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A Note From Mrs. FabLab
It's been awhile since I've written this column and I miss it. Writing is my love language. Some of you may want to scroll through this, LOL. But for the rest of you - my people - I've got some stuff to share. Grab your favorite beverage and settle in.
We don't have a lot of pretty pictures in this update because we are waist deep in the fabrication phase of several really large projects. As I write this, our incredible crew has just spent the last six nights installing a ceiling project in a downtown high rise office while the rest of the world sleeps and followed it up with two days of crazy fast fabrication for a lighting exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in the new Kinder Building. While we are still active in the hospitality and unique residential markets, we are finding most of our work outside of that right now. (For those of you who might be new here, my background is commercial interior design with a primary focus on the corporate and healthcare markets. As such, this facet of work has been a really natural fit for us and a place we can provide a lot of expertise to our clients.) I'd like to share a little bit with you about two large corporate projects we have going on right now.
The first is a new office space for the local arm of a national architecture firm. This is our second project with this client and we were so thrilled to be asked to work with them again. For the current project, we collaborated to provide a really cool wood and steel ceiling throughout their space (the one I referenced above that is currently being installed), a reception desk, a feature wall, the resource library island, a 16' long breakroom table, three islands in their primary office area and a small table in the wellness room. The desk and feature wall are on our fab tables in the back right now with the rest of the work queued up and ready to go.
The second project also in production right now is for an international communications company who is building out seven floors of new office space in west Houston. For this client, we are providing thirteen (yes, thirteen) feature walls across those seven floors. Although this end user and the general contractor are first time clients, the design firm that brought us on has been a repeat client for a couple of years now.
We have a few smaller projects also in progress with repeat clients. Y'all, repeat clients are GOLD. We make most everything by hand. This type of fabrication work is slow and schedules are always down to the wire. There are parts that cannot be rushed. It's tough on our clients at times to wait it out. So we really appreciate when someone chooses to work with us a second, third and fourth time. We are also working with a smallish crew since the pandemic hit last year so it's extra nice to have repeat clients who already know the drill during times like this. I got a text earlier today from a four time repeat client who went a different route for something recently - and full disclosure, I supported that decision because our price was higher than another price he got - but now he's reached out because the project with the other guy isn't going as smoothly and I told him I was going to use his words in my marketing today.
"The short version is, I should have just had you guys do it and trusted my gut."
I cannot tell you how happy those words make me, even though I am certainly not enjoying the mess he's dealing with. We take a lot of pride in being the experts in our field for our clients. Like I always say, we've got you.
Anyway, as I mentioned, we don't have a lot of pretty pictures to share. Soooo, I'm sharing one nice set of photos from a project we completed late last year and the rest are "Behind The Scenes" crappy phone photos. I would normally keep those safely hidden on my phone. But today, I thought, maybe sharing the realness could help someone. Inspiration comes in all forms. The "nice" photos are of a custom brass and aluminum tabernacle we designed for a gorgeous Catholic church and we are ecstatic with the result. I'd love to hear what you think!
Love,
H
P.S. My proof-reader is a bit tied up - please forgive any typos.
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