Get Inspired

Three Popular Home Designs

What’s your home style?

Is your home looking cluttered, outdated, and not cohesive anymore? You may need a new décor design to help bring your home back to life. In today’s blog, we will help you decipher what some popular styles are and how to achieve that look!

French Country: This style brings the rustic look of the country and mixes it with the refined romantic styles of France. Bringing in more natural materials such as wood and adding more delicate patterns in muted colors will create a relaxing and homey atmosphere.  A distressed wood/wood visual flooring will create a rustic look while having light walls and furniture. Mix in some flowers or flower patterns to bring a romantic look into your home while not going overboard. This style will benefit from a balance between the rustic country and the softness of the French style.

Traditional Interior: In the post-war 20th-century traditional interior became widespread among all classes of wealth. They were inspired by 18^th and 19^th century Europe, mainly focusing on England and France. This style is all about symmetry and functionality, with more neutral colors and less complex architecture creating a family-friendly focused home. To achieve this style, you will want your décor to be from the same styles and colors but not to the point that everything looks like a matching set. Try mixing in antiques (or antique-styled) décor with patterns in soft furnishing such as stripes, florals, and even plaids. Warm, rich wood tones suit this style best.

Cottagecore: When thinking of the cottagecore style, the first thing that comes to mind is plants, plants, and more plants. The aesthetic is more about bringing back the simpler styles of the old English countryside and bringing the outdoors back into your home with an abundance of flowers, plants, and a color pallet based on nature. The less tech in your home, the better, as cottagecore is all about romanticizing simpler life and self-efficiency. This style is constantly evolving and changing based on one’s creativity. Light or medium-colored flooring with natural colors on the wall will be an excellent base for your nature-style décor.

What comes to mind when you think about these design styles? Which one feels more in tune with what you want your home to look like?

Feel Great About You're Choice In Flooring!

There should be some factors other than cost and color when choosing your flooring. Feel good about your choice with companies that give back to the environment and your communities. This month we will spotlight Mannington's impressive conurbations.

Mannington has many initiatives to sustain its products by using a more natural option other than harmful chemicals such as pesticides. By using birds such as Purple Martins to eat massive amounts of insects. Mannington's New Jersey site has been housing honeybees since 2009, with five honeybee colonies thriving in this location. Their Florida facility soon followed this with a similar effect to help keep the bee population.

Mannington's conurbation to national charities such as United Way, Meals on Wheels, American Red Cross, and the Boys and Girls Club of America is nothing to bat an eyelash at. In 1988 Mannington's chairmen Johnny Campbell helped launch a non-profit Stand Up For Salem Inc. This organization focuses on inner-city revitalization by transforming the city of Salem's neighborhoods by fostering resident-based planning and volunteer-driven projects as an independent and versatile community development corporation.

To learn more about the organizations and environmental safety, click on the following links:

https://www.mannington.com/Residential/Blog/2019/07/Why-Choose-Mannington

https://www.standupforsalem.org/who-we-are

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=1635

New Stair Treads for Shaw and COREtec

These stair treads include an end cap to be cut to size for the left or right tread. Instead of buying a center, left, and right stair tread, you only need to buy one!

Environmental sustainability and Our Brands

With the world being focused on the serious issue of climate change and conserving the natural resources we have, big corporations need to do their part to ensure their products are environmentally friendly.

In August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was published, revealing the five main culprits contributing to global warming and the climate crisis. Fossil fuels, deforestation, increase in livestock farming, and fertilizers containing nitrogen. To find out more about IPCC, click here: https://www.ipcc.ch

Here are just some of the top flooring brand's views, policies, and programs to contribute to achieving environmental sustainability:

Mannington has been recognized for their environmental sustainability, in 2013 they received the Green Step Award for their practice and process in recycling. In the same year, Mannington was also awarded the NJ Governor's Environmental Excellence Award for their efforts to protect and enhance the state's environment. With these awards, they are also ISO 14001 and 9001 certified. To find more information on ISO here: https://www.iso.org/certification.html

"Green is not just a color at Lauzon; it is part of our value system." Since its founding in 1985, Lauzon has been committed to helping build a sustainable future. To achieve that goal, the company has used sustainable stewardship practices from recycling, reusing, and has implemented policies designed to protect the trees by only sourcing from sustainably managed forest. Lauzon is ISO1 4001 certified and contributes to LEED Projects. For more information about LEED Projects, click here: https://www.usgbc.org/projects

In 2007 Armstrong made a goal to reduce their energy, greenhouse gasses, and water usage by 10% before the start of 2015. These goals were achieved by ensuring that their manufacturing plants are in accordance with ISO 14001. They have also been extending this goal to their third-party manufacturing in China and Australia. Armstrong has reset their environment goals to further reduce their carbon foot by 25% by 2025.

To learn more about a specific brand's environmental attributes, we recommend visiting the particular brand's website.

Trends for 2022!

With only a few months left in 2021, this is the perfect time to look at upcoming trends for the new year. Throwing out bold primary palettes and ocean hues, 2022 shows a more muted color palette focusing more on accent colors or having a "pop of color" in the home. Décor trends show a softer look with more rounded shapes and less sharp designs.
So far, about three different color palettes are trending. Warm neutral tones with some pops of green or dark blue to bring in a bit of nature since the pandemic has kept everyone inside. On the other hand, another popular color palette trend is beige with white mixed throughout and interesting texture brought in to save your room from looking flat. The final color palette is "inverted contrasts," which means having light walls, furniture, and cabinets but having dark flooring, ceilings, and hardware.
Even with dark floors becoming part of the 2022 trends, the popularity of light wood flooring is staying with us when we come into 2022. As well as geometric and herringbone patterns are coming back for the new year. With having a neutral color palette, the geometric patterns will be the centerpiece of your home.
All these new flooring trends can be found here in our vast collections of hardwood, vinyl, and laminate flooring!

The Coast

Start with the walls, use light colors such as bright whites, sandy blondes, pebble greiges, and driftwood grays as a primary color. Then add a pop of blue to inspire a clear sky, turquoise to mimic water, and yellows to imitate the sun.

Flooring can significantly impact a space. Use a beautiful light luxury vinyl or laminate to serve as a beautiful sandy beach. If you want more color, use a patterned tile.

It is a must to use texture.  For cabinets, use weathered and whitewashed wood. Use upholstered cotton linen and burlap for curtains, pillows, and rugs.

This will give you a beach look you will never have to leave.