Hot 2021 Flooring Trends for Fall and Winter

While crisp golden and crimson leaves cover the ground outdoors, 2021 fall and winter flooring trends make an impression indoors. Here are a few popular products coming to stores this season.

As always, hardwood flooring tops the list. At least, anything that looks like hardwood flooring, that is. Faux wood products are more practical than real wood, so the happy middle ground is engineered hardwood. With a variety of colors and dimensions, it is beautiful, durable, and offers a wide range of style options. The ones what are water-resistant, can be used in virtually any room, which is always attractive. Bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, hallways, and more are still a welcome arena for engineered wood in 2021.

As an accent piece, tile provides a splash of color in entryways, mudrooms, kitchens, and outdoor spaces, particularly in the south. In addition, ceramic tile designs of natural and untreated wood will be popular in 2021. The look of wood can evoke feelings of calmness found in nature. It goes to show that the wood look is popular, even if it is on tile.

Luxury vinyl tile (LVT) is not new, but it is continuing. Gaining popularity from year to year, it continues to rank high with DIY homeowners, with grey being the overriding color choice. The easy-to-install process of glue down, self-adhesive, or snap-together tiles and planks makes it an attractive option for do-it-yourselfers. It is created with a digital photograph of wood or stone, and the top layer is covered with a protective urethane coating. Best of all, LVT is soft to walk on, waterproof, beautiful, and easy to maintain.   

A specific type of luxury vinyl tile is the high-quality embossed-in-register (EIR). This is the top-of-the-line luxury vinyl tile. It creates the appearance and texture of natural wood and stone with three-dimensional wood grain surfaces. The words ’embossed in registration’ mean the texturing follows the patterns in the image. As the laminates are heated, a metal plate that contains a pattern pressed into the surface material creates convex and concave ridges in the laminate, giving it a deeper color and more natural look. The texture perfectly lines up with and matches the wood portrayed in the top image’s layer.

In a different arena, electrostatic dissipative flooring (ESD) removes static from people that build up over the day from clothes, floors, or carpeting. Used mainly in the electronics industry to keep workers safe, ESD can prevent shocks ranging in severity from mildly annoying to catastrophic. As part of a complex flooring system, ESD works in conjunction with footwear, garments, and grounding straps to minimize and control proper grounded discharge. Primarily used in commercial complexes, homeowners interested in protecting their devices may benefit from ESD as well.

Almost like shag and similar to Berber, frieze carpet has a fun texture. It is made with tight twists, which is cleaner and more durable than other carpets, and its slightly long, curly fibers hide seams, footprints, and messes. The informal appearance can be a welcome change from sleek, formal hard-surfaced floors. Although hard-surfaced floors are generally preferred for high traffic areas, there is still a place for carpet in casual rooms with high traffic, such as hallways, family rooms, and bedrooms. So, if you are looking for a not-so-fancy carpet option, frieze is a popular flooring alternative this year.

Flooring Communication

As a flooring retailer, it’s always important to stay aware of trends as they tend to change from season to season. It’s also important to make sure you’re communicating often with your suppliers to be informed of inventory, pricing and more. With VendorPriceBook.com, communication–including up-to-date pricebooks–is easier than ever. Check out our platform to learn more: VendorPriceBook.com.

How to Offer a Virtual Flooring Consultation

Offering convenience and flexibility is one of the best ways to cater to your clientele, especially when it comes to complex home projects. By providing virtual consultations, customers can meet with you and your dedicated flooring team from the comfort of their own homes. You can help them realize their decor design and style while offering advice regarding which products look best in their homes.

From the first steps of choosing new flooring to having it installed, customers appreciate guidance throughout the process.

Replacing floors can be daunting and overwhelming, but you can keep the process from being stressful. You can help your clients research and settle on a plan so they can get the floor they want.

Encourage your customers to look at every available flooring. This is the time when they can let their imaginations run wild while also taking stock of what they want their budget and design to look like. Once they have a good idea of how they want their flooring to look, you can start helping them figure out how to achieve their dreams.

Your virtual flooring consultation gives your clients the space to figure out their price range that fits perfectly with their needs.

Help Your Customers Upgrade Their Home

Offering virtual flooring consultations keeps home improvements safe and convenient. They can easily choose from your extensive assortment of flooring choices, including tile, hardwood, carpet, and more. If they are considered with sanitary issues with flooring, don’t forget to mention any of your antimicrobial options.

Once they have decided on a floor style they would like to visualize, the next step is to take a picture of the room they would like to improve and simply show it to you over the web meeting. They can even bring you to their room during the video call! The consultant will be able to make some quick recommendations or use the photo and later assist with using a visualization software to help the customer see all the possibilities unfold before their very eyes with a realistic conception of how their new floor might appear.

Would You Prefer to Stay Home? You Can Still Shop for New Floors

Changes in the world have inspired us to rethink how we should approach how we stay connected with clients while showcasing our products. Virtual flooring consultation allows retailers to do a virtual consultation via zoom or phone at any time convenient to customers.

You want to demonstrate that you work hard to keep your customers and their families as safe as possible. We all face the same challenges, but we work every day to adapt and improve, so it’s important to provide this option to consumers.

Plus, it makes it easier for customers to simply book an online or phone appointment so you can offer insights for their projects and offer solutions.

If you want to go one step further in enhancing customer service, you have to think about getting them the most up-to-date pricing and availability for what they want. VendorPriceBook makes this easy by providing flooring suppliers and retailers a cloud-based application for instant communication. No more flipping through pages, searching through emails – VendorPriceBook is here to help stop the chaos and streamline communication.