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Project Using Dackor Leather White Alligator
This project is specifically complimentary because Jill Zarin's family owns Zarin Fabrics. Certainly Jill has an eye for high end materials and it was a huge compliment that she selected our White Alligator via the Closet Factory.

Jill Zarin Custom Closet Story

By:Gabi Glassman

Reality Star Jill Zarin pictured in front of her shoe closet.

Being a designer for Closet Factory is always satisfying and fulfilling. I truly enjoy creating beautiful spaces that help people organize their lives.

This fall I had the opportunity to work with an amazing client, Jill Zarin ! She is a former Real Housewife of New York (Bravo TV), best selling author of Secrets of a Jewish Mother, the creator of the shapewear line SKWEEZ COUTURE and now also  Jill Zarin Bedding; not to mention trendsetter, fashionista; The mom of Ginger (New York’s most famous dog) and just recently tennis partner of Chris Everett in a charity event.  How exciting!

Working with Jill was so much fun! Her energy and enthusiasm made the whole process from design to installation extremely rewarding.

Closet Factory Designer Gabi Glassman Werner pictured with Rocky one of the New York location's Installers.The challenge was creating a glamorous closet that would coincide with the decor of her chic Manhattan apartment while exceeding all of her wardrobe storage needs.Her apartment is beautifully appointed with silk fabrics, hand painted walls, beautiful carpets, custom wood built-ins with a mix of art deco pieces and antiques.   The color scheme was blues, teals and grays…. There were sweeping views of the East River from every room.  We decided to select a new color, Linen Light Gray Melamine, for the closet with hardware accents of large modern handles in brushed chrome.  The Linen Light Gray was selected for it’s texture and color because it complimented the hand glazed walls and grey silk carpet.  DACKOR's White Alligator doors with Mirrored inserts and Crystal Bar Handles was selected for the wall unit in the bedroom.   It was dazzling and fit the room perfectly!

Now that the decorating decisions were made we needed to address the storage problems.  Jill’s current custom closet system designed by another closet company was not working for her.  It consisted of a closet organizer designed with basic shelving, hanging rods at standard heights and a few deep drawers.  Her large selection of designer handbags and shoes did not fit into the space.  Her leggings and T-Shirts were in such deep drawers she could not find what she needed without going through the whole drawer multiple times. Because her rods were hung all at the same height it did not accommodate the variety of dresses that she owns. Almost all had a different hemline from short to long. And there was a major flaw in the current system – there was no place to store Jill’s costume jewelry and even worse her Skweez Couture line.

With some creativity and careful sorting of dress lengths the new design we can up with incorporated all of Jill’s needs.   In Jill’s new design the closet had a tower of velvet lined 3″ high Lucite trays for her leggings and Skweez Couture.  Because the fronts were clear she could see exactly what was inside each tray.  The shallow depth of the trays made it easy for Jill to find what she needed without digging or searching as she had prior.  We used lots of deep shelves to house her handbags and installed a variety of hooks on the wall behind the door for additional handbags that worked well hanging from their straps.  We custom hung her rods at different heights to accommodate the different lengths of dressed she owns.  Drawers for T-Shirts and sweaters were placed as a focal point on the back wall as well as a double-decker jewelry drawer with a lock.  Because the ceiling height of the closet was 9 feet tall we were able to use all the height to create optimum storage.
The Faux White Alligator wall unit with Mirrored inserts contains storage for Jill’s current selection of designer shoes.  There is space for tall boots as well as Lucite slanted shoe shelves for the rest of her shoes.

Close up of DACKOR's White Alligator Faces detail designed for Jill Zarin's Wall Unit.

Now Jill is very happy with her Closet Factory custom closets.  They exceeded her expectations in storage, organization and appearance.   She is so happy that she asked me to design her husband Bobby’s Closet!!!

Specifying Laminates for Multi Family projects and the benefits to Cabinet producers

As readers of this blog may know, I am with DACKOR 3D Laminates here in North America. Aside from stocking the laminates and making them available to the market and creating trends, we do a lot of specifications. Sometimes cabinet companies have a misunderstanding of what we do.

SPECIFICATION
As you may be aware, before a condo, apartment or hotel breaks ground, the designers choose colors and come up with a general design to be bid on. Designers are contracted either by the Architectural firm or directly by the owners. This is a critical point because if they specify an offshore producer.... or a veneer, for example, and your company's strength is membrane pressing doors then something could be specified that your company does not have a comparable advantage in. Just like HPL, Solid Surface and other architectural products, Dackor gets our colors specified and we do our best to also value engineer the project. We explain how important melamine matches are however ultimately this is a decision for the ultimate customer, the owner of the project.

WHY DO DESIGNERS WORK WITH MATERIAL SUPPLERS?
It is commonly known that Designers work with material suppliers rather than cabinet makers. I have suspected that the reason is that its viewed that for the Designer to work with the subs on a project that it is interfering with the bidding process. Often cabinet companies get exclusive materials and the price of their final work reflects that. By specifying the material, multiple people can bid on the project. This is the first theory. The second theory is that GCs do large projects and may owe funds to one supplier and so interfering with subs and specifying them may affect the cash flow of a project. In summary, its an industry conclusion that designers like to specify materials and then empower the GC to work with whom they choose. So if we are specifying 3D Laminates and you like working with our product segment we are doing you a service. We are lining up a project to fall into your wheel house and better assure that you get the project.

CHANGING SPECS
Dackor is not in the business of going to existing projects and trying to convince them to switch colors. Since our main customer is those with membrane or vacuum presses, we would never disrupt their business by trying to convince a color to be switched to ours. It is our goal to support and to further enhance the business of the door pressing community.

MISUNDERSTANDINGS
If you are a cabinet company who has previously done work for a General Contractor and then you see a Dackor specified laminate, it may seem that we are disrupting your business. This is inaccurate because the project could have been specified in an off shore cabinet color or a surfacing product which your factory is not equipped to produce. From your perspective, the GC is your customer and the wishes of the owner or the designer seem irrelevant however they are the ultimate customer who is paying for the cabinets. Also GCs use a wide variety of cabinet vendors and just having the spec be initially in a 3D Laminate gives your company a leg up to assure that its you who gets that project.

RECOMMENDING CABINET COMPANIES
Dackor is independent and does not favor any company over the other however if you own a membrane press its you who we want to impress, who we want to develop a relationship with. Its important to see our role in the process and to see value in us being out specifying 3D Laminates. Why not get closer to us to find out about other opportunities and to utilize us as an extension of your sales efforts. In addition, we can custom match colors and bring in colors to enable you to win projects that would normally go to another technology or go to another producer.

OTHER INDUSTRIES THAT SPECIFY
We are all aware that HPL producers such as Wilsonart, Formica and Laminart specify their laminates as well as countertop companies like Corian, Cambria and Silestone. In these markets it is quite common for items to be specified and there are such an abundance of companies who can process these materials. Please note that as a membrane or vacuum presser that you are in a unique group and although you are used to controlling the supply of these materials that it is not out of line or unordinary for us to specify our laminates prior to the GC being name and certainly before the Cabinet company is named. By the time you are called to bid the project we may have had a year prior into the specification process.  Be sure to reach out to us and to work closely with us so that we can work towards mutual benefit. Ultimately we want to work more closely with you and to develop a closer relationship.

CONCLUSION
Dackor gets involved very early on in projects to specify our laminates. Projects specified in Dackor have been long before you have been involved in that project and before the GC has even been awarded the projects. If your company brings to us a project after the fact then we will refer to you and not even communicate with the Designer or owner for that matter. We understand very clearly the protocol and operate in that manner. We hope that you embrace us, become a customer to us and that we can feed each other business and grow together.

3D Laminate Thermofoils for Multi-Family

In a previous article, “Thermofoil Is Ideal for High End Kitchens,” I stated my case for why I think 3D Laminates are ideal for high end kitchen applications.

For this article I’d like to discuss why I believe 3D Laminates are ideal for use in multi-family apartments and condos. Almost every producer of 3D Laminate doors have a few customers who purchase their doors for the use in an apartment or a condo; additionally, makers of thermofoil doors often give out their sample swatches without a special interest or marketing literature created for the multi family developer. Often colors like summer flame or basic white are offered and it is assumed that these colors will be suitable for that customer. It seems, however, that these markets often go with real-wood veneer in the high end condos or HPL in the apartments because the designs seem to be limited in the 3D Laminate market. When compared with a typical veneer door, 3D Laminates are very competitive in price and also competitive in appearance when the right colors are selected. In the pervious article I stated my case for why 3D Laminates can be used for the high end, but we all know that this is a difficult proposition. It is, however, an easier case to state that 3D Laminates are ideal for multi-family developers.

In addition to 3D Laminates being a good fit for these projects, I suspect that multi-family will continue to prosper over the long term. We’re all familiar with the weak housing market, though what predictions can we make about the future? What’s almost certain is that for your typical couple getting out of college, the price for a single-family home will be out of reach in most parts of the country. In addition, fuel prices are continuing to increase and this may encourage people to attempt to live closer to their work. Although we have plenty of land in America, condos will become an attractive alternative to many families in the coming years.

What’s interesting to note is that most condos or apartments opt for euro-style kitchens. Often, euro-style cabinetry is also called “Full Access” since there are no face frames impeding storage, which allows more of the box to be usable. Euro-style kitchens also make the kitchen look larger with the doors and drawers being closer together.

Throughout the next few years, the US market will be undergoing subtle changes. We’ve all seen the US furniture industry go to China, however the US cabinet market has remained insular to some degree. This is slowly changing and many of the big producers are starting to outsource many of their parts to China.

The euro-style kitchens using 3D Laminates should be produced here in the US. These type of kitchens need more machinery, technology and precision than that of the wooden kitchen, hence decreasing the Chinese labor advantage. In addition to labor being less of a factor for euro-style kitchens, the quality of glue and board used is critical. Finally, many of these projects need to be delivered in three weeks leaving little time for an overseas manufacturer to complete them.

I have nothing against foreign produced products, however my loyalty rests with the American kitchen cabinet and door manufacturer. You could say that I have a bias; however, one thing is for certain, and that is that if we share our ideas and successfully market our products together we’ll both be successful and prosperous.

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