MILL AGAIN PROVIDES ALL FLOORING
by Matthew Spieler
Serenbe, Ga.—For the 5th consecutive year, Shaw Industries helped HGTV officials kick off the network’s Green Home Giveaway contest by hosting a VIP tour for local retailers of the LEED Gold-certified house situated in this 1,000-acre community located less than 30 minutes from Atlanta.
As the exclusive flooring sponsor, products from HGTV Home Flooring by Shaw were not only featured throughout the entire house, HGTV officials said they and the company played a “large” part in once again proving that having an environmentally friendly home doesn’t mean it has to be uncomfortable or unfashionable.
Jack Thomasson, HGTV’s house planner, told the group, “Shaw has been with us since the beginning and one of the highlights for us when putting the Green Home concept together is our trip to Dalton to see what Shaw has developed. We’re trying to show our millions of viewers new styles and how they can incorporate a healthy, green lifestyle into their designs and Shaw’s products fit perfectly into the home. The products are not only beautiful and fun to work with, they showcase how different types of flooring—from soft surface to hard—can be sustainable at the same time.”
Linda Woodrum, HGTV’s Green Home designer, added, once the home’s layout is finalized by the architects she and Thomasson begin the process of figuring out the interior design of the house and a visit to Shaw is the first step in the process. “Flooring is the first real design decision we make. It’s a very substantial part of the house and something that stays down for a long time. The floor covering carries everything else—the paint, colors, etc.—so it is a very important component. Shaw makes our life easy and exciting—it’s like Christmas morning the way they lay everything out in front of us.”
While a floor anchors the room’s design, she said it also has to stand up to everyday life, which is another reason they like partnering with Shaw. “The beauty of a floor enhances the home, but these products are pretty indestructible. We had crews coming in and out of this place doing film shoots and so forth and every piece of flooring still looks spectacular.”
Thomasson said this couldn’t be achieved without the relationships built between Shaw and HGTV, “and also the local builders and retailers who help in the effort.”
Kathy Young, Shaw’s director of marketing, agreed, saying the Green Home is “all about partnerships, and connecting businesses and homes. We’re all in business and work all day, but it is all about the home. That’s what we’re trying to do by showing our products in this wonderful setting—life is all around us and life is about home and family. It is amazing to see what Jack and his team do each year. It’s about great planning, great design and to see it all come together is something special.”
HGTV’s Home Flooring by Shaw is part of the overarching HGTV Home brand, a complete assortment of branded home products that also in-cludes items such as furniture, lighting and paint.
Heather Yamada, Shaw’s marketing manager, noted HGTV’s Green Home is “a great venue to show consumers how to work with the products and integrate them into their home designs. HGTV’s Home program is doing a phenomenal job doing that; it’s a great resource.”
Georgia cooking
The multi-level home was designed by Kemp Hall Studio and includes three bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms, a separate garage, plenty of windows and ways that connect the inside and outside of the house. A unique feature of the house is the newly-coined “Georgia Room,” which literally brings the outside in or the inside out depending on one’s perspective.
“We figured there is already a Florida Room and a Carolina Room,” Woodrum explained, “so why not a Georgia Room? It is one of the reasons why [the architects] said the house may be 2,300 square feet but it lives like 4,000 square feet.”
To help make this room a reality, the Green Home design team chose the Dream Weaver style from Shaw’s new In-door/Outdoor collection, which was launched at the company’s winter markets.
Other Shaw products in the home include carpet and rugs featuring Anso recyclable nylon, Cradle to Cradle certified Epic hardwood and eco-friendly floor and wall tiles.
While the home is certified to the gold standard under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Thommason said the house itself is was built to meet the program’s platinum designation, and the only reason it did not receive it is due to it being a newly-built structure as op-posed being built on an existing site.
In fact, like the four other HGTV Green Homes which have been built around the country—South Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts and Colorado—he said this one was built to EarthCraft standards. Developed in 1999 by the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association and Southface, EarthCraft is considered by many to be the Southeast’s standard for green building.
HGTV viewers and Shaw fans can enter for a chance to win the Green Home by registering at HGTV.com/greenhome, where a virtual tour of the house is available. The contest officially began April 12 and entries are being accepted through June 1. Two weeks into the process, Thomasson said entries are “through the roof. We’re up 55% over last year’s record number of entries.”
With approximately 100 million HGTV viewers he added, “we’re getting tens of millions of entries—it’s phenomenal because only one person wins, that’s it, there is no second or third place prize. (Editor’s note: There is a weekly drawing for a chance to win a Moen Envi eco-performance showerhead.) It shows us how much people really want to win this special house.”
The total prize package is valued at almost $800,000 and includes the fully furnished house, a 2012 GMC Terrain and $100,000 cash.
For more information on the HGTV Green Home or to vote, visit HGTV.com/greenhome. To learn more about Shaw’s green flooring product options, visit shawfloors.com.