"We created the Styling Excellence Awards as a way of reinforcing the fashion and styling aspects of our industry," explained NFT publisher and editorial director Jeff Golden. "Creativity is an essential element of flooring and we are fortunate to have so many creative people working in this business. We felt it was time to recognize their efforts."
Entries were showcased at Surfaces 2005 and attendees were asked to vote for those they saw as the most compelling and original. Aside from rug and carpet categories, the competition included six categories for hard surface flooring, plus one for moulding and a competition for the best merchandising effort. The competition drew more than 125 entries from 65 companies.
Those entering the competition noted that many areas of flooring, particularly hard surface, are not often recognized for their aesthetic appeal. "In our category the aesthetic value has been secondary to function," said Jeff Krejsa, director of marketing services for Johnsonite, which took First and Second place in the Rubber Floor category and First Place in the Cove Base, Moulding/Feature Strip category, "We have challenged ourselves to address both function and aesthetics. We appreciate the recognition."
And the Winners are...
The following are the
categories included in the competition with the winning entry (in orange) and
the first runner up
Area Rugs
Mohawk Industries
Main Attraction
Shaw Living
Kathy Ireland Collection
Carpet, Residential
Mohawk Industries
SmartStrand
Beaulieu of America
Carefree Living
Cove Base, Moulding/Feature Strip
Johnsonite Perceptions
Designer Wall Base
Roppe Corporation
Visuelle Wall Base
Carpet, Commercial
Atlas Carpet Mills, Inc.
Sketchbook Collection
Masland Contract
Chicago Collection
Ceramic
Mohawk Industries
Terrabella
Mannington
Garda porcelain tile
Laminate Floors
Quick-Step
Vintage Dark Oak
Wilsonart Flooring
Red Label Hand
Scraped Collection
Luxury Vinyl Tile
Mannington Mills
Adura Luxury Plank
NAFCO by Tarkett
PermaStone Modular
Resilient Floors
Mannington Mills
Realistique Ardesia
Tarkett
FiberFloor
Rubber Floors
Johnsonite
Artistic Square, Cubis, Pebble
Johnsonite Bamboo, Chopped Bamboo
Wood
Mohawk Industries Mayan/Puebla Walnut
Anderson Hardwood Floors Anderson Sierra
Merchandising
Mohawk Industries
New Generation
Shaw Industries
Couture 2-Sided Merchandising Unit