Wood flooring is often the number one choice of consumers when it comes to their flooring of choice. However, if you have pets, it’s harder to have that new wood look for fear toenails and occasional accidents will damage the wood boards. If you’re starting a remodel or thinking about buying new flooring, check out a few options we sniffed out.
1. If you already have wood floors, pamper the floors and your furry friend by laying down rugs of organic fibers—like sea grass, coir, and sisal—that will shake off abrasive dirt and look natural on hardwood.
2. Stainmaster carpeting is always a great option for pet owners. Stainmaster is specially formulated to resist stains from absorbing into the carpet fibers. Area rugs can also be made from this pet friendly carpet, and Coles can have it ready for you in days.
3. Another great pet-friendly option is vinyl flooring. Vinyl resists moisture and can be taken up easily if you do ever need to replace it.
4. Laminate is also a good choice for the pet conscious customer because it is a durable scratch and stain resistant surface.
5. If you really desire real wood floors, there is still hope! Bamboo is an eco-friendly and stain resistant alternative. Wood can also be sealed to slow down the absorption of liquids and add some strength to its delicate surface.
Window treatments often turn into a design challenge or major investment, but if you neglect your windows in favor of a different design focus, you’ll be left with a bare view. Whether you find yourself needing to freshen up your current window treatments, or are starting from scratch, here are this year’s top 10 trends to help you turn any window into your new favorite focal point.
10. Organic Materials
Bring nature indoors by using organic materials to decorate. Exposed wood grain in blinds and natural woven shades are joining the ranks of bamboo as popular choices. Wood is making a huge comeback in decorative hardware, while bamboo, birch and maple are the materials of choice for the newest finials and pulls.
9. Color
One of the quickest ways to update a window is with colorful treatments. Blue is becoming the new “red” in the window treatment industry, with a variety of ocean hues in teal, aquamarine and soft green. Soft lavender and gray, dusty hues round out the soothing part of this palette. Persimmon, orange and gold will be popular jewel tones, while brown continues to dominate. Brown has been, and continues to be, the new basic color.
8. Luxe Fabrics
Luxe fabrics are exactly as they sound — opulent and showy with bold colors and textures that beg to be touched. Luxury fabrics key in this category are silks, velvets, damasks, fur, leather and suede. While the overall design trend leans toward simplicity, this trend will remain popular with those who desire embellishment and luxury.
7. Bamboo
Zen-chic bamboo in Roman shades and decorative hardware will continue to be a popular trend. Bamboo is popular for its sustainable, environmentally-friendly quality.
6. Velvet and Grosgrain
Like luxe fabrics, velvet and grosgrain are a luxury trend taking cues from the fashion industry. Grosgrain, a strong, closely woven ribbed fabric usually made of silk or rayon, is used as a ribbon detailing on blinds and drapes. Velvet banding can also be used as detailing, or as ladder tape to cover up route holes for string in blinds.
5. Sleek Lines
Simple, sleek lines are dominating window fashions in everything from flowing drapes to chrome decorative hardware. Creating sleek silhouettes against a window instantly lends a clean, modern look to any window and room. A quick way to get truly streamlined treatments is with popular panel-track systems.
4. Bold Prints
Bolder and bigger prints with texture are top choices for window treatment fabric. Bright floral designs that attract traditional tastes and graphic geometric patterns that offer youthful spunk are some of the bold prints being seen on windows lately.
3. Silk Panels
Silk has exploded onto the scene and is still going strong. Silk is a pricier option for window treatments, but the shine and luxury of the fabric instantly wakes up a dull room.
2. Luxury Tech
As society increases its obsession with ‘gotta-have-it-gadgets’, people counterbalance with organic and natural products in their homes, and window treatments are no exception. Window blinds can now be controlled via remote, a light switch or even the Internet. But just because your windows have gone high-tech, it doesn’t mean they have to be stark and uninviting. Layering fabrics with high-thread-count cottons is one trend sure to cozy up a window.
1. Green Design
Green design is becoming a popular trend from consumers looking to combat allergies to those looking for heat- or cold-repellant window panels. Honeycomb shades, the third most popular window treatment Shades and blinds have always been about keeping light out, but now they can also save you money on your heating bills. Honeycomb shades are a great example of where tech meets nature. Performance fabrics have also gone “green,” with anti-microbial, anti-fungal traits woven into the yarn or offered as a topical spray. Stain-resistant and mildew- and mold-resistant fabrics are also popular picks for allergy sufferers. Even the environmentally conscious will feel right at home with non-toxic dyes on fabrics.
Coles now carries Teragren flooring- a bamboo manufacturer known for its strict adherence to environmental standards & guidelines.
A powerful force in the development of eco-friendly building products, Teragren offers products with the highest quality of environmental & health standards, including LEED® certification, FloorScore® certification, and responsible harvesting & manufacturing processes.
We are proud to offer homeowners such an environmentally conscious, high-quality brand for their flooring needs. To learn more about bamboo flooring, click here.
Everyone’s joining the green movement, whether it’s purchasing a hybrid vehicle, reducing our water and energy use, or simply recycling, we should all be doing our part. When starting your next home design project, consider environmentally friendly alternatives to reduce your affect on the environment. Recycled materials typically cost less, and add the same charming decor to warm the spirits of your house.
Bamboo hard wood floors
When it comes to hardwood flooring, bamboo has become a popular option. A renewable resource that grows at exponential levels and has minimal affect on the environment. It’s a very popular hardwood flooring option because it can be stained or painted any color. You can make it look like traditional hardwood floors, or use the bamboo to highlight a unique appearance. Bamboo adds an innovative style to the possibilities of hardwood flooring.
Bamboo furniture or Wall Covers
Bamboo also makes for an affordable furniture material, perfect for kitchen tables, chairs, and bar stools. In addition, it can be used as a wall covering to compliment your furniture. Since it grows so prolifically, it’s cheap to use, and has the great qualities of hard wood. Bamboo is functionally strong, so you know your investment will be around for a long time to come.
Recycled Wall Paper
This is a hot trend in interior design, although you might want to avoid recycling the bright 70s yellow Brady Bunch wallpapers you remember from your childhood. Many companies take existing pieces of wallpaper and recycle them to make fresh new designs. Scraps of existing paper or broken paper are then added to make material that’s completely new. This saves wallpaper from ending up in a landfill and polluting the environment further.
Make Use of Distressed Wood
Distressed wood can come from broken furniture, torn down houses and even old sail boats. It’s much cheaper than new wood, but can still be reused to make quality products. The pieces are left as is, but can be sanded and stained to look new. It’s great for making wooden tables, pieces of decoration, or even a cheaper option for installing hardwood flooring.
Windshield Carpet Backing
Although you wouldn’t expect that you could make carpet from used windshields, they make excellent carpet backing. Tandus recently released Ethos, a modular carpet backing that uses waste from the manufacturers of windshields and safety glass to create a thermoplastic polymer. The non-chlorinated thermoplastic can be recycled repeatedly to divert it from landfills forever. How’s that for carpet excitement?
Redesign old drawers into furniture
Take a chest of drawers and build them into a new frame to create a charming but eco friendly new piece of furniture. This approach is retro and modern at the same time. Professional touches can range in the thousands of dollars, but find an innovative carpenter and you can probably work out a deal.
Wine Glass Furniture and Other Decorations
Some recycling companies refuse to recycle the green glass from which wine bottles are made of, leaving you with a nice collection if you save them from the landfill. These wine bottles can be cut and sanded into charming drinking glasses, lampshades, and candlestick holders. For a simpler approach, plant your wine bottles in the ground spout side down to create charming flower garden borders.
Coles Fine Flooring is now an authorized dealer for EcoTimber, a company devoted to providing only environmentally friendly options to homeowners concerned about environmental issues. EcoTimber’s product line includes standard domestic wood such as Maple and Hickory, as well as hand-scraped and exotic wood such as Brazilian Cherry
Mohawk flooring is certainly good. It is durable, quality, and comes in a good range of styles. But Mohawk is only one company of many in the flooring market today. With the internet as a resource, why settle on the first company you find? Find out what exists beyond Mohawk flooring. Enter the world of alternative flooring.
It should hardly come as a surprise to hear that there are floors available beyond wood and stone. From sustainable new-material surfaces to bamboo, cork, reclaimed wood & porcelain tile flooring, the new styles offer all the durability and strength you could want while being environmentally responsible and wallet friendly. Cork flooring has recently become popular due to its unique look and sustainable manufacturing. Cork is an extremely durable material, made from the bark of the cork oak tree. A single cork tree is resilient and easily able to provide many floors from its bark.
Another recent innovation in alternative flooring is porcelain tiles. Although the word “porcelain” might make you think of fragile porcelain in plates and cups, these tiles are as durable as slate. They are fired at a high temperature, making them much stronger than ordinary ceramic tiles and as hard as granite. Many styles of porcelain tile flooring look almost identical to natural stone, but they provide much more versatility: some types are ADA slip-resistant, making them an excellent choice for a pool or other area where water can make traction difficult.
Porcelain tile is very easy to clean. It absorbs almost no water, making cleanup of spills easy and stains almost unheard of. The color of a porcelain tile is also more thoroughly distributed than in natural stone, giving the porcelain a finish and depth that even the best quality natural materials just can’t match. Porcelain tile is also an investment in your home: if you ever decide to sell, the value of your porcelain tile’s striking appearance is likely to be double or triple the price you paid to install it.
Wood flooring is often the number one choice of consumers when it comes to their flooring of choice. However, if you have pets, it’s harder to have that new wood look for fear toenails and occasional accidents will damage the wood boards. If you’re starting a remodel or thinking about buying new flooring, check out a few options we sniffed out.
Coles now carries Teragren flooring- a bamboo manufacturer known for its strict adherence to environmental standards & guidelines.
Everyone’s joining the green movement, whether it’s purchasing a hybrid vehicle, reducing our water and energy use, or simply recycling, we should all be doing our part. When starting your next home design project, consider environmentally friendly alternatives to reduce your affect on the environment. Recycled materials typically cost less, and add the same charming decor to warm the spirits of your house.