Hardwood Floors June/July 2018

Beautiful to the Finish (Continued)

and Venusians, designers don’t want to collaborate with someone who’s an outsider who’s trying to be a designer. At the top of my sources in field research is a lighting and accessory company based in Atlanta, Georgia, but well-known worldwide. Currey and Company’s Cecil Adams and Brownlee Currey graciously offered to give me a design inspiration tour of their High Point showroom outlining their latest trends. Their creative teams travel the world, working in villages and soaking up the native flavor and culture, searching for unique and native art or hand-crafted pieces that they integrate into their collections of chandeliers, pendants, wall sconces, and more. Three years ago, they were among the first to do black finishes in the “Dark Beauty” looks and, five years ago, utilized the mercury glass and champagne silvery gold effects for the bridge from brushed nickel or chrome to the warmer metallics we see so prevalently today. What’s next according to Cecil Adams, Currey and Company’s Creative Director? You’ve already heard me make references to this look in past trend narratives, and it is Finish Trend #1, “Gesso,” plastery whites, which is also referred to as chalky whites. Look for this in spring 2018 introductions. “Gesso is having a moment, and one of the characteristics I love about this technique is that it adds a handmade quality to anything you cover with it. Typically used as a layer between a substrate and another finish, when you encounter it now it begs the question – am I seeing something that was underneath another layer that has been peeled away, or I am seeing something in a stage of being built up into something else? Gesso is in the middle, so to speak,” said Adams. In researching finish trends, it’s essential to get to the heart of what designers and specifiers are using in commercial interiors. Commercial design tends to lead the residential world and is a wonderful Petri dish for seeing exactly what works and what doesn’t. Examining various categories like wood, porcelain tiles, natural stones, and glass mosaics, it’s abundantly clear that

The second list, the “B-list,” is comprised

of finishes that are very trendy and utilize many

variations, looks that might also become time-stamped, and are found in the big middle of the market, an area referred to as the “high-end-of-the- middle” or “low-end- of the high.”

The B-list is comprised of finishes that are very trendy and utilize many variations.

The B-list level could be compared to the car brands that try out every kind of color, finish, and effect. There is a third list, but it’s a list of finishes that would be so long and ever-changing as it represents the less expensive, highly competitive, middle segment of the market. This is the “big middle” and offers these major players a wide berth of looks and finishes at more competitive price points. This second tier includes some very interesting looks and finishes. The names themselves are fun to say, all playing to the sales associate’s need to have a nickname that they can easily explain. This grouping includes metallics, reactives, reactive-looks, and fumed, as well as air-brushed effects with dramatic highs and lows. This list applies to mid-level hardwood floors; they are typically rotary peeled hardwoods and take advantage of special effects to down-play the busier rotary-peeled cathedral wood grain. When the cut of the wood determines the yield, and rotary yields more and wastes less of the hardwood, there is understandably quite a large segment of manufacturers that employ the various techniques so that their products can hit a price point. Actual reactive finishes, although very cool, are challenging due to their reactive state

today, it’s all about texture, dimension, and a handcrafted wood visual. As part of my research, I worked with Nancy Jackson, the president of Architectural Systems Inc. (ASI) in New York City. ASI deals with the NYCArchitect and Design community, those who are driving some major trends. Jackson said their teamworks with all surfaces ranging from textured and dimensional wood panels that are handcrafted, embossed, and/or reclaimed, to dramatic finishes that reflect luxe leather and skins, metal and glass mosaics to flooring products that include LVT, hardwoods, porcelain, and natural stone. Changes over the

never stopping. Therefore, many of the reactive looks are designed to look like the actual reactives without the continually changing nature of actual reactive finishes. In studying the trends, it’s essential to continually work with those who are closest to the cutting edge, i.e., designers and specifiers, or retailers and specialty shops that cater to the design trade. It matters to speak the same language and share a common goal when working with those in the design world, much like Martians

Many reactive looks are designed to look like actual reactives without the changing nature of actual reactive finishes.

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