Knightsbridge has expanded its core metal clad range with a powder coat textured black finish.

Designed to meet the practical demands of installers while satisfying the aesthetic expectations of lighting designers and architects, the new finish combines durability with a contemporary design aesthetic.

The black finish seamlessly integrates into the existing metal clad core range, ensuring compatibility and continuity, and allowing designers and specifiers to maintain design cues across existing and new installations.

The textured matt black surface has a sophisticated, tactile quality that enhances traditional metal clad accessories, making them suitable for design-conscious residential, commercial and hospitality environments. Matt black metal rockers and co-ordinated black inserts ensure a consistent, understated appearance while allowing accessories to be incorporated into modern interiors without compromising robustness.

For installers, the expanded range builds on the proven performance of the existing metal clad core portfolio. All products are manufactured from SPCC steel, supplied complete with back boxes where applicable. Features such as twin earth terminals, double pole switching options, neon indicators and pre-fitted fuses support straightforward fitting across a wide variety of applications. A comprehensive 25-year warranty further reinforces long-term confidence in the products.

For more information on the black metal clad rockers range, visit knightsbridge.co.uk

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Jo Edwards, Channel Director – Residential and Trade at Ideal Standard explores the evolution of bathroom furniture – function, flexibility, and personalisation

With smaller bathrooms becoming more common, the importance of furniture for potential homeowners has increased, as they look to keep these spaces clutter free. This increased demand for furniture has coincided with a desire for greater personalisation, with colour and design variety playing a key part.

Cabin(et) fever

Homeowners are increasingly looking for new homes and developments that make the most of their bathroom, with furniture like wall-mounted vanities, corner units, and mirrored cabinets that offer more than just storage. When specified thoughtfully, these pieces also add to the overall design and functionality of the space. Manufacturers have responded to the spike in demand by diversifying their portfolios, introducing new colours and launching furniture ranges that seamlessly combine practicality with aesthetics.

Collections designed for small spaces provide an important starting point for designers, specifiers, and installers as the footprint of modern homes continues to shrink. These space-saving ranges often feature some of the most innovative designs, both aesthetically and practically, offering solutions that housebuilders can leverage. A great example is Ideal Standard’s i.life S range, which blends sleek, modern designs with functionality, making bathrooms feel more spacious while remaining practical.

Function AND form

Regardless of room size, bathroom furniture is no longer just about function, it plays a vital role in creating a stylish, cohesive space.

Bathrooms have evolved from purely functional spaces to personal retreats, and furniture now plays a critical role in creating a cohesive, attractive design that complements the homeowner’s style. Whether the desired style is modern and streamlined or traditional and bespoke, providing a range of options can help differentiate a property and enhance its market value.

In fact, nearly one in five homeowners now opt for semi-custom or fully custom vanity units, with colour playing a key role in creating personalised bathrooms.

Whether it’s bold, vibrant hues or soft, neutral tones, colour has become a powerful tool for self-expression in bathroom design. Given their large surface areas, furniture pieces serve as an ideal canvas for adding a splash of colour. A great example of this is Ideal Standard’s Conca range, which offers flexible designs that can be personalised with different finishes, colours, and configurations. With modern lines and high-quality materials, the Conca range allows housebuilders to create unique, stylish bathrooms that seamlessly combine practicality with personalisation. For housebuilders, offering customisable options – whether through a choice of finishes, storage configurations, or additional features like integrated lighting and mirrors – can enhance the appeal of a space to potential homeowners.

Accessing the full portfolio

As consumer demand for personalised, design-driven bathroom furniture continues to rise, there’s also a growing need for a more streamlined specification process for professionals.

With manufacturers offering total bathroom solutions, including a wide range of flexible configurations and readymade options, housebuilders and developers can source all their products from a single supplier, simplifying the process and ensuring cohesive designs throughout the bathroom. Opting for products designed to work seamlessly together from a single manufacturer gives designers and specifiers the freedom to create unique, cohesive bathroom spaces without complicating procurement or installation.

This approach not only streamlines the entire process but also delivers cost and time savings for housebuilders. For installers, it reduces complexity while ensuring dedicated technical support for a smooth, efficient installation. With the Singular process from Ideal Standard, professionals can access a wide array of bathroom solutions from a single supplier and point of contact. With the right tools, housebuilders can offer bathrooms that meet practical needs while exceeding design expectations.

Meeting demands

The evolution of bathroom furniture into a central design feature mirrors the broader trends of personalisation, efficiency, and style. Housebuilders must stay ahead of these shifts by providing versatile solutions that cater to modern homeowners’ demands.

By embracing flexible offerings and simplifying the specification process, housebuilders can ensure they meet the changing expectations of today’s consumers, creating bathrooms that areboth functional and visually striking.

To learn more about Ideal Standard’s Singular philosophy, visit www.rdr.link/dbf037

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The Ashurst colourway is the latest addition to Marley’s Acme Single Camber clay plain tile range.

Founded on the warmth and the character of clay, it helps to deliver a beautiful, rustic aesthetic for both traditional and contemporary low pitch roof designs and is complemented by a full range of Ashurst fittings, offering a complete solution for specifiers. Recently, the Acme Single Camber profile has been extended to include a Heritage clay tile range: perfect for those seeking durability and traditional aesthetic appeal.

For more information go to www.rdr.link/dbe046

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A new homes sales centre is the first physical space a potential purchaser will encounter. So how do you make the right first impression? And what are today’s househunters expecting? Steve Hird, director of specialist new homes interior designers, Edward Thomas Interiors, shares his insight…

A sales centre is the first opportunity a housebuilder has to showcase its brand and its product. Basic design principles indicate it should be a bright, well-lit space that is easy to locate and navigate. But beyond that, what are today’s househunters expecting?

The first question is a matter of layout. Traditionally, a sales complex was a converted double garage, located prominently at the development’s entrance. This location is still favourable but we’re finding housebuilders are now seeking alternatives to the (sometimes sterile) double garage set up. Most commonly this is a house, which makes sense as it immediately shows their product, but other spaces we’ve been asked to design have included converted bin and cycle stores. These can be more straightforward for developers to transform, and result in less disruption when reconverting at the end of the development’s selling period.

Once inside a sales centre, styling, or ‘zoning’, different spaces is essential. Typically, this will include working areas for the sales team alongside meet and greet/browsing spaces, private offices, casual seating, and an options/choices studio. By creating space for various activities, not only will it help a housebuilder get to know purchasers better, but it also allows for multiple purchasers to be assisted, who may be at varying stages of the house buying journey.

Of course, the key to successful design for these ‘zones’ is comfort. Buying a house is a major life decision so creating a relaxed space is important. Househunters don’t want to feel like they’ve stepped into someone’s office. Our most common brief now is for a sales centre to feel welcoming and informal. Selling is almost secondary to ‘the experience’.

Housebuilders seek to instil that ‘at home’ feeling on arrival, so as a minimum, sales centres need to have varied seating options, a pleasant fragrance or scent, and plenty of greenery. But it goes further than this. A growing trend is to create ‘living/family room’ style set-ups. So you might have bistro/bar seating where househunters can review house types and plot positions, or a fireplace for people to sit beside and choose options and upgrades.

Speaking of options studios, the presentation for these has evolved significantly. Not only is choosing options a joyful part of the buying journey (that can be documented on social media) but this personalisation is also one of the drivers for choosing a new build home. Housebuilders have therefore recognised this needs a dedicated space, somewhere that feels exclusive. This can be a private room or stylishly partitioned ‘zone’ in the sales centre (the previously mentioned living room and fireplace being an example), or something even more imaginative. One we designed recently took over a three-storey house, so it had ‘meet and greet’ at ground floor, the standard range on the middle floor and upgrades on the top, deliberately designed to feel like club level!

Integral to the successful design of any options studio, or sales complex, is quality materials. An increasingly popular request is bespoke furniture. For options studios this could be a floor to ceiling storage unit with shelving and drawers to easily display different ranges. For sales centres it’s desks and sideboards with in-built lighting and invisible storage space.

Remembering that the average lifespan of a sales centre is 3+ years, investment in quality materials and furniture can really ensure it stands the test of time. Strike the right balance between workplace and retail space, experience and function, personal and professional, and the end result should be an inviting atmosphere that will entice househunters to make their move.

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As housebuilders and architects strive to make properties that stand out to prospective buyers, it is important to incorporate unique, intentional features into the build. In this article, Richard Lister from The Radiator Company, discusses how designer radiators can be used to help deliver attractive and inspiring interiors in new homes.

With any new scheme, there are a wealth of clever design approaches, tools and tactics to help entice new home buyers to sign the deal. However, one often overlooked way of shaping the interior appeal is the choice of heat emitter. Traditionally viewed as a purely functional necessity, designer radiators and towel rails offer an additional opportunity to enhance aesthetics and elevate the design of a property, as well as serve as a functional heat emitter.

Today, there are a broad selection of designer radiators available to choose from for every type of scheme, regardless of its size or value. A key benefit of specifying designer radiator models is that they offer flexibility in size and orientation to make the most of floor and wall space.

For example, in rooms where space is at a premium, vertical radiators free up valuable wall space. This design can also make interiors appear higher than they really are and, when applied in rooms with a double height ceiling, the vertical radiator design works effectively to create a sense of size and impact. Furthermore, ultra slimline models ensure efficient heating without encroaching on valuable floor space.

The influence of colour

A further benefit of opting for designer models is the choice of colour finishes. Leading manufacturers now provide extensive colour options, from classic whites, subtle neutrals to bold, striking hues. For example, The Radiator Company, offers 188 RAL colours as well as the ability to colour coordinate with leading paint brands including Little Greene and Farrow & Ball. While many new builds favour neutral palettes to appeal to a range of personalities, colour psychology can be leveraged to inspire and influence the mood and emotions of potential buyers.

This means that developers can specify heat emitters in specific colours that help to set the tone of the property. This can be an advantageous design tactic for newly built properties that are unfurnished or for show homes, can be an effective approach to blend, contrast or colour coordinate with soft furnishings and wallpapers.

Shape and style

Not only is colour important, the shape and style of radiators can also contribute to the overall design aesthetic. The use of lines through the use of structural elements, furniture and fittings, has long been used as an essential design element to define spaces and guide the eye, making it an effective tool to expand or contract a space, as well as set the mood and ambiance of a room.

For example, the use of curves in interiors is considered a key design tactic to help soften the room and extend the eyeline. Choosing radiators and towel rails that complement this approach, with curved or tubular features such as those on the Ellipsis or Sitar ranges from The Radiator Company, can help to create a graceful, cosy inviting atmosphere. Straight lines can create structure and order and again, there are radiators that can contribute to this design objective, such as The Radiator Company’s Piano. Its vertical, flat angular tube sections can work really well to add to a feeling of strength in formal interiors.

Extending warmth to outdoor living spaces

For schemes with outdoor living spaces, designer radiators in an electric configuration are available to extend warmth, comfort and style to summer houses, garden offices, and home gyms, increasing the functionality and appeal of the property.

Through colour, shape and space optimisation, designer radiators and towel rails can help developers enhance a property’s aesthetic and appeal, elevating homes from standard to aspirational.

Working with renewables

As Part L mandates lower temperature heating systems for new builds, there are designer radiators with emerging technologies that offer advanced compatibility with renewables such as heat pumps, to quickly reach room temperatures with maximum efficiency.

Furthermore, specific models can be configured to not only provide heating, but also cooling, such as the Relax Hybrid from The Radiator Company. This integrates cooling functions to offer a radiator solution that can provide both hot and cold air as required (with correct heat pump and system specification). As climate patterns evolve, this futureproofing technology will appeal to many house buyers.

The Radiator Company, part of the IRSAP Group, offers a wide range of designer radiators and towel rails supported by a team of technical advisors who can help with the correct specification for your development.

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