Chris

As of this week, our redesigned website is finally live! While we know there will likely be a lengthy period of adjustment as we iron out bugs and make sure that all the information on our old site is represented here, we’re feeling positive about the redesign. We’d like to hear feedback: is it easy to navigate? helpful? does it communicate our capabilities well?

The problem was, we’d grown so fast as a company that our old site was not showing what we could do. Within a little over two years, we’d grown from a prototype of a single range hood to a company doing all kinds of artistic metalwork. So, for example, while half of our business today is in countertops and other surface projects, countertops were relegated to a single difficult-to-find page on a website that didn’t even encompass all of the range hoods we were capable of building. We think that this new design shows better the breadth of work we do.
Read the rest of this entry »

Chris

While we love our custom hoods (and our clients seem to, as well), we’ve noticed that a custom hood is still out of the price range and time schedule of most people looking for a kitchen appliance. We’ve also noticed that in the mid-range market (around $2,000-$3,500), there really aren’t many options for people. There are bland stainless boxes from a dozen manufacturers whose chief selling point other than function seems to be just that they don’t clash with the other stainless boxes in a kitchen. And then there are very contemporary styles from a few manufacturers, mostly either following Zephyr’s design lead with the beautiful Brunner and Cheng lines or following the Italian fashions for minimalist stainless designs. But there is a clear gap in the market for a moderately-priced range hood which is both attractive and fully functional.
Read the rest of this entry »

Chris

The field of decorative metal is so rich with tradition and style that its really a shame that so much has been forgotten by lazy designers and manufacturers. In between projects, we’re constantly searching through metal designs from the last century, looking for ideas to swipe and concepts that have been lost to history. We’ve got so much information and material at this point that we decided to put it together in a book. Part design manifesto, part art history lesson, Epiphanies in Metal should be going to press by the end of the year. Here’s a preview section:

Read the rest of this entry »

Chris

“Because life should be more than lived… I don’t just want to make things pretty, I want to make your house explode with meaning, like a great painting”. This is a short video interview with Christopher Lee Plummer discussing some thoughts on art and design.

In other news, we were mentioned in Yale Appliance and Lighting’s blog as the most noteworthy new product at K/BIS this year. Thanks! Yale Appliance is organizing a designer showcase called Innovation ‘08 May 17-18 in Boston, which we have a couple of hoods on display at. Chris will be making a guest appearance there as well…

Chris

Our custom range hoods stole the show at K/BIS’08!

Moving forward for 2008, we’re proud to announce big things in the works. Our display at this years Kitchen and Bath Industry show showed how far we’ve come in this industry. When we introduced the concept of artistic patterned metal hoods with decorative finishes last year to an industry that was stagnating in a modernist nightmare of lightweight angular stainless steel appliances. Our booth (pictured above) demonstrated seven standard frame styles and more finishes than the naked eye could take in at one time!

We also took the occasion to display several of our art pieces, including the now-infamous Campbells Soup can range hood—”at the same time a tribute and an insult to Andy Warhol”, as Chris described it—and our range hood built from the body of a ‘57 Chevy Bel Air. Rounding out the modern American art history lesson were our rendition of Jasper Johns’ ironic painting “Flag”, and our “Birth of Fortuna”.

Check out a slideshow of photos from the show here: Read the rest of this entry »

Chris

Hammered copper range hoods have been a rage in kitchen design for some time, and for good reason - The warmth and textured sheen of patinaed copper adds beauty and elegance to any space.

However, “living finishes” like copper patina are notoriously difficult to care for; one spill or splash and the finish is back to pink copper, usually not the desired result.

We offer the smart alternative, capturing the essence of living metal with no more required care than the paint job on a garaged Bentley…

Our metallic rangehood finishes never need polishing, and they will look the same twenty years from now as they do today. We pride ourselves on innovation, and these new metallic finishes are a huge leap forward in the design of custom metal range hoods.

Read the rest of this entry »

Chris

Here’s a range hood for the true connoisseur. Going far beyond the basic hammered copper or bronze range hood, we’re showing we mean business when it comes to art in the kitchen with this metal range hood. What hood could go better above the Diva de Provence range in a bold Tuscan kitchen design? Or fit better under your mahogany cabinets above that Aga range you cook on every day? Our metal artistic range hoods continue to push the envelope of art and design…

For our take on Botticelli’s classical masterpiece, we’ve shifted the referents to reflect a changed era. Gone are the personified zephyrs of the wind and the welcoming seasonal goddess, replaced with architectural motifs reflecting wind and fruitful land. The goddess who floats to shore on the sexualized scallop shell is now Fortuna, the goddess responsible for luck, wealth. good taste, and fortune. Colors were added with our signature finish technique, selected for their thematic unity as well as their place in an artistic kitchen design.
Read the rest of this entry »

Chris

As traditional-styled high end European ranges become more popular in America, a problem facing kitchen designers is that its nearly impossible to find a hood that matches these ranges; whether in style, color, or decor. As specialists in custom metal work, we took on this challenge for a client looking for a range hood for her La Cornue CornuFé range.

Read the rest of this entry »

Generic Dealer

Chris Plummer, CEO of CLP Design and Valley Tin Works, was invited to speak at the opening of the Whitney Museum’s Gordon Matta-Clark restrospective. Chris spoke on the history and context of architectural pressed metal and his inspiration from the work of Matta-Clark.

Gordan Matta-Clark (1943-1978) is best known for his “building cuts”. Although all of the buildings he transformed were demolished shortly after he altered them, his work lives on in the photographs, films, drawings, and building fragments.