Flooring America

            Another field trip my class and I went on was to Flooring America to see all the different styles and materials you could use on the floor. At the store, I learned all the new innovations and materials people are starting to put on the floor. The most interesting material was the cork and leather flooring. Although when we think of cork, automatically we think about bulletin boards, but this cork is different from the normal everyday cork we think of. Also, the leather is not the same leather we find on a couch. This leather they use on the floor is a lot more durable and tough which makes it a better application for the floor. The owner of the store told us that they usually see leather floor located in a man cave, office, or a hunting room in order to keep the same “animal” theme going.

     

`      What really interested me was all the different styles, textures, and patterns carpet could contain. There were carpets of all different colors that I would never imagine. We were able to feel each different type of carpet in order to compare each one and understand exactly where each type of carpet would be placed in a house or commercial setting. I see most of the carpets with designs and colors in a commercial setting because it would be overkill in a residential setting and you would have to base most of your design off of the carpet.

     

      The tile we were able to view was also very innovative and coming out with new designs, styles and colors. There were tiles in all shapes and sizes and colors that were mixed in order to give consumers a new way to apply tile to certain areas. There were different mosaics and types of tile that were combined to make new designs and give the area where the tile will be applied a new and different look that the normal everyday tile people are used to. My favorite tile were the rectangles placed on the showroom floor that were a copper/brown and had a green/blue overlay shine to them. It was not the normal color tiles I would put on a floor, but I really did see where people could really spice up their house with a lot of these new tiles. There was also flooring that was made to look like slate, marble and nice tiles like that were not the real thing, but sometimes looked better than the real thing. It is amazing how so many new applications are coming available to the world.