Posted in Automotive Monday, Minoli
18th May 2020
Automotive Monday
With well over 60 years’ experience in supplying showrooms & workshops, Minoli are perfectly placed to be able to supply the perfect tile for garages at home.
Although Minoli is celebrating 60 years this year, long before incorporation in 1960 and the tile business, Minoli produced and installed Terrazzo, which was used in car showrooms and workshops throughout the country, especially in the more upmarket showrooms of central London. The Jack Barclay showroom in Berkeley square for instance has the most amazing Terrazzo floor in the basement showroom, the ground floor Terrazzo has long since been tiled over, but is almost certainly intact underneath, ready for a restoration… Just down the road on Piccadilly is The Wolseley restaurant, world famous as a truly amazing take on the classic French all day brasserie. The building was originally built as the London showroom for Wolseley cars and although the eye is drawn upwards to the cathedral like architecture, look down and you will see the original Terrazzo flooring**.
As Terrazzo has now been superseded by the high-quality porcelains, predominantly Italian, so these are supplied by Minoli for garages… Depending on the specific use there are ranges that are industrial – where the garage is going to be a workshop environment and then ranges that are far more like a showroom or even a museum.
Garage spaces have become “prime real estate” in cities such as London, at the same time classic and super cars have become more like collectors’ items than methods of transport.
In new build developments attention is now given more than ever to the use of the garage space, with many of our House building and Development clients now fully tiling garages as a matter of course. These garages may quite often not be used for more than storing mountain bikes and sports equipment, but this makes the space very much a finished and usable room within the home…
The most specified line is certainly the Minoli Serizzo – a porcelain tile predominantly designed for workshops, available in different sizes and finishes, such as Matt and Anti-slip. Where the client is likely to “work” in the space then the 12mm is specified, but for most environments the standard finish matt more than suffices.
Wood effect ranges have been popular in recent years, with several Aston Martin owners asking to replicate the showroom at Aston Martin Works service in their own private garages, which is fitted with Minoli Etic Series.
Larger formats are also now being considered, where the client wants to create the ultimate “toy store” with 1200 /1200 being most in demand.
We have supplied some truly amazing garages, but unfortunately many of the owners are just a little reluctant to allow any photography.
Graham Norwood, features writer for the Daily Telegraph interviewed our MD Jonathon Minoli for the Telegraph Luxury Homes magazine a few years ago, where they discussed garage projects including one for Jamiroquai lead singer Jay kay.
**When The Wolseley was reproduced in Oxfordshire by its owners, Corbin & King – Minoli was chosen to supply Marvel series to replicate the terrazzo floor of the original in Piccadilly. https://cafewolseley.com/