A finish that performs beautifully in a European showroom can fail within a season here. The variables are not exotic, but they are unforgiving, and they are easiest to design around at specification stage.
Light, and what it does to colour
Direct sun through a south-facing window will lift pigment out of a timber veneer and a dyed fabric within a year. Where a room takes heavy glare, we specify finishes that are through-coloured rather than surface-dyed, and we test samples on site rather than under showroom lighting.
Movement and the joints that allow it
Large-format stone and engineered timber both move with humidity and temperature. Most failures we are called to look at are not the material at fault but a detail that gave it nowhere to go. Expansion joints are a design decision, not a site one.
Specifying for maintenance, not just install
- Honed rather than polished stone in circulation areas, which hides wear rather than showing it.
- Performance fabrics in any room that opens onto a terrace.
- Powder-coated aluminium over painted steel anywhere exposed to salt air.
