In December 2019, Brittany Stanley, senior director of sales operations, Builder and Multifamily, Mohawk, discussed some of the trends at the time in her role as senior design manager. She spoke about where she finds her design inspiration and gave a forecast for the upcoming year.
Floor Trends caught up with Stanley to see what has changed since then and get a sense of where she sees color trends currently and give her perspective on the shift of women's roles in the flooring industry.
FT: You said, “That movement towards fashion-oriented floors has opened a door for more creativity within the soft-surface category. While carpet used to have an eight-year trend lifecycle, Stanley said it’s closer to four or five years.” What do you think is contributing to this trend? Do you think consumers are taking more risks with design? Why?
Stanley: We are seeing consumers take a lot more risks now than pre-covid. Pre-covid, we saw an increase in pattern sales and higher-end fashion products. You are seeing that even more so now. Consumers have been stuck in their homes and are tired of the noise from hard surface, or they now have home offices that they want to make a statement in. That is where we see them taking design risks with more fashion-forward patterns and colors. You also have a lot of consumers that follow what influencers and designers are doing on social media. This gives them more ideas and the want for a change. It is great for us as designers because we are able to then take more risks in our designs and open up creatively with patterns or colors we may have strayed away from in the past.
FT: The flooring industry has historically been a male-dominated industry. What do you feel has contributed to the shift toward women in positions of power in the flooring industry?
Stanley: I think it takes a strong personality to work in a male-dominated industry. Being myself and being outspoken, I believe has helped. What you see is what you get, and I started in the industry that way and have remained a strong voice. You have to know when to push and when not to. Unfortunately, that can sometimes comes across as aggressive when it comes from a woman, whereas when it comes from a man, no one bats an eye. I have worked really hard to get to where I am now, and it didn’t come from being quiet. It came from speaking my mind and not being afraid of what others may think because I am a woman—a lot of hard work, late hours and proving that I was more than capable to do the job. I think the shift in the industry comes from executive members not being afraid to put women in positions they typically would have passed them over for. After all, women are who purchase our products, and we should have positions of power in decision making maybe more so than men, especially when it comes to color and design.
