Countertops Are Just The Beginning At Expanded Kitchen And Bath Showroom

By John Voket

Homeowners and businesses looking for a one-stop location to bring any kitchen or bathroom design inspiration “from modest to extravagant” to fruition should look no further than the newly expanded Newtown-based Architectural Kitchens & Baths by Connecticut Countertops, LLC. The company’s owner and staff welcomed family, clients, and area contractors to its brand-new showroom and workshop at 320 South Main Street last Saturday.

Visitors meeting with company founder and owner Marc Sterling Hankey and his cabinet division manager Robert Bishop learn that while the company stands ready, as Mr Bishop says, “to make a $4,000 bathroom cabinet so your towels look pretty,” the designers and craftsmen who fashion almost all the custom cabinet work in-house “have plenty to offer for folks on a pretty strict budget, too.”

Mr Bishop said he took up woodworking following his military service at the tail end of the Vietnam conflict, and learned the craft by doing it for nearly 30 years. Today, he works closely on every facet of a project, no matter how large or small, with Mr Hankey, any additional subcontractors, as well as on-site cabinet shop craftsmen.

The shop manager says his many years of experience taking the antiseptic and highly rigid aspects of design schematics, making them into cabinets and fixtures, and then making them fit precisely into the often imperfect angles and corners of a building is his and the company’s forte.

“Along with Marc, I’m involved every step of the way,” Mr Bishop told The Newtown Bee during a break from grand opening festivities October 10. “I’m the lead designer on every job, I do the ordering, the shop drawings, the on-site installation coordination, as well as serving as the liaison between any contractors and designers or architects.”

According to Mr Bishop, homeowners can come to Architectural Kitchens & Baths with a budget and a dream, and the company will do everything in its scope to deliver.

“Just because we have the word ‘architectural’ in our company name doesn’t mean were not affordable for folks on a budget,” he said, adding that one of the company’s newest lines of Diamond brand stock cabinets are a perfect place for budget-minded clients to “begin imagining the possibilities.”

On the other hand, Mr Bishop did mention the word “extravagant.”

“And then we have the big jobs,” he said, describing a conversion project in Fairfield County last year where a 1,500-square-foot house was transformed into a 6,000-square-foot mansion. “That one home took me seven months, designing, measuring, building, and installing all the cabinets.”

For those looking for a one-of-a-kind custom project, Architectural Kitchens & Baths can make that happen, too, with its custom line from Decora. Both the Decora and Diamond materials are milled in the United States, Mr Bishop added, at facilities in Indiana.

Besides kitchen and bathroom work, the company also has designed storage units for closets, huge entertainment centers, fireplace mantels, and floor to ceiling shelving for libraries.

“We came up with the motto, ‘from modest to extravagant, whatever your taste,’ soon after I came to work with Marc, and it seems to fit us pretty well,” Mr Bishop said. “People with a modest budget often tell us they came out in the end with a lot more than they would have expected.”

Even the company’s original product, countertops, can be designed and installed to meet virtually any budget and space, from plastic laminates to marble, Corian or granite.

“We are even taking beveled Corian edges and molding it with laminate materials to give consumers the best of both worlds,” Mr Bishop explained.

Stressing the one-stop opportunity for clients, the showroom manager said since the company’s owner is a general contractor, he can coordinate anything from reconfiguring a room to tearing down walls to moving windows, and installing everything from flooring to plumbing, electrical, and other utility infrastructure, all under one roof.

“We can rally streamline production because all our best subs are on hand and ready to work,” Mr Bishop said. “And after working in this region for 17 years, you can imagine that Marc has weeded out all the bad subcontractors.”

Whether clients are in the market for a major renovation or simply want a unique entertainment center to showcase a flat screen TV, the Architectural Kitchens & Baths design consultants and shop crafts people will provide all the information and services required turn anyone’s concept into finished design.

The newly expanded Newtown showroom at 320 South Main Street is open Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm, 10 am to 2 pm on Saturdays, and anytime by appointment. Learn more about the company at www.sterlingassociatesgc.com or call 270-6202.