Oliver Bonas chose Concreate for floors and stairs in their flagship Tottenham Court Road store.

They specified Concreate Natural Grey flooring throughout the two-storey store. Totalling 180m2 the engineered polished concrete panels extend to the central stair case creating a seamless flow between both levels of the shop.

The neutral tones work against the eclectic mix of homeware and fashion items, creating an ideal backdrop that promotes a feeling of space and light throughout the shop.

Oliver Bonas Manchester store featuring Concreate floors & walls

High street homewares and fashion retailer, Oliver Bonas are no stranger to using Concreate in their retail store design.

Following specifying Concreate floors in Natural Grey for their flagship London store in Tottenham Court Road in 2016, they have gone on to roll out the concrete floors in other stores including prime retail locations in Cardiff and Chiswick.

After trialling the inclusion of Concreate wall panels in small stores at London airports, the brand has just rolled out another major store in Manchester, and delighted with the success of previous store designs have installed Concreate floor and wall panels to create a stunning retail space.

This new Manchester store is the biggest Oliver Bonas store outside of London – set over an impressive three levels, situated in the busy St Mary’s Gate shopping area.

The designers completely stripped back the former clothing unit to create a light and open lifestyle store with high ceilings, industrial features and their synonymous eclectic product range which includes fashions, accessories and jewellery on the top floor, gifts and homewares on the main ground floor, and beauty, furniture and books on the basement floor.

The inclusion of the wall panels in the store design adds another concrete dynamic. The double height walls clad with Concreate wall panels, in the same Natural Grey finish as the floors, stage the customer service desk and create a perfect material contrast to the gold brand cladding.

And the Concreate floors which feature throughout form the perfect industrial edged backdrop to deliver fresh and modern floors which sit naturally with the eclectic mix of merchandise.

Concreate is ideal in a retail environment. The floors feature tongue and groove concrete panels which are finished with specially formulated high solid oil giving the appearance of raw concrete, whilst providing a treated stain resistant surface that is hardwearing and easy to maintain, withstanding the high footfall of a busy retail setting.

The lightweight panels, formed from mineral cements, are pre-cast and ready to install with simple adhesive application, so the speed of installing the concrete floors plays a key role in ensuring fit-out timescales are reduced as the floors can be laid in a day and are ready to walk on in just a few hours.

And the wall panels are also versatile and quick to install. Incredibly lightweight, with simple adhesive application walls and surfaces can be made to appear like cast concrete within a few hours.

The lightweight, prefinished, polished concrete panels are just 4mm thick and weigh less than 7kg per m2.