Plumbing company brings modern to design

You don’t typically think “industrial” when you think interior design, but at 4-Gs Plumbing and Heating, industrial is daily business.
The mechanical and electrical contractors recently built a new home for their growing business in Missoula’s Industrial Park. The outside prefaces the interior, using copper color and piping to reflect the business’s mainstay. Inside, the theme continues with paint color and decorating schemes. Kathryn Kress, of Perfect Color, said that was her plan.
“One thing I do is I want the exterior of the building to match the interior,” she said.
The color continuity begins in the foyer. Freeform gold slashes are painted upon a copper colored wall. They’ll mirror the sway of golden grasses that will be planted outside the entry windows, said business owner Melody Bryan. Sconces of copper with a pebble-look patina add to the naturalizing effect.
In the business proper, practicality merged with color preference in carpet tile for the main floor.
“We knew we wanted carpet tile because we have heavy wear patterns,” Kress said. “We bought overage so we can replace them,” as they get worn, she added.
The business wanted to involve its employees in the remodel process, and held a design contest for a conference table. The winner is a glass-topped table with curved steel piping for legs. The pattern on the carpet, a black and grey curving slash, mirrors the table’s “parabolic shape and creates a shadow line, just like the table does,” Kress said of selecting the pattern.
In the break room, she selected Adura flooring by Mannington. “We adora the Adura,” she quipped. “It holds up,” Bryan said.
“Before we moved in, the construction workers were using this doorway and leaving clots everywhere. It holds up and cleans up so easily,” she explained. The flooring is wax-free, requiring only sweeping and mopping, saving the business maintenance costs as well.
One of the natures of remodeling is changing your plans as you go. The original counter chosen for the break room was discontinued before it could be ordered. Kress said you have to stay flexible, and they chose a different laminate.
The new counter looks like granite. “It just goes to show you, laminate can be beautiful,” Kress said. Other touches that reflect the business’s central nature are the brushed stainless steel fixtures.
Choosing materials suited to the plumbing and heating business was one of Kress’s responsibilities. “We have a little techno thing going on,” Kress said of the accents.
In a business that focuses on the bones of a home, industrial accents are not a shock. Coming as a surprise, however, is the “girl’s room,” a fitness lounge for the female employees of the business.
“They’ve moved so far from their exercise class, they have to have something here,” Kress said. Bryan agreed.
All three female office employees used to go to workout classes regularly, and the new fitness room provides them with that same opportunity on site.
“As the boss, you get to decide these things,” Bryan smiled.
The mini-gym sports “ionique” flooring, a textured hard-surface tile said to release invigorating negative ions.
“The Japanese have been putting these into post-ops for years,” said Kress.
Adjacent to the fitness room is a deluxe shower and bath, all built around the color of a sink.
“Melody loved this sink,” Kress said of the soft-grey porcelain.
“I saw this at one of our kitchen distributors,” Bryan said, caressing the finish, “and one day I’ll have it in my home. But for now, this will do.”
The grey became the anchor color of the room, reappearing in the commode and shower tile.
“I think a paint designer would call it mouse,” Kress laughed when asked the color’s name.
On the design side, the shower is intentionally huge. Faced in clear glass, the shower “has the monolithic rectitude of the concrete vault that’s in the center of the building,” Kress said.
Both women praised Creative Paint and Glass, who put in all the glasswork in the building. Bryan said they were wonderful to work with. “You just ask for what you want and it appears.”
Upstairs, the project managers are on a bright, open floor where Kress said “all the colors we used in the building are repeated in succession.” The structural elements of the building are repeated, too, with wall mounted file cases mirroring the shapes of the windows and the lines of the walls.
The upper conference room is warm with cherry cabinets and walls of muted blue.
“The blue is like a breath of fresh air,” said Kress, who chose it to contrast with the earthen tones that otherwise dominate the building. It is in this room that John Bukovatz, another 4-Gs owner, has his winning table. A boat-shaped light currently hangs above it, but will be replaced by one that Bukovatz designs as well, Bryan said.
The “boat” was hung before the large screen TV was placed upon the wall, she said, and now it conflicts, so it has to go. It’s another reminder, Kress said, that a remodel is a work in progress.
Still, Bryan is happy.
“It’s all come together. Everyone who has walked into this place has said ‘Wow.’”
“We have people bringing people over to look at our building,” she added. “I’m just sitting back and going, ‘It’s just what I wanted.’”