Seattle Home & Lifestyles
Celebrating the Seattle Homes & Lifestyles Redesign!
Seattle Homes & Lifestyles hits the town to celebrate its redesign and support others in the design community
Seattle Homes & Lifestyles celebrated the launch of our redesign and thanked our friends and clients in October with a bash at the South Seattle showroom of Pental Granite & Marble. Guests enjoyed wines from Chateau Ste. Michelle, appetizers from Classic Catering, flowers from Edmonds Flower Shop, décor and lighting by Event Experience and tunes spun by DJ Fred Good, and had a chance to learn a little more about social media networking from Adam Japko, Network Communications’ Home Design Division president.
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Indian ambassador talks business in Bellevue
The Indian ambassador to the United States, Meera Shankar, met with 40 Bellevue business leaders on Oct. 16 at a luncheon to discuss increased trade and cultural exchange between India and the United States.
Bellevue is in the running for a Pacific Northwest consulate requested by India through the U.S. State Department. Other West Coast consulates for India are located in San Francisco and Vancouver, B.C.
Shankar spoke to the group on the impact stronger trade relationships between India and the United States could have on international relations as well as helping to establish Bellevue as a center of international trade. She stressed that India, even in the recent global downturn, had a 6.7 percent growth in GDP last year following an average of 9 percent GDP growth over the previous 4 years. (more…)
Remodeling can Create a Luxury Home
By Peter Pental
As the inventory of luxury homes in the local real estate market continues to grow, an increasing number of homeowners are choosing to perform remodels, many in an environmentally friendly way. This trend reflects homeowners’ attempts to boost their properties’ values and to incentivize buyers. (more…)
Seattle Homes & Lifestyles Blog: Product Runway
Are you in or are you out? Eighteen design teams were put to the test at this year’s Product Runway, a fashion and design show that benefits the Ronald McDonald House Charities.
When Architecture Meets High Fashion
Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce did a follow up on our participation in Product Runway
Darrah's Dresser: Project Runway
Product Runway Seattle
After playing scavenger hunt with Google maps on my blackberry, I finally found the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. My sister and I came a few hours earlier to get interviews and shots backstage. (more…)
Product Runway Press, Links & More
This year’s Product Runway was a complete success! An enormous thank you to everyone who was involved, and attended this outstanding event! We have complied a list of the many press releases and articles covering this amazing event. Look at the links below for video, photo galleries, information about all parties involved in the event & the event itself!
Glam Spoon
PRODUCT RUNWAY 2009 RECAP
What a night it was! Everyone on and off the runway was decked out – especially the shoes! Jennifer and I sat in the 3rd row towards the front, so we got a good glimpse of all the garments last night. Our model from last year graced the cover of the program and our garment was on display at the entrance.
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Boutique Cultures Blog
PRODUCT RUNWAY VOLUME 2
With the end of the month quickly approaching we reached out to Product Runway to find out more about this fabulous event! We were honored with the opportunity to interview Erica Clemeson, Jill Marasigan, Heather Nye, and Ian Stewart from Product Runway’s team. (more…)
Northwest Construction Magazine
The Heathman Hotel, Portland, reused almost all of the parts during a recent remodel of the facility.
“It was important to The Heathman that this be a zero landfill remodel,” says Cindy Mahaffey, architectural and design representative for Pental in Portland. Pental teamed with Portland architectural and interior design firm Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects in selecting the Kerlite tile, Which required no destruction of the existing flooring and wall coverings in order to be installed.
Pental’s Kerlite porcelain tile is being used in the remodel of all 155 of the hotel’s quest bathrooms. The thinness allows the tile to be laid over current flooring or surfaces without the need for destruction of the existing substrate.
The remodel of the first ten guest rooms took only seven days to complete. All 155 rooms of The Heathman Hotel are scheduled to be completely upgraded by January 2009. The hotel will remain open throughout the duration of the project.
The tiles are obtained from natural and raw materials, such as light clays and pure feldspars and firing is carried out in electric kilns without any release of polluting fumes. Kerlite is composed of 40 percent recycled material.
Condo Owners Encourage Artisans to Pull Out the Stops in a Remodel
Not only is Brent and Jorja Hicks’ condo along the north shore of the Columbia River filled with artwork, it is a showcase of local craftsmanship.
From the glass-tile back-splash in the kitchen and the faux painting in the master to the glass counter-tops gracing the bar and the island, the Hickses’ home reflects their eye for art, their desire to give craftspeople artistic license and Jorja’s willingness to push for the best design.
“I’m only as good as the client,” says interior designer Carole Jackson of Carole Jackson Design, who managed the project. “And she’s remarkable.” Jackson and the Hicks’ have collaborated before — in both the couple’s former home and Brent’s financial services office — so when they moved to the condo, Jorja called on Jackson again. (more…)
Granite Confirmed Safe by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
SEATTLE (Aug. 7, 2008) – In response to recent erroneous reports, Peter Pental of Pental Granite & Marble, is working diligently to educate Pacific Northwest public and trades professional about the safety of granite. The granite and marble industries are currently facing claims that granite contains harmful radon levels, and ultimately radiation, despite the disputing information by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the federal level. Members of the granite industry are all focused on dispelling any myths about the safety of the natural countertop and surface product. (more…)
Granite business keeps owner traveling
Though he hasn’t lived in his homeland for more than a decade, Peter Pental always finds time to get back to India.
These days, it’s usually business that takes him home.
As the owner of Pental Granite & Marble, Pental regularly travels to India, Brazil, China and Italy in search of granite and tile.
Pental has a showroom and a warehouse in Portland, Seattle and Tacoma. Together, the warehouses comprise more than 200,000 square feet. His Portland location is 3551 N.W. Yeon Ave.
Pental works with developers, architects and builders while managing a $20 million inventory.
Pental got into the granite and marble business after dropping out of Dehli University in India in the late 1980s and coming to the United States. He arrived in the United States with just $60, and saved until he had enough money to purchase a franchise convenience store. But a chance meeting with a former classmate from Dehli University in 1998 changed Pental’s future. “I met with him and he told me how good (granite and marble) business was and how it was growing,” he said. “I got interested in the idea and at that time made a trip to India.” (more…)
Questions for Peter Pental, president of Pental Granite and Marble
Peter Pental arrived in the United States with $60. Today he’s wholesaling granite for floors such as Sea-Tac airport’s Concourse C, where there’s 65,000 square feet of it.
Yours is a huge space. How big is this flagship warehouse and showroom?
It is 105,000 square feet. We also have offices in Portland and Fife, so, in total we have 200,000 square feet. I started out leasing 10,000 square feet right here nine years ago. We’ve grown that much. We have more than 100 people working for us and more than $21 million in inventory.
That’s a lot of growth in nine years. What were you doing before?
I was a dropout from Delhi University in India. I had always heard that America was the land of opportunity, and I believed it. I would ride the bus 30 miles in India to find American movies.
So how did you get to this stage of your life?
I was 19 years old in 1988 when I came to the United States, to Ventura, Calif., with $60 and my parent’s blessings. I did odd jobs, whatever I could, to make ends meet… I took a test for the U.S. Postal Service and passed, but did not take the job, I heard that a convenience chain was franchising stores in Tacoma. A friend used his credit card so I could rent a car, and I drove here nonstop because I had no money to stay in a motel. I contacted the franchiser. By 1992, my brother Ravi and I had saved close to $25,000 and on March 17 we got the store. (more…)
Pental Granite & Marble Thriving in a Challenging Housing Market
SEATTLE, Wash. (March 12, 2008) – Home improvement enthusiasts and commercial architects and designers have a valuable resource at the state-of-the-art Pental Granite & Marble showroom and warehouse in Seattle, or at any of the natural stone and tile wholesaler’s three locations throughout the region. Pental Granite & Marble (www.pentalonline.com) is the largest wholesale distributor of natural stones and tiles in the Pacific Northwest with more than $22 million in inventory, and its showrooms are open to the public. Pental offers a vast array of natural stone slabs, unique porcelain tiles and decorative ceramic tiles, all of which are displayed with inspiration and vision at the showroom. (more…)
Pental Granite & Marble Introduces Kerlite Porcelain Tile to its Collection
SEATTLE, Wash. (March 12, 2008) – Pental Granite & Marble is the exclusive distributor of a new and innovative porcelain surfacing solution now available to the Pacific Northwest’s architecture and design communities: Kerlite porcelain tiles.
Kerlite porcelain tiles are created by Cotto d’Este, an Italian-based, world-renowned producer of luxury tiles. Cotto d’Este touts Kerlite as “the new surface for architecture,” providing a unique and unprecedented option in design, versatility and installation. Kerlite panels are just three millimeters in thickness, lighter than aluminum, and easy to clean, cut and install.
Beyond the modern sensibility and style that the tile offers, there is one important benefit to using Kerlite: the minimal thickness allows the tile to be laid over current flooring or surfaces without the need for destruction of the existing substrate. Kerlite makes it possible to quickly remodel a commercial surface with minimal downtime. (more…)
Pacific Northwest Surface Trends are Extreme Luxury Mixed with Uber- Sustainability Rather than Just Green
SEATTLE, Wash. (March 12, 2008) – According to Lee Hojin, architect/design buyer at Pental Granite & Marble, extreme luxury and uber-sustainability are the surface trends in commercial projects and residential design and remodels in the Pacific Northwest. These two styles could be seen as a complete contradiction unless you understand the reason they are important: homeowners expect that products are environmentally-friendly, and they want elements that make them feel unique. (more…)
