Interior & Exterior Surface Finishes for Every Project

Cabinets, doors, and countertops, for example, can encounter high traffic resulting in frequent wear and tear. They are also often highly visible components of a facility that contribute strongly to the overall design aesthetic and customer experience.

Traditional upkeep or design modifications include: painting, relaminating, and/or full replacement. These have inherent challenges, such as: odor, cleanliness, facility downtime, costs, and increased contributions to landfill waste. 3M surface finish solutions are an excellent replacement to these traditional construction methods.

Typically, hospital maternity ward doors suffer from frequent use. One hospital wanted to avoid the high-cost of repainting all four doors, every three months, or worse, replacing them altogether, so the facility applied 3M™ DI-NOC™ Architectural Finishes on the doors. 3M’s architectural surface finishes are self-adhering decorative wall finishes that offer the aesthetics of natural materials without the high price tag. The solution allowed the hospital to repurpose existing doors, saving on replacement costs and eliminated the need to dispose of large items in a landfill. This not only led to overall time and cost savings, but also supported the hospital’s sustainability efforts.

Another hospital (PDF, 140 KB) selected DI-NOC™ Architectural Finishes, instead of the typical full replacement, to refurbish its general practice units’ in-room cabinets. The result was a total project savings of nearly $250,000, a sustainable reduction in landfill waste contribution, and a significant reduction in the project timeline.

This same approach and methodology have been utilized successfully for a variety of millworks and across multiple types of facilities beyond just the healthcare examples above.

Walls are the largest canvas for a facility, and a key contributor to overall aesthetics. Paint can be costly, as it wears quickly over time and requires significant downtime during the application process. As a durable and cost-effective alternative to paint, DI-NOC™ Architectural Finishes can help create a specific mood or atmosphere, and because they are lightweight and self-adhering, can be installed quickly and efficiently.

Glass is another surface that shouldn’t go unnoticed. Glass films can be utilized to create privacy without blocking natural light, highlight branding, improve design aesthetics and create a positive customer experience.

A children’s museum (PDF, 173.27 KB) was challenged with identifying a design solution that would provide unique, ever-changing color to the building’s glass surfaces. The museum wanted a solution that would create as little disturbance to its visitors as possible, so they applied 3M™ DICHROIC Chill and 3M™ DICHROIC Blaze to the building’s towering interior window. The DICHROIC films provided easy application and achieved the appearance of stained glass in addition to a shifting and transparent visual experience.