Art & Maison Inc. Decorative Surfaces

For Mariel Hautoux, President of Art & Maison, Inc. Decorative Surfaces in Southeast Florida, the goal is simple. "We want to help anyone - architects, interior designers, developers, contractors and any other customers - enhance the space they create with high-quality products," says Hautoux.

But in 1998, Hautoux and Art and Maison Vice President J-Christophe Jaulin, both artists and designers from Europe, started small. "We started out doing architectural cast concrete elements such as columns and table bases," explains Hautoux. "J-Christophe was involved in concrete...he likes to play like a kid."

Although both had worked with concrete before in Europe as a hobby, eight years ago they came to Miami, Florida, and began making countertops and sinks, playing with the material and different mixes.

The first department of their company focused on stone, glass, tile and mosaic, of which they now feature an exclusive line of pieces that can be installed or delivered ready to be installed.

They produce mosaic designs for any surface, commercial or residential, including kitchen and bath back splashes; floorings for halls, foyers, bathrooms and patio; moldings and trims for pools, walls, mirrors, floors and windows; wall and fountain murals; and accessories including vases, mirror, urns, jugs and table tops.

One of their first clients, Mrs. Fisher, had a beautiful home and she wanted concrete countertops for her kitchen and bath. "She found us in the Yellow Pages, and we were the only ones she could find to come out and do her counters in concrete," Hautoux explains. "We got more involved in the industry after that experience, and we always like to thank Mrs. Fisher because she pushed us to do it."

In Mrs. Fisher's house, the team made a cast-in-place concrete bathtub with an inlaid mosaic of different hues of blue glass tile cut in different shapes and placed in a patchwork style. The bath's white finish was created with a hard paint, the kind used to paint offshore boats.

For Mrs. Fisher's powder room, they created a purple sink with a free-form basin in a minimalist fish design. To create the shape, a negative of the form was created and placed in the bottom of the mold. The cement was poured and vibrated to remove bubbles, then left to dry for more than a week. After it was dry, the sink was polished, sealed and waxed.

Mrs. Fisher's kitchen countertops, which look and feel like stone, were created using two different shades of gray cement swirled together. "It's the same way you make a marble cake," explains Hautoux. "You swirl and pour but don't compose."

The company offers a whole line of polished concrete countertops and sinks in different colors and finishes, as well as sizes that can be customized. The sinks, which can be shipped anywhere in the U.S., are available in three colors including an eggshell/café latte, dark gray/almost black and a shade of green between olive and jade.

Most of their products are available in a wide range of earth tones -- more than 50 color choices all together. They also create different surfaces using materials such as glass and marble aggregate or colored sand, and create inserts with stainless steel, wood, stone, or glass to use as cutting boards, pastry boards or drains for sinks. All cement colors are created using pigments in the mix, so the color is part of the material.

Since they began, first serving the local area in South Florida and Miami, they have earned a strong following outside of Florida and plan to start shipping the new line of sinks across the U.S. soon. "Our website has helped many people find us," says Hautoux. "We get mail from everywhere. Now we are shipping to places like Tampa and Georgia -- all the states around us."

"We love working with designers and architects," Hautoux says. "Most of the time they come with great ideas and it's always a challenge for us to fulfill their expectations." She adds that polished concrete counters and vanities are becoming a real answer for a lot of construction professionals and developers.

"For example, with the new trend of lofts, our product is a real match," she explains. "We have already supplied dozens of loft units with concrete counter tops. Jacque Garcia, a very well-known French designer, also chose concrete countertops from us to furnish one of his latest projects with 90 bathrooms: The Victor Hotel in Miami Beach."

They also entered a contest called Something's Fishy for the Galleria & Museum of Art in Ft. Lauderdale. The same developers of the Victor Hotel in Miami Beach were sponsors of the event. "We were given a sail fish made of fiberglass and were able to design it with Mosaic tiles," says Hautoux. "Our Sail Fish The Catch of the Day won the contest, and the proceeds were given as a donation for different charities around Ft.Lauderdale."

"We're not inventing anything new," Hautoux explains of her work. "We're just taking inspiration from the ancient world -- Romans and Greeks -- the first ones who made baths." She says she's inspired by nature and says the color palette they offer was derived by choosing colors found in nature.

"I like to go to different shows and see what designers and architects are looking at," Hautoux explains regarding where she gets her ideas, predicting that the colors citrus and purple are going to be huge soon.

As for what Hautoux thinks is the key to concrete, it's simple: It's an open door. "Concrete is very flexible and unique, and (with our help) designers and architects can do anything they want with it," she says. "Anything they dream up -- any kind of thing they couldn't do before in stone or other materials they've worked with in the past - concrete offers all possibilities in shape, color and texture."

"It's not just a bag of cement," she adds. And she's right - it's Art and Maison.

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