Architectural panels from Veritas liven up commercial interior designs

Last November, I wrote a post about a new movie theater concept that had just opened in Tampa. I fell for the interior design at first and as beautiful as they are, it's the concept of the theater that keeps me coming back. Cinebistro is a movie theater for adults. It has a full bar, a full menu and white linen table service. I won't see a movie anywhere else.

It's a great idea and the interiors of the place really set the tone. The theater in Tampa is a picture of contemporary eclecticism and every time I go back I find more cool stuff to notice and admire. Getting any information about who designed it and who supplied all the finishes in the lobby particularly has eluded me until now.

All of that changed when I heard from a company called Veritas™ Architectural Solutions this week and Veritas™ makes resin architectural panels and they happen to be the hallmark of the movie theater lobby I'm so enamored with. It's a small world.

Veritas™ architectural panels, called ResinArt™, come in a huge variety of stock sizes, patterns and colors. What makes them really unique is that they have a custom program and you can design your own panels on their website. They've made the process wonderfully simple and you can order a sample of your original design right there.

The panels come in six thicknesses, 1/16", 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2". And their end uses seem to be limited only by the designers who specify them.

The images I'm showing here are the lobby of my beloved Cinebistro in Tampa, but I can see these Veritas™ ResinArt™ panels used as shower doors, room dividers, ceiling panels, interior windows, privacy screens... the mind reels. Check out Veritas™ ResinArt™ architectural panels on their website and be sure to look through their photo gallery.

Keep your eye on Christopher Peacock's new designs

Attention trend watchers, keep and eye on Christopher Peacock and his new contemporary direction. The man is a genius. Just as demand for knock offs of his Refectory kitchen starts to gain real traction. Just as cabinet manufacturers all over double up their ability to paint cabinetry white. Just as smart set embraces what's variously called the all-white kitchen, he goes in a new direction.

Here's the Refectory people have been swooning over for the last couple of years.

Clearly, the man grows tired of doing the same thing every day and good for him. Here's what he's working on these days, Christopher Peacock Contemporary.

Mark my words designers, in three years, these are the eclectic, contemporary designs your clients will be asking for.

Some notes and observations about LED lighting in bath design

Check out these LED-equipped shower heads.

They seem to be all the rage and the design press dutifully repeats what they're fed by the manufacturers. "Chomatherapy is good!" "Light is therapeutic!" "Colored lights will heal the sick, make the blind see and the lame walk again!"

Hogwash, all of it.

What no one seems to be willing to say is that these showers are tacky. Multi-colored LEDs are tacky. There I said it.

Multicolored LEDs belong in theme parks, not in homes. The surest way to ruin a perfectly lovely modern bath design is to install one of these things.

Thirty pieces of silver

Rembrandt: Judas Returns the 30 Pieces of Silver

OK, I received two, count 'em, two offers for paid links and or posts today. By that I mean someone would pay me somewhere between $50 and $100 in exchange for a positive review in a post or even a link in my "Links I like Section."

I have never engaged in this behavior and I get approached at least once a day by someone dangling an offer. I think it's sleazy so I don't do it. I don't think I'm some kind of a moral guardian about it, but I like the idea of having my readers be able to tell what's my real opinion and what's a sponsored opinion.

Now, it's true that I accept products and I've been on more than my share of trips I didn't pay for. But I never accept anything as a quid pro quo. I have a cushy relationship with Brizo but I liked their faucets long before I met anyone associated with the brand. If they came up with a real dog I would say so. I don't feel compromised by my association with them, mostly because they don't expect me to treat them with kid gloves.

Accepting money to endorse a product I don't believe in seems different to me, less forthright. When someone sends me a book or a faucet and I review it, I say "Taunton Press sent me a review copy of [fill in the blank]." Accepting something and disclosing it to my readers keeps me on the stright and narrow so far as I'm concerned.

But the point of these paid posts is for me not to disclose that money changed hands. The expectation is that I'll write an endorsement that comes across as legitimate and honest.

That's the difference in my book. I'm writing this because I'm curious to hear how other people handle it. I'm turning down a not-insignificant amount of money these days but I worry that once I say yes the first time it'll just get easier to keep saying yes. Once I'm on that slide downhill I'll never regain something resembling integrity.

Of course, there are people who say I lost my integrity the first time I got on an airplane and flew somewhere to meet a vendor. For the record, that was Google in February '09.

I don't think I've lost anything, but it is a balancing act.

What do you guys think? How do other bloggers balance whoredom with integrity?

What happens when the lights go out in Spain?

Check this out. The Tau Advanced Group rolled out the ultimate showstopper at Cevisama last February. Cevisama is the annual showcase for the Spanish tile, surfaces and bath industries. 79,000 people were in Valencia two months ago and all 79,000 of them stopped in their tracks when Tau asked and then answered the question, "What happens when the lights go out in Spain?' Watch this.

This is an ordinary looking floor, right?

Well, watch what happens after dark.

The process Tau pioneered is called Afterdark and it's a resilient surface treatment that absorbs light in direct proportion to a light source's intensity. After it's exposed to intense light, it glows brightly. After exposure to less intense light, it glows less intensely.

Afterdark isn't a gimmick but a genuine break through in the way cities can think about light. Afterdark is intended for use in public spaces and as sheathing for buildings. In a subway station, emergency lighting that requires no power to operate could be a life saver. Where I think it will prove its worth is when it's used on the exterior of a building. Imagine the energy savings if a building's exterior architecture or its signs required no electricity to light up a skyline.

In a situation like a nightclub, Afterdark's responsive luminescence could make for interactive lighting installations. Check this out.

Here's an example of Afterdark in mid glow. If you take a penlight, you can write on the tile with the beam and the tile will absorb the light energy from the penlight and glow back more brightly.

Somebody wrote "Tau" with a penlight here and the name will glow like this for hours. I can see a wall covered in Tau's Afterdark in a restaurant or a club and every night it could feature a drawing. Or patrons armed with penlights could cover the wall with what ever moved them. What a great idea!

Glow in the dark stuff has been around for ages, but I don't think anyone's ever thought of a real, practical application for it. At least not one like this. So what happens after the lights go out in Spain? Coolness happens, that's what.

Check out the rest of Tau Cerámica's offerings on their website.