Design You Turn On. And Vice Versa: JL Baril's Water Faucets

Founded in 1986, JL Baril has gained worldwide renown as a company that specializes in high-end quality faucets. In 2003, JL Baril joined forces with Lichen, a full-service communications firm that has a serious penchant for product design, creation and innovation. Always on the lookout for technical advances and creative developments around the world, JL Baril and Lichen consistently offer solutions and products which combine cutting-edge technology and ground-breaking design.

Below are some of their most unsual faucets for kitchen and/or bathrooms.

GRAZIE is a single-hole, single-lever bathroom faucet, that allows you to regulate water temperature and flow with one hand. Available with several choices of levers as shown below, as well as the one at the beginning of this post:




Grazie was created by designer Alessandro Mendini

FORM:


Geometrically inspired, its long, slender and curved spout melds perfectly to its squared base and its linear, rectangular handles. Look, admire, and let yourself get swept away by its form. Shown above is a kitchen faucet, bath faucet and tub faucet, all in the FORM collection.


Personalize Form and change its look, by choosing one of four available handles; Bleached Maple, Cherry wood, Wengé or Chrome.


M




JL Baril is proud to introduce its first colored faucet. M is its name. M is offered in chrome, red and orange; M orange, a psychedelic look for those nostalgic for the 70’s, and M red, for an intense 80’s look:


And now, it's available to customize in any one of Benjamin Moore's available paint colors!!


Made of solid brass and equipped with a ceramic cartridge, M is turned on with one hand to regulate water temperature and flow. M offers a complete bathroom collection with a 4-piece roman tub faucet, shown below:


Go here to a site dedicated to the M faucet.

FUR:


It may be politically incorrect, but it sure is pretty. FUR is the very first faucet adorned with real fur. The generally sober aspect of this faucet is elevated by two strips of fur.


Fur is a single-hole, single-lever faucet that allows you to regulate your water temperature and flow with one hand. Fur is finished in chrome and is adorned with real strips of fur that are changeable if you wish to modify its general appearance. Fur proposes a variety of insertions; Brown leather, Chrome and Wengé essence wood.

TOUCH ME:


Touch it lightly and water will flow for 12 seconds. Touch it again within the 12 seconds to shut water off. Touch Me is the first faucet that is activated without the use of a handle. Simply touch the stainless steel body to prompt into action.

Touch Me answers all solicitations with a flash of purple light. Touch Me is a single-hole faucet made of brushed steel. The water temperature is regulated by the mixer located at the base of the faucet. Touch Me is attached to an electric outlet via a secure 12 volts adaptor. No, you won't get electrocuted.


FLUO:

Fluo is a faucet that is not only seen during the day, since all faucets are not simply chromed.

Fluo brightens up your bathroom once the lights are turned off. It’s shiny character is due to its two phosphorescent rings. Single-lever faucet that allows you to regulate your water temperature and flow with one hand. Fluo is delivered with 6 fluorescent colored rings, one of which is phosphorescent, so your flow can glow!



VELA

Vela allows you to redefine your conception of faucets. Vela is a triangle that is sundered when in use. The original look is what makes Vela so popular.

Vela is a chrome-finished, single-hole, single-lever faucet that allows you to regulate water temperature and flow with one hand.

Their design-object faucets are made-to-order according to your specifications. All faucets will be shipped approximatively 4 weeks after the order is placed.



To place your order with a JL Baril representative, please call 1-800-463-3871 (toll-free) Payment can be made by Paypal, credit card, cheque (products shipped upon receipt) or C.O.D. When ordering via email on the Faucet-Maker site, please fill-out the eform, and a JL Baril representative will contact you at your convenience to verify your order and approve the method of payment. For security reasons, and to ensure accuracy, you must speak and confirm your order directly with one of JL Baril's customer service representatives (unless your order is purchased directly through PayPal).

Shipping: Ground shipping to US & CAN is included + taxes (where applicable)

Pouring Money Down The Drain Can Be A Good Thing

Bejewelled Marble and Stone Vanity Wastes

Murano House has launched its debut product: Venetian jewelled vanity wastes (aka sink and shower drains)

Titled as: Murano Scolpisce il Tappo... this designer vanity waste range is jewellery in the bathroom for those who wish to indulge in understated and contemporary elegance.

The jewelled vanity wastes reflect the company’s branded strategy: luxury appeal, high-end quality and its unflinching integrity in its approach to design.

Murano House has turned that simple stainless feature, the drain, into a piece of art.

With polished stone and glass finishes:







24k gold and sterling silver, terazzo, marble -and even watch faces for drains!:



A bit about Murano House reprinted from their site:

Be seduced by Murano House defining the essence of bathroom beauty with handmade Venetian bathroom wastes for the sink, bath and shower.


Murano House’s myriad of colours and innovative creative sense incorporates precious stones including: Emeralds, Rubies, Topaz, Amber and Amethyst. The jewels are set in glass onto refined mountings in gilded silver gold and platinum.

The nimble hands of the glass master whose craft has been passed down through father and son generations fuses the glass together and moulds the glass giving the sculpture its form and shape.

This exclusive designer range of vanity wastes will stand alone as an independent objet d'art in any bathroom scheme. Additionally, when immersed in water, the vanity wastes sparkle brightly as lustrous and luminous jewels.

These exclusive Venetian jewelled vanity wastes will adorn any high-end specification including hotels, bars and restaurants as well as those discerning and indulgent clients from the domestic interior market.

Bespoke Services

Bespoke commissions are available, particularly; if there is a colour scheme you are working to. Bespoke pieces are priced on application. Also note that each vanity waste is individually crafted and therefore, colour variations can be expected.

As you can see below, they make bath overflows and bath fillers with the same finishes:

Now your sink can have a beautiful drain as well as fixtures.
The also make drains for showers. Amazingly beautiful collection. And...wel...another thing to spend your money on.

Buy your own bejewelled venetian fixtures by clicking here.

Microsoft takes iphone tech and makes it BIGGER

I must confess, as a lifetime Mac loyalist, it made me laugh when everyone was so impressed with Microsoft's Vista which was released earlier this year because it simply took all the things the Apple's Mac interface has had for the past 5 years and applied it to their own software.

Now, the buzz is all about Microsoft's "surface computing" (codename: Milan) which is clearly the same sort of interface already available on the drool-worthy iphone by Mac. But, yes, it's bigger. And bigger is better.

Why they have made it a 'coffee table' in lieu of a desk surface, I'm not sure except that to see the surface in its entirety, you do have to be 'above it'. I wouldn't want to keep bending over the low surface -they ought to make it adjustable like a draftsman table, but it's still very cool.



By Dan Costa from PC Mag

Microsoft has been looking beyond the desktop for sometime now, but with the launch of "Milan," the company is showing the potential for so-called "surface computing" to revolutionize everything from retail kiosks to the common coffee table. At its core, Milan is a PC running Windows Vista, but don't expect to use it with a keyboard and mouse. Instead, Milan uses a touch-sensitive display that enables multiple users to navigate the system's interface. See how it works!

Milan will start appearing in commercial locations at the end of this year (think casinos), but PC Magazine was able to sit down with Microsoft executives for a hands-on demo of the new system. The demo unit we saw looked a lot like a coffee table, but you won't want to put your feet up on this system; it was made for touching.

The flat display measures 30 inches diagonally, and is designed to make it easy for multiple users to reach across and touch the screen. Images are projected onto the display via a custom DLP engine. Five infrared cameras set below the display detect contact with the display and enable users to navigate the interface.
Microsoft Milan Surface Computing

By detecting every touch and gesture, Milan offers a very tactile way of interacting with digital information. Users must actually grab files and images with their fingers without the use of a mouse or keyboard. The system also allows multiple users to interact with the display at the same time; it can detect dozens of contact points.

The system includes support for object recognition using a proprietary technology, dubbed Domino, which works like a bar code. With the right Domino tag, basically a small sticker with a black and white pattern on it, Milan can instantly recognize other electronic devices. For example, in our demo, a Wi-Fi digital camera was placed on the surface of Milan and the contents of its memory were instantly displayed as a pile of snapshots alongside the camera on the display. From there, they could be moved around the screen, resized, or sent to other users via e-mail.

Likewise, when a couple of Domino-tagged Zunes were placed on the display, their contents were instantly shown on the display and songs could be exchanged between players simply by dragging their images from one Zune to the other. (With all the DRM-restrictions attached, of course.)

Using Milan is also inherently social. The first application we tested was a simple paint program. We painted on the screen using our fingertips and a simple pallet of colors and effects. We were also able to take photos that were loaded onto the systems hard drive and manipulate them—moving them around the screen, making them larger or smaller, even e-mailing them just by using our fingers. But surface computing isn't just for playing around. In fact, all of the early implementations will be commercial.

Microsoft has announced that Milan will be deployed at commercial properties by the end of the year, including Harrah's Entertainment's Las Vegas properties, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, and International Game Technology (IGT). Milan will also be featured at some T-mobile retail stores.

In our demo, Microsoft showed how Milan could be used to help shoppers choose cell phones. All the buyer needs to do is place two Domino-tagged phones on the surface of the display, and the system will call up features and technical information for each phone for side-by-side comparison. The company also showed how new service plans, ringtones, even music files could be added to your phone simply by dragging and dropping images in the Milan interface.

Microsoft wouldn't release the technical specifications of its Milan surface computing systems, but the company estimated each system would cost between $5,000 and $10,000. Like the Xbox 360, the device was designed and will be manufactured by Microsoft.