Crown Sports Lockers has combined innovative design with eye-catching changing room provision and project delivery excellence for a major health club refurbishment at Nizels Golf & Country Club in Kent.

One of the key sites for operator The Club Company, Nizels Golf & Country Club is located near Hildenborough and is surrounded by attractive Kent countryside. It has recently undergone major renovation work, including an upgrade of its Aura Spa.

The spa underwent major refurbishment work which included the addition of an infinity hydro pool, glass-fronted Rohol sauna, steam room, ice cave, heated loungers, feature shower and dedicated St Tropez spray tan room. As part of the £1.2m spa upgrade changing room specialists Crown Sports Lockers manufactured and installed furniture for the four treatment rooms.

The club's health club also experienced a major upgrade, worth £2m, to include all new Technogym fitness equipment and reworked pool area. Crown’s install covered all lockers, as well as upholstered freestanding benches and seating, dry vanities, wet vanities and washroom cubicles.

As part of the renovation Crown fitted out male, female and family changing and washrooms including the installation of full-size two-tier £1 coin-operated clothes lockers with feature doors in two contrasting Polyrey laminates in light and dark grey with a heavy wood grain texture. The Polyrey laminate is designed to create a contemporary rustic feel, while shaker-style vanity units, featuring slatted fronts, create styling new to the sector.

The areas feature design focal points never before seen in the operators’ leisure estate. Crown worked closely with interior design consultancy sparcstudio, which holds longstanding relationships with both The Club Company and Crown.

Beverley Bayes, director of sparcstudio, said: “Changing areas can be a sea of oak rising from a pale floor. We wanted to introduce something fresh and unique into Nizels, using a new set of materials and colour palette.”

"Mosaic-style 'tiled rugs' create an exciting pattern, complemented by slatted timber screens to zone off changing areas, offset by glossy dark green tiling to introduce a sleek look," Bayes added.

“Changing rooms are incredibly important. If they fall short on quality, members and guests will judge the site accordingly. As interior designers, we devote a huge amount of time to them and always aim to push the boundaries, as we are doing at Nizels," Bayes commented.

“We have worked with Crown for 15 years and have recommended them to other operators. From our experience they deliver quality installations and are great to work with. Their attention to detail helps ensure we rarely suffer snagging issues. When facilities like changing areas often have to be installed while sites remain open, minimal fuss and intrusion while doing so is critical.”

The refurbishment marks the first major work to take place at Nizels since new owner Epiris LLP took custody of the The Club Company’s estate last year.

Mark Warne who project managed the renovation said: “We’ve worked with sparcstudio in various guises for 20 years, since their work on Castle Royle in 1999. We chose them once again to create new designs for the areas we were refurbishing – spa, gym, poolside and three changing areas. We brought in Crown separately for their part of the project.

“Nizels is the first Club Company site to feature tiled rugs,” revealed Warne. ”They are a cost-effective way to introduce an eye-catching feature into changing areas without resorting to a full resurface.

“The process is quite simple - cutting out some of the existing floor tiles and inserting patterned ceramic ones. It’s fast too: just a day per floor. Everything works well as long as the original floor is sound, which it was at Nizels. We’ll be creating more for sure and plan to roll out the blueprint across other clubs in our portfolio.”

One of The Club Company’s premium sites, Nizels commands a membership between 4,500 and 5,000, including that of the golf and health clubs.

“When members are paying £100 a month, they want everything to be shiny and new and always open,” Warne noted, “so it was key to keep the club operational throughout the refurbishment. Crown’s flexibility was a major factor in delivering the project on time and on budget to tight timescales from November to December 2018."

"Crown were under a lot of pressure to deliver in such a short turnround, just two and half weeks for each of the three changing areas, which included clothes and holdall lockers, changing cubicles, vanities, freestanding benches and bespoke wood dividers for room spaces," said Spencer Grimwood, project manager at Crown Sports Lockers.

“This proved to be a particularly satisfying project for us. We were up against extremely tight timelines as the client wanted everything in place for early New Year. Health and fitness changing areas usually need upgrading every ten years due to wear and tear and new trends," Grimwood added.

For more information about Crown Sports Lockers please visit www.crownsportslockers.co.uk