Corian kitchen worktops and care tips

July 6th, 2011

An increasing number of architects and designers are now asking for Corian, while more and more people are coming in saying that they have heard of it but are not one hundred percent sure what it is. Well without getting too technical about it here is a brief history of the product and some do’s and don’ts.

Created by DuPont more than 35 years ago, Corian® is an advanced blend of natural minerals and pure acrylic polymer. Corian® is a versatile material with
a wide variety of uses across residential and commercial environments.
 Corian® combines superior design flexibility, subtle translucency, inspired colours and textures with durability,
 stain resistance and renewability. Warm and inviting,
Corian® expresses beauty that’s approachable and 
practical! Corian® is solid with colour all the way through
 and will not chip, peel or delaminate.

The sheets are cut to the required size and jointed
 with a special adhesive. They are then sanded down 
through many grades of sandpaper to provide a seamless
 non porous surface with no place for dirt or bacteria to 
hide. This makes Corian® the obvious choice for all
 food areas in the kitchen.

With almost one hundred colours the material opens up a whole new
 world of design possibilities for architects and designers. 
The range of choice is endless with integrated bowls and sinks, seamless joints shaped or thermo formed 
to the most demanding and imaginative designs. It makes sense to choose surfaces to survive the fun 
and the frustration. Surfaces that survive the wear and tear and the unavoidable accidents. Surfaces that 
you will enjoy year after year. Surfaces easy to live with.

A practical common sense in your home where good looks and hygiene are of equal importance.

Warm and inviting to the touch Corian® comes with translucent colours that blend into any environment. Minimal care is required to maintain its original beauty. With the broad selection of inspired colours, its easy to find a colour that is compatible with virtually any design.

Corian® Care

Corian® is non-porous so dirt, grease and bacteria can be wiped away with detergent and hot water, and the surface disinfected with a solution of one part water and one part bleach.

Routine Cleaning:

The more you clean Corian® the nicer its smooth satin sheen becomes. Regular cleaning with an abrasive powder cleaner, such as Ajax or Barkeepers Friend will enhance its looks and build up lustre. 
Any small scratches and impact marks which occur in normal use will smooth out with Scotchbrite and an abrasive cleaner. 
The gloss level of the Scotchbrite area may then need to be adjusted by blending with Ajax or Barkeepers Friend, until a uniform surface sheen is restored.

Watermarks:

Hard water may sometimes leave visible watermark deposits on the Corian® surface. 
Barkeepers Friend, or a proprietary watermark remover should be applied following the manufacturers instructions, and then left for a few minutes. Use a Scotchbrite pad to scrub the entire surface, then rinse with fresh water and buff dry. As in routine cleaning adjust gloss level as necessary.

Sink and Bowls

Follow the routine cleaning procedure above. Occasionally fill the sink with a water bleach solution, leave for 15 minutes then scrub the sink as the solution drains.

Preventing Damage:

Corian® is a quality product and responds being treated with respect. Always use a trivet for standing hot cookware and ovenware on Corian®. Do not stand hot pans, cook and ovenware directly onto Corian® worktops.

Do not cut or chop on Corian® countertops – use a chopping board.

Please do not allow pans to overhang the hob, complying with the recommendation of major appliance manufacturers.

Wipe up spills of strong chemicals immediately, e.g., oven cleaner and paint strippers, etc.

However if an accident does occur, Corian® specialists have the expertise to repair almost any damage. Corian® comes with a 10 year warranty backed by DuPont.

Finally we have selected a kitchen range that should suit most styles but there are just a few things to watch out for when choosing the colour.

Selecting Corian® colours for your application In order to ensure that you gain the greatest satisfaction from your Corian® and that it meets your expectations-please read the following carefully.

 Dark colours and heavily pigmented solid colours will show scratches, dust, ordinary wear and tear, more easily than the light, textured, colours. We therefore advise against using these colours for domestic or commercial kitchen/laboratory work-surfaces. 

Whilst the composition is the same as all other Corian® colours, the pigmentation is of a higher density to produce these solid and vibrant colours. Heavily pigmented and solid vibrant colours will require more frequent care to maintain their appearance.

Samples of Corian® may also vary from installed Corian® The following series of colours have veining, which can vary with intensity and may highlight joints: 

Dawn Beige, Venaro Grey, Venaro Natural Pearl, Venaro Peach, Venaro Rose, Venaro White

. The following solid colours are primarily designed for inlay work and are not suitable for kitchen work surfaces:

 Hot, Lilac, Mandarin, Nocturn and Sun.

The following dark colours require more maintenance and are not suitable for kitchen work surfaces:

Azure, Black Quartz, Cobalt, Emerald, Ruby, Gravel, Turkish Blue, Adobe, Olive, Shale, Flint, Anthracite, Blackberry Ice, Bronze Patina, Pompeii Red, Moss, Cocoa Brown*, Coffee Bean*, Night Sky*

 The following collection of colours contain reflective flakes, their directionality may highlight joints and restrict some fabrication techniques:

Anthracite, Blackberry Ice, Blizzard, Bronze Patina, Dune, Pompeii Red, Riviera Mist, Sage, Shadow and Winter Frost.

“That’s Corian®!”

If you would like to find out more or see it in action we have a display in our showroom where you can get further advice and tips from ourselves and the fabricators.

Noel Fay on Facebook and Twitter

July 5th, 2011

Over the coming days, weeks, months and years we will keep you updated on what we are doing. We will have regular updates on design, trends and the latest in appliance innovations. To receive these updates all you have to do is LIKE us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

For Facebook click here: http://on.fb.me/lsmk2z

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All about kitchens in Kildare

June 27th, 2011

Soft Kildare Rose

It was all about kitchens, good food and racing at the weekend on the Curragh of Kildare. The weather came good on Sunday after the relentless rain of Friday evening. Aidan O’Brien also had a memorable day by having the winner of the Derby and training second and third. The only down side seemed to be the Kildare team just losing out in the last moments of the game to the Dubs.

Over the weekend lots of people called by the stand to wish us well. There were two main topics of discussion over the three days, the Irish Elm dresser and the colourful kitchen. The colour seemed to be the main focus with comments like, it’s loud, brave, beautiful, different, but for my part it did its job and got people talking about kitchens. In the end we stopped calling it red but renamed it “soft Kildare rose.” The dresser got its fair share of attention also but these comments were about the remarkable craftmanship and the beautiful wood. Incidentally the timber came from a farm in Athy, Co. Kildare.

Rory at work

The main purpose of having the kitchen at the Curragh in the first place was to create an area where some of the top chefs from around the country could show their skills and engage with the racegoers. Unfortunately all the demonstrations for Friday night had to be cancelled due to the adverse weather however it was made up for on Saturday and Sunday. All the various demonstrators were members of Good Food Ireland and they all gave an insight into their methods of creating fabulous mouth watering meals.

We had the pleasure of meeting some of them. Rory O’Connell founded the Ballymaloe Cookery School with his sister, Darina Allen. Lynda Booth who runs the Dublin cookery school treated us to a nice chicken dish. Then there were the executive chefs from The Merrion, Kelly’s in Roslare and Gary from the The Shelbourne. This group are the chefs that put holidaying in Ireland on the world stage. They make it look so easy and taste so good.

Finally we just want to thank everyone who came along and we hope to see and work with you again in the near future. If you would like to keep in touch with us we have now set up a Facebook page where we will keep you up to date.

A Noel Fay Kitchen at the Derby Festival.

June 21st, 2011

We are back at the Curragh again this year. In association with Good Food Ireland and Neff we are installing the main demonstration kitchen. The finest chefs in Ireland will be showing their talents to the racing public at this year’s Derby festival from 24 – 26th June. The Good Food Ireland Village was a great success last year and we are proud to be associated with it again. Our kitchen this year is a little bolder and we will let you have a sneak preview of it before the weekend. It looks like the temperature is rising for the weekend so if you are looking for a pleasant afternoon why not visit the Curragh this weekend. Be sure to say hello.

You can now also follow our movements on Facebook.

Click on the link below to get a flavour of last year’s event. Hope that this year is also a great success for everyone involved.

Good Food Ireland Village

Another Woodturning Demonstration 11th June

June 7th, 2011

Seamus Cassidy
WoodTurning on Sat. June 11th 2011 with demonstrator Seamus Cassidy. This event has a charge of €15.00 that is payable to the Midland Woodturning Chapter. Spaces are limited and must be pre-booked. The demo will get underway at 11am sharp with lunch at 1pm. Tea/Coffee will be provided but bring your own lunch. The afternoon session will finish at 4.30. We will be offering great value with 10% off all purchases. For further information please follow the link below: http://www.thecarpentrystore.com/index.php?dispatch=news.view&news_id=8#8

After the success of the last demonstration we are sure that this one will be very enjoyable. There is something relaxing about watching a master at work. There is rain forecast for Saturday and if you want something to enthrall you for a couple of hours don’t pass up this opportunity.

A Woodturning Demonstration

May 8th, 2011

Preparations

The Midlands chapter of the Irish Woodturners’ Guild are holding a demonstration in The Carpentry Store on 14th May at 2.00pm. If you would like to attend please call 045 883088 to book a place. Further details are available on the link below.

14th May Woodturning

Well Done Ruth!

April 7th, 2011

Ruth Fay

All the staff and customers of Noel Fay Fitted Furniture and The Carpentry Store would like to congratulate Ruth on being nominated for this year’s Hennessy Literary Award.  Her story, ‘It’s a kind of magic’, was published in the Sunday Tribune in March 2010 and is now shortlisted  for the First Fiction award. Ruth is also a DCU Oscail student of Humanities and is studying for a degree in English literature in her spare time!

The Hennessy Literary Award is broken up into three categories – First Fiction, Emerging Fiction and Emerging Poetry and then one of the category winners will be named, as New Writer of the Year. All this will take place at a ceremony on 12 April when the winners will be announced.  The judges are Paul Durcan and Derek Johns under the chairmanship of Ciaran Carty.  Each winner receives a Hennessy trophy and €1,500. The New Irish Writer of the Year receives an additional €2,500 and trophy.

All the short-listed writers will attend a gala dinner in the Great Hall of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on April 12, where the special guest will be the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. A Hall of Fame achievement award will be made to a leading Irish writer whose first work was published in New Irish Writing, the ninth such award.

Previous winners were Dermot Bolger, Joseph O’Connor, Patrick McCabe, Colum McCann, Frank McGuinness, Anne Enright, Hugo Hamilton and Neil Jordan.

Her story “its a kind of magic” can be read by following the link below. Once again good luck on Tuesday Ruth.

http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/mar/07/new-irish-writing-its-a-kind-of-magic/

Another Winner at Naas Racecourse

March 6th, 2011

Noel Fay Jnr. presented the trophy for the Naas Supporters Handicap Hurdle to the winning connections of Silent Creek at Naas Racecourse today. This was a very special honour for Noel as he organised the design and construction of the new presentation podium in the centre of the parade ring. It was a fun day out for everyone and well supported even though the real punters are keeping their ammo for Cheltenham. Only for the cold breeze I would nearly say it was a perfect day’s racing.

Induction Hob Pan Promotion

February 28th, 2011

Saucepan Offer

Great news, you now have the opportunity to receive a free set of designer saucepans worth €150.00 with every purchase of a Neff induction hob. The promotion is available exclusively through ourselves as Neff MasterPartners and is for purchases made between now and 31st March 2011.

The four piece set from European manufacturer Iittala comprises of a single handled saucepan (16cm), two twin handled saucepans (18cm and 20cm) and a non stick frying pan. Please note this may vary but we will clarify at time of ordering the Induction hob. To claim your set of free saucepans just drop in and we will look after everything else. For further details follow the link below or call 045 879632.

Induction Hob Pan Promotion

Taste Of Christmas

December 31st, 2010

Catherine's Christmas Kitchen

I think everyone who attended the recent Taste of Christmas in the new Convention Centre in Dublin will agree it was a wonderful success. What an atmosphere, it really got everyone in a festive mood. There was over 150 exhibitors taking part covering Restaurants, food producers and an array of fine wine to beer. Catherine Fulvio stole the show again and treated the audience to some of her culinary delights. The big hit was Stromboli bread.

Patrick was out again talking to some of the top chefs and making a spectacle of himself. So much so Brent Pope couldn’t resist telling how ridiculous he looked on the Friday evening dressed up in his Santa hat. The kitchen turned out really well and we had a lot of positive comments. The Neff appliances really worked hard as there was nearly a hundred visitors to the stand each time Catherine did a demonstration.