After more than 90 years as the world’s leading luxury carpet brand, Karastan is expanding into a total luxury flooring brand with the 2020 launch of its first-ever hard surface lines. Karastan BelleLuxe, timeless hardwood flooring, and Karastan LuxeCraft, the next generation of luxury vinyl flooring, offer inspired designs, flawless craftsmanship and long-lasting materials that are “better than nature intended.”

“As the new decade dawns, we’re writing a new chapter in the story of Karastan,” said Seth Arnold, Mohawk’s vice president of residential marketing. “Since the emerging flooring consumer places a heavy emphasis on brand and has a strong preference for hard surface, we knew now was the time to expand Karastan. We challenged our craftsmen and finders to search the globe for the best materials and designs to provide differentiated products for our retail partners. Together with our soft surface assortment, the Karastan hard surface launch will allow even more customers to live beautifully.”

Karastan BelleLuxe 

Karastan BelleLuxe is livable, luxurious engineered hardwood flooring featuring wider planks and clean designs inspired by the simplicity of nature. Karastan craftsmen follow a 100-step process to preserve the story of every tree used in the production of BelleLuxe. From scouring the globe to find the perfect forest to diamond cutting and precision brushing to staining each plank, they create true works of art.

Hardwood used in BelleLuxe is curated from aged woods across the world to create dense, strong and beautiful floors. This flooring will last for generations with a thick wear layer that can be refinished up to three times and includes an application of KaraFinish, an innovative, low gloss finish that emulates the elegant beauty of a traditional oil finished floor. Warranties include Lifetime Limited Finish, Lifetime Limited Surface, Lifetime Limited Moisture and Five-Year Light Commercial. BelleLuxe has four distinctive collections offering livable luxury:

Chevreaux and Ashmore Oak: These two collections feature the finest French oak, inspired by the tradition of French winemakers and sourced from the Forest of Tronçais. Medullary rays and tight grain patterns make the oak equally ideal for storing wine and crafting hardy floors. After spending months handpicking the perfect trees, Karastan craftsmen expertly hone them into a refined, luxurious hardwood steeped in old-world charm.

Worthington Oak and Worthington Herringbone: Like handcrafted papermakers of old, Karastan’s craftsmen scour European forests for oak trees where consistent springtime temperature’s produce smaller rings and cleaner grain patterns. Craftsmen then transform the raw into the refined, meticulously handpicking the best logs and giving them new life in the form of luxury flooring.

Villa Pointe Maple: Some of the world’s finest stringed instruments feature European maple, which creates a unique resonance due to its compact grain pattern. This same trait also makes it ideal for luxury flooring. Karastan’s craftsmen source similar old-growth European maple and expertly preserve its character to create flooring designed to last for generations.

Karastan LuxeCraft

Karastan LuxeCraft features a wood décor that elevates hardwood creations with the durability and easy living of rigid luxury vinyl. Styles are inspired by beautiful original wood creations discovered in nature. Karastan craftsmen layer colors and fine details to perfectly resemble nature’s imperfections and create unique looks.

LuxeCraft gives new life to original wood looks by capturing them in a multilayer construction that resists water, scratches and dents. It is easily installed with Uniclic Multifit and comes with Lifetime residential and 10-Year commercial warranties.LuxeCraft brings livable luxury, high style and high performance to every area of the home with three collections:

Refined Forest: Design inspiration for Refined Forest comes from weathered fences that have stood defiant through hundreds of changing seasons; softwood cypress that exudes elegance from every ring and cathedral; and hickory marked by brilliant mineral streaking and grain patterning. 

Treasured Grove: Karastan’s craftsmen dove through the Great Lakes to discover logs that have slumbered for centuries in the mineral-rich waters. Other treasures within this collection include fallen old-growth trees remarkably shielded from the elements and vintage barn beams weathered to perfection by years of rain, wind and sunshine. 

Curated Grain: Craftsmen meticulously capture beautiful finds and recreate them, such as hardwood salvaged from a historic Alabama home; old-growth white oak with an open grain that harkens back to a bygone era; and barnwood with a century’s worth of hard work, sweat and tears imprinted in the grains. 

“Our retailers recognize the saturation and competition in the LVT category and believe that it’s important for Karastan to play in this market,” explained Jason Randolph, Karastan’s senior vice president of sales. “It’s important for us as the largest flooring provider in the world with one of the most prestigious brands in the country, and it’s also important for our retail partners to have an opportunity to enhance margins and reduce competition. The visuals for both our LVT and hardwood collections aren’t just the same old looks – they truly live up to the Karastan brand promise.”

To support its retail partners as they dive into these new categories for Karastan, showroom updates will include two merchandising units, one for BelleLuxe and one for LuxeCraft. Each unit is an interactive experience that tells the story of Karastan’s hardwood inspirations and takes consumers on a journey from the field to the workshop to their home. Additionally, dedicated web pages for each line will be added to Karastan.com, where consumers can watch videos and find a local Karastan retailer.