285 including VAT.

The Pietra collection can be found at the Avante webshop - a virtual bathroom showroom filled with basins of all shapes and sizes. Delivered to your door in just three working days, buying new bathroom products has never been so simple.

Gary Baker

avante bathrooms

www.avantebathrooms.com

0113 201 2259

avante launches new range of Corian® vanity tops

2007-08-03T03:10:00.000-07:00

This new collection of Corian® vanity tops has been uniquely designed for the UK market. avante has matched vibrant colours with the durability of this luxury material to create an exclusive new look for the contemporary bathroom and cloakroom.

The Cielo collection can be found at the avante webshop - a virtual bathroom showroom filled with basins of all shapes and sizes. Delivered to your door in just three working days, buying new bathroom products has never been so simple.

The Cielo collection is available in either a skinny range of 13mm thick vanity tops from 400mm up to 900mm wide (all with 500mm depth) or a full fat, 36mm thick range from 400mm to 700mm wide (all with 500mm depth again). All of these vanity tops can be made in any of the 100 colours of Corian®. The tops are supplied with an elegant pair of chrome brackets.

Prices for a 400mm wide ‘skinny’ top start at £225 rising to £545 for the most expensive colour of Corian® in the 900mm wide top. The ‘full fat’ vanity tops start at £295 for the 400mm wide version increasing to £489 for a 700mm wide top.

The skinny vanity tops are being offered with or without cut-outs for towels.

A complimentary range of Corian® basins in 12 different colours and two designs (365mm round and the junior koolie) is also available from Avante.

Gary Baker
avante bathrooms

www.avantebathrooms.com

0113 201 2259

Getting into a tight spot in the bathroom

2007-07-26T05:25:00.000-07:00

One of the most common problems in small bathrooms and cloakrooms is finding products that fit in the space and still look good.

A lot of the time people resort to tried and tested white pedestal basins or out-of-date corner units. In a small space any thoughts of having somewhere to store "stuff" simply disappear.

Of course, the reason why I'm bothering to write this 'ere blog is because at avante bathrooms we think we have the answer to the problem.

This little beauty of a wall hung unit is only 500mm across so it will fit into most tight spaces (standard bathroom furniture starts at 600mm or even 700mm). Because it's wall hung it doesn't take up any valuable floor space and it also benefits from storage space with a cupboard and drawer. We do it either in the wenge dark wood veneer shown or in a light oak veneer and at £250 it's keenly priced.

If you don't even have 500mm to spare then don't despair....the wall bracket is here to save the day. A wide selection of colourful basins can be added to gleaming chrome-plated wall brackets to create a stunning modern look and feel in the tightest of spots.

Wall mounted taps are another way of saving space as in the example shown here. These wondrously elegant Genova wall taps are at an amazingly priced £49 whilst stocks last. With a bit of careful planning as you do up the bathroom or cloakroom the plumbing for these taps can be done before you start with tiling or painting work.

So, it's about time we stopped neglecting the smaller rooms in our lives and started making them just as important as the kitchen and living room. It's a great way of making a real style statement without having to change the whole of the house.

Gary Baker

http://www.avantebathrooms.com/

0113 201 2259

Tickled Pink

2007-07-13T02:27:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like a bit of self-congratulatory back-slapping in this life so I wanted to share with you our pleasure at being included in the "50 Best Luxury Bathrooms" by The Independent recently.

This particular basin catches the eye with its striking deep pink colour and as "Kathy" points out in the text Corian is a very modern material that will continue to look good for many years.

I'm yet to meet anyone who doesn't like this basin when they see it but a lot of people are then scared to make the big leap to using such a vibrant colour when they do up their bathroom or cloakroom.

We went through this same stage in the kitchen a few years ago and now everywhere you look there is a whole range of colours being used to great effect; bright reds, high gloss lime and orange, you name it, you now see it. There is absolutely no reason why we can't have the same approach in the bathroom. And we don't have to plaster the place in colour. A bright white wall with a vivid pink basin will make a real statement without being over-powering. If you don't believe me then ask Astrid Granger, the Home Editor from Essentials magazine....

"Even if you're not a fan of bright colours, this is ideal in a plain bathroom" she states after declaring her undying love for our avante round basin once again in bougainvillea pink.

After all, two of us couldn't be wrong could we?????

Design, design and yet more design

2007-07-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

I know that I'm a bit sad, but for me there really is nothing better than seeing something that is beautifully designed. The Italians are pretty handy at football and their culinary expertise is well-documented, but in reality they are truly the kings and queens of design. They just get it! That's why avante spends a lot of time travelling around Italy sourcing the latest and finest bathroom and cloakroom products.

In the same way that Jamie Oliver gets excited about the quality of his virgin olive oil, we jump up and down and sometimes fall over (depending on how much grappa we've drunk) when one of our suppliers proudly unveils their new design masterpiece. They know they've got it right and we simply can't resist bringing their work to the UK market.

Take this staggeringly beautiful 'Anellato' ringed basin in orange and white ceramic. It combines avante's wish to bring colour to the bathroom and cloakroom with an innovative and elegant ringed design. There's often an element of fear about going with something new like this basin but the classic design means that you can feature this basin as a centrepiece of a new look and use more conservative colours and designs around it.

If orange or blue really is too much for you then you don't have to compromise on the design element as we offer this basin in plain white glass as well....

We're now at the stage in the UK where we are being adventurous with our kitchen design. Colour, sleek lines, high gloss and solid surfaces are all standard elements of our modern kitchen. For some reason the bathroom and cloakroom is lagging behind in design terms.

At avante we're passionate about allowing our customers to be able to create a similar, stunning contemporary look in the bathroom.

We think that this new 'Anellato' range will do just that - it's colourful and it's beautiful - what more could anyone ask for?

Gary Baker

avante bathrooms

www.avantebathrooms.com

0113 201 2259

When is a sink not a sink? When it's a basin...

2007-05-06T06:05:00.000-07:00

Things to do in your avante cloakroom, No.3:

Clean your wellies in your brand spanking new avante bowl - then spend twice as long cleaning the basin to make it look as good as new.

Aaaargh! It's just so annoying: anyone who knows anything about bathrooms and cloakrooms knows that the only place you find a sink is in the kitchen (or, at a push, in a utility room). Despite this, at least 8.75 people out of 10 seem unable to catch on and continue to talk about the new sink that they're looking for in the spare bathroom.

If you look at the dictionary, it's made perfectly clear - sink n. 1. Place in which foul liquid collects (now usu. fig.). {presumably when someone decides to wash their smelly socks in the kitchen for some unknown reason, but we'll ignore this bit}. 2. Large fixed basin for washing crockery etc., usu. rectangular, made of porcelain, stone, metal etc. with pipe for escape of water to a drain, and usu. with supply of water connected with it.

When was the last time you washed crockery in the bathroom or cloakroom? Students excepted, I suspect you never do it and never have done it.

Loathe as I am to jump on the bandwagon and sling mud at our friends from across the Atlantic, I do have to blame the Americans for this predicament. Just as a faucet has become common usage for a tap, they seem to have been unable to deal with having different names for basins and sinks, so they just did away with the good ole' "basin".

Given that avante bathrooms trades on ebay it would seem churlish of me to finger point at this fine institution, but ebay perpetuates the problem by having a bathroom category labelled "Sinks" and not "Basins". Despite several attempts to change this, nothing has happened.

Whilst the world will keep on turning and I admit that there are far more important things in life, it's just plain wrong to talk about a sink being in a bathroom or a cloakroom, so please can we just stop it now? If we can, I'll be eternally grateful as it will mean I would be able to stop having to write "365mm Corian basin/sink" in my listings to make sure that we get searched on. It would also be one less keyword to have to worry about.

Gary Baker

avante bathrooms

www.avantebathrooms.com

0113 201 2259

The Crusade Begins....

2007-04-16T09:14:00.000-07:00

Please allow me to introduce myself - I'm Gary Baker, chief evangelist for avante bathrooms (www.avantebathrooms.com) and just as importantly, I'm trying to lead a crusade to change how we think about our bathrooms and cloakrooms in the UK.

At the moment the bathroom tends to be the last room in the house that we think of doing up, normally just before we try to sell the house. We spend as little money as we can and think that a white bathroom suite is the answer to our dreams. Some people even seem to think that it's OK to "live with" the avocado suite that they inherited when they moved into the house in the first place.

If this is true for the bathroom then the lack of effort that goes into a cloakroom is even more criminally pitiful.

Over time we have started to view the kitchen as a key part of the house and the way we want to live our lives. Design has been introduced to the kitchen and we all want a room that not only functions well but looks stunning. Well, the bathroom and cloakroom should be no different.

For me, time is the ultimate luxury and creating a haven in our bathroom so that we want to relax and spend time in it should be much higher on our list of priorities.

Bathroom furniture does not have to be stuck in the dark ages - with sleek, contemporary vanity unit design, it is easy to create a stylish, warm feel. Light oak or Wenge tend to be the main wood colours found in bathroom and cloakroom furniture. But why not experiment with a chrome bracket where space is at a premium or create a completely different look with a solid surface vanity shelf.

And don't be shy to add colour to the bathroom and cloakroom - a bright orange basin on a wooded vanity unit looks amazing or why not experiment with a vibrant red ceramic square sink (I know it's a basin really but I'll deal with this little issue in future blogs...) on a white ceramic vanity console.

If you really can't tear yourself away from cool, crisp white vitreous china (otherwise known as ceramic...) then at least look further than a stylistically challenged pedestal basin and go for a cool design such as a rectangular slab or an oval bowl on a bracket.

It's time to take a few risks in the bathroom and cloakroom and turn them into rooms that you want to find an excuse to spend time in; rooms that you're proud to show off in the same way that you would your kitchen or living room; rooms that are fit for contemporary living.

To see what I'm banging on about please come and visit www.avantebathrooms.com and take a look at our range - I think we have some truly stunning basins that are full of brilliant colour and contemporary design, as well as stylish vanity units and a wide selection of bathroom accessories. It would be great to know if you agree and even better to find out if you don't agree.

Gary Baker
avante bathrooms
www.avantebathrooms.com
tel. 0113 201 2259