FloorTalk – for all the latest flooring fashions

Annette Callari, Allied ASID; CMG

Shaw Industries has done amazing things with their Anso® Nylon brand, positioning it as a premier brand in the marketplace. If you are familiar with Anso®, you may already know some of these important facts:

Assurance: Unbeatable Warranty Coverage

• Warranted for over 40 years and over a billion of yards of Anso® nylon on floors throughout North America.
• Anso® nylon was the first and holds the distinction of the longest continuous fiber brand over 40 years.
• All Anso® nylon styles are certified for performance with comprehensive warranties: transferable, labor included, non-prorated, stairs and hallways included.

CARPET TO CARPET™: Never Needs to go to the Landfill

• All Anso® nylon is designed to be recycled and is SCS certified with 25% post-consumer carpet content.
• Anso® nylon has also been Cradle-to-Cradle™ certified by MBDC.
• Shaw recycles more carpet than all others combined…over 100 million pounds in the past 12 months alone.

This roster of facts is pretty impressive on its own, but when you add to that the exceptional styling of their newest introductions, you really have some big news in floor coverings. Let’s take a closer look at Shaw’s couture Collection…

Designer’s Vision is well-named because it was conceived by Shaw’s talented design staff. This is a sculpted cut & loop product that is constructed of fine-denier yarns to give it a soft, luxurious feel. It’s indulgent and offers some amazing colors.

Classical Chic is one of my favorites. Designed as a large-format, tailored grid pattern, it has an English gentry look to it. It’s perfect for a home library, home theater, casual family room or den.

Tailored Luxury is the bold, striped companion to Classical Chic and they share a common color line so you can mix and match to your heart’s content.

Perfectly Suited has character, definition and strong appeal. A smaller scale, well-defined weave, it gives a tailored look to any room.

Unique Charm echoes the styling of Perfectly Suited, but with a bit larger, blocked repeat to the weave. It has a natural, earthy look to warm up interiors.

Calabria is the final style I’d like to highlight in this collection, and although it is not a brand new introduction, it continues to be one of the most unique in the market.  When so many styles are linear or geometric, along came Calabria with its fluid circles in a woven relief pattern.  It’s fun, energetic, yet still soft on the eyes and underfoot.  Definitely a long-term winner!

Without a doubt, couture is an inspired collection overall. Shaw takes the time to survey interior designers across the country to get their reactions and suggestions on experimental products. And when a super-mill like Shaw takes the time and effort to listen to working designers, the result becomes stunning, live-able carpet styles that are designed to please YOU!

For more information on flooring visit the World Floor Covering Association’s Consumer Carpet & Flooring Guide.

By Annette M. Callari, Allied ASID; CMG

Kane Carpet Mills has demonstrated a flair for international design and color when it comes to three new introductions they’ve launched.  Strongly colorful and a bit shocking, here are three choices that will make you take a second look.

Action Packed I is definitely not easy to describe, so I am posting a picture with this blog and daring you to put it into your own words–if you can.  Tell me what comes to mind at first sight and leave me a comment on this blog site (just click on “comment”) so we all can enjoy your interpretation.  One of the great color drivers of the next few years is going to be medical science and health influences.  Well what I see in this design is a stylized cellular structure (as if under a microscope), with bold sweeps of circular color.  It’s playful and energetic and would create a memorable area rug, bordered inset, or broadloom application.

The flip side to this display board is Action Packed II.  Prismatic, dynamic and geometric—just looking at this pattern makes you happy.  Kane has definitely taken an artist’s approach to these designs and each pattern is truly unique. 

The third pattern I chose to highlight is called Escape.  Zebra stripes with a large pattern repeat bring an exotic touch to this carpet.  While animal prints have been hugely popular for the last few years, Escape is a fresh take on the theme.  The colors are “out of the box”, so to speak, a favorite being black stripes on a purple background.  If you want to create a magnetic focal point for any room AND you happen to love purple, here’s your carpet. 

Each one of these stand-out styles features 100% Ultra-fine Heat-set Eurolon™, which is a solution-dyed polypropylene fiber.  That means the carpets are colorfast and easily cleanable.  Woven in 13’ widths, some rooms can be done with no seams at all.  High-contrast consumers—you’re going to love all three of these styles.  Kane Carpet has been manufacturing in the United States since 1947, and in a recent retailer survey, was voted “one of the top five U.S.A. carpet manufacturers for design”.  Now that’s something to be proud of.  For more information about their rug and broadloom collections, visit www.KaneCarpet.com.

For more information on flooring visit the World Floor Covering Association’s Consumer Carpet & Flooring Guide.