by 3 Spark Design | Oct 27, 2026 | 3 Spark Design Blog, blog
How to Choose a Zinc Bar Top Finish: Texture First, Then Patina Nine finishes sounds like a lot to sort through. It isn’t. Every zinc finish we make comes down to two decisions, made in order: the texture of the surface, then the patina it starts with....
by 3 Spark Design | Oct 7, 2026 | 3 Spark Design Blog, blog
The Carousel Bar Needed a New Top. Here’s How We Built It. Some bars are just bars. The Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone, 214 Royal Street in New Orleans, is not one of them. It has been turning since 1949, and people come from all over the world to take a...
by 3 Spark Design | Oct 7, 2026 | 3 Spark Design Blog, blog, Edges
How to Spec a Custom Bar Edge Profile The edge is the part of a bar that guests touch, lean on, and look at most. It decides whether the bar reads heavy or light across the room and how it feels under a forearm on the third round. Plenty of bars end up with whatever...
by 3 Spark Design | Oct 7, 2026 | 3 Spark Design Blog, blog
Living Metals: How Zinc, Brass, and Copper Age Stainless steel looks the same on its tenth birthday as it did on day one. That also means it keeps no record of anything that happened on it. Zinc, brass, and copper do. We call them living metals because they keep...
by 3 Spark Design | Oct 7, 2026 | 3 Spark Design Blog, blog
Why We Don’t Build on Wooden Cores Every metal bar top has two parts: the metal you see and the core you don’t. Designers spend weeks choosing the first. Most of the trouble comes from the second. Lonnie Coulter, who founded 3 Spark Design in Hickory,...
by Santi | Dec 28, 2022 | blog, Market Challenge
10- Maintenance for your zinc tops? The commitment after the sale. The industry faces a significant challenge in demonstrating to customers that they can handle product maintenance on their own. Additionally, it is crucial to show customers that manufacturers provide...
