SYNOPSIS Jocelyn Chiappone, owner of Digs Design Company, recalls a project she worked on for The Break hotel where she enlisted Dillmeier Glass’ help while designing the bathrooms.
Dillmeier Glass’ color-matching skills were put to the test when Jocelyn Chiappone, owner of Rhode Island-based Digs Design Company, tasked them with matching the color of the shower walls to the custom color of the sinks, which served as her inspiration for the entire bathroom interior, in the 16-room boutique hotel called The Break, also located on Rhode Island. However, the glass fabricator rose to the challenge and the client was thrilled with the finished product.
As Chiappone, whose incredible designs have been featured in Design New England, Rhode Island Monthly and Coast Living, started working on the interior design of the new hotel, she wanted to add a pop of color in each bathroom by matching the shower walls with the sinks while keeping the rest of the space a clean, white tone.
Once she came up with this idea, she knew exactly who to call in order to get the job done. “I knew that Dillmeier had the capability to do the back-painted glass and color-matching,” Chiappone states, as she had worked with the company on a couple residential projects in the past.
Garrett Ames, Chief Operating Officer at Dillmeier Glass, as well as the rest of the Dillmeier team, was more than happy to take on the project, but knew how critical it was to exactly replicate the color samples that Chiappone sent them.
Ames states, “We knew the color would need to be a perfect match to achieve the look Jocelyn was going for. Short of buying three different color sinks, we needed a plan to match the colors.” In order to do this right the first time, they contacted manufacturing company Kohler. “They were great,” Ames recounts. “They sent samples of each color on cast iron, the same material as the sinks so we could get an exact match.”
Dillmeier Glass project manager Felicia Norwood gives a briefing on what the color-matching process is like, referencing a subject in school that many people probably want to forget—or are still scratching their heads, wondering how they managed to pass.
“The process of matching our ceramic frit paint to a custom color likens itself to playing with chemicals in chemistry class,” Norwood explains. “Starting with a collection of eight base colors, we strategically weigh to the thousandths of a pound and then mix to create as close to an exact match as possible.” Continuing, Norwood states, “We use a draw down device, hot plate, and box furnace to simulate the actual production process of our roll coat machine, drying furnace, and tempering furnace. This allows us to create nearly any color a customer has requested.”
But because the glass was going to be installed in a hotel shower where it would be constantly exposed to water and steam, the Dillmeier team had to make sure that the glass could withstand such an environment. Ames states that the team achieved this “by using our ceramic ink-roll coating process where the ink actually gets fused into the glass when it gets tempered.”
While the color-matching, fabrication, and back-painting process went smoothly, the project experienced a hiccup and replacement glass was needed. Dillmeier Glass utilized their time-management expertise and were able to “fix the problem and turn it around really quickly,” Chiappone states. This allowed the new glass to arrive and installed, by Providence-based glass company Lucid Glass, ahead of schedule.
Chiappone was so happy with the way everything turned out. In fact, the eye-catching colors in the bathrooms prompted her to continue that look in other parts of The Break.
Chiappone states, “When I designed the reception desk in the lobby, I used that back-painted glass as well for the counter.” She also brought the colors from the bathrooms into the guest bedrooms in order to tie the spaces together.
And since the project’s completion, Chiappone notes that there have not been any maintenance issues pertaining to the glass, saying, “The glass is very durable—great for a commercial space.”
With all of the success that Digs Design has had with Dillmeier Glass, Chiappone looks forward to working with them again in the future, explaining that the company was “really professional and really easy to work with.”