Surface Blog

Hagop’s Artwork graces West Hollywood Design Center

• Posted by
• ChadCassin

We are currently featuring the mixed media artwork of Hagop Belian in our West Hollywood design center. Hagop was born and raised in Syria. He was in his teenage years when he moved to the United States. While at the University of California Santa Cruz, he found a love for creativity. He started experimenting with different mediums such as painting, photography and mixed media. Hagop says, “the inspiration for my artwork is rooted in the realm of what is felt rather than what is seen and is an exploration of emotions based on reminiscences of the past. It represents rebirth, transformation, truth and change.”

Dan O’Neill from our West Hollywood office is really excited about having Hagop’s work! Dan comments, “Hagop uses reclaimed and repurposed materials from everyday life and with mixed media has created a nice colorful spot in our foyer. His art is of a similar natural reclaimed spirit. He also includes lots of traditional good luck symbols that welcome new clients into our space, and act as a positive omen for our young location.”

Also, check out Hagop’s other work at his website

Check out the photos of Hagop’s work in our foyer.
Come and see if for yourself at 405 North Robertson Blvd. in West Hollywood

Posted on Aug 27, 2008 AT 08:30 PM in (2) Comments

True Hardwood Story: Green Frontier Festival in Denver, Colorado

• Posted by
• Megan Sprague

A few folks from our Denver office presented our wide plank wood floors at the Green Frontier Festival this past Sunday!

Here’s the report from Kevin, regional sales manager for Carlisle’s Denver office:

“This festival was a very pleasant surprise.  While my hopes were high for a decent showing I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  The fact it was occurring while the Democratic National Convention is here in Denver made me more excited at the possible opportunities.  Booths varied from acupuncturists to “zero-net energy” neighborhoods (these neighborhoods actually produce their own energy).  While organic food booths, environmentally friendly bag and clothing companies were around there were also more industrial based companies exhibiting that were focused on solar and wind power.

We purchased the last available space at the show and obviously had no ability to select its location.  As luck would have it we were in the busiest thoroughfare in and out of the festival.

Chris Acosta and Mike Schuster were very helpful splitting the day with me at the booth.  Booth received about the same number of leads and talked about Carlisle and our Green approach to flooring very well”

Posted on Aug 26, 2008 AT 03:44 AM in Green Building • News & Events • (2) Comments

Carlisle Wide Plank Floors Teams up with Warmboard and Build It Green for an education Green Seminar

• Posted by
• Megan Sprague

It was an exciting event and drew sixty people to the seminar held in Palo Alto. The 30-minute presentation format allowed for each company’s educational snippet and a thorough question and answer session—where the audience was very enthusiastic and involved.

The speakers were: Amy Dryden from Build It Green (a LEED-like organization), Terry Alsberg of Warmboard, Paul Izenstark also of Warmboard (on the subject of solar heat) and Dan O’Neill from Carlisle Wide Plank Floors.

John Noble, also a member of the Warmboard group, gave me these details, “We diligently held to the speaker’s 30 minute allotment, as it became clear we’d blow past the time we had committed.  We had two speakers go, then took a short bio break, and got right back to work.  We decorated the walls with some plan sets that Jennifer (Build It Green) printed- a nice array of projects and I observed many people checking them out before the start and during the break. The room was extremely attentive and packed. Excellent questions were asked, the audience was clearly engaged in the material.”

“This was a very strong event. Because I spoke last, I had time to mingle and gauge the interest levels and subjects that people were in attendance to learn about. The group was very diverse with professionals, and different levels of knowledge on the various subjects. One of the most positive things was the amount of questions and interaction throughout,” shares Dan O’Neill Regional Manager of Carlisle’s West Hollywood location

Posted on Aug 20, 2008 AT 09:36 PM in Green Building • (0) Comments

Wide Plank Floors Rise With The Tide: An Interview with Maine Home+Design’s Joshua Bodwell

• Posted by
• GuestBlogger

By Albert Waitt

Joshua Bodwell is a Maine writer and the Associate Editor of Maine HOME+DESIGN, a magazine dedicated to “capturing the interiors, exteriors, and heart of Maine homes.”  From Revolutionary War-era farmhouses to rehabbed industrial lofts in downtown Portland, Josh Bodwell has seen and written about them all.  The Surface caught up with the ever-busy Bodwell to get his thoughts on wide plank flooring.

You’ve seen a lot of great homes in your position as associate editor at Maine HOME + DESIGN, have you noticed the increased use of wide plank flooring?

Wood flooring is almost ubiquitous in great Maine homes. In a state that is so valued for its forests and connection to the outdoors, it is not surprising. Many Maine designers—whether they are architects or interior designers—use wood flooring to re-knit a home to the land beyond its walls.

Why do you think wide plank flooring is becoming so popular?

I think the rise in wide plank flooring’s popularity can be attributed to several factors.

First, I would note the obvious: it looks great. From a design standpoint, the long, continuous lines achievable with wide planks can be used as a room’s key design element.

Next, I would have to speculate that the power of nostalgia plays a big part when homeowners in Maine—whether they are year-round residents or second home owners—select this type of flooring for their project. This theory is based upon the dozens of conversations Maine HOME+DESIGN staff has had with countless people in the home building and design field. We hear time and again that there is just something so warm and memorable about wide plank flooring—I personally always relate it to the wide pine floors in my grandparent’s 150-year-old house.

Lastly, in a time when “sustainability” is on the tips of many tongues, using pine flooring that comes from forests that are being forested with sustainable practices is very appealing to consumers. Utilizing reclaimed wood for flooring is even better—this is not recycling, but upcycling, by which I mean, taking something that is already made and giving it a new, more valuable and sustainable life.

Statistics show that demand for antique flooring has doubled over the last ten years. Are you seeing more homes with reclaimed wood, antique floors, as well as more recycled or salvaged materials in general?

Yes, we see homes all the time with reclaimed wood, antique floors. In fact, two weeks ago I was visiting with the wildly talented furniture maker Eric Ritter of Ritter Furniture and we spent a long time talking about the reclaimed wood floors that he had laid in his 175-year-old colonial farmhouse.

Recycled and salvaged materials are constantly popping up in Maine homes. I think the state has a long history of this sort of smart frugality. These days, there are reasons beyond frugality to use such materials. Again, as I stated previously, consumers are becoming more savvy about where the components of their home come from, how they are manufactured, and how they impact the earth. Antique flooring scores high with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, or LEED, and many people give serious credence to their advice.

What kind of aesthetic do you find wide plank flooring giving homes on the coast? In the interior of the state?

As I said earlier, wide plank flooring seems to be a perfect fit for the Maine design vernacular—in the interior of the state, it offers echoes of old barns and farmhouses; along the coast, it epitomizes our ideals of the perfect beachside cottage.

The aesthetics possible with wood flooring are, as I also said earlier, limitless. A few examples of homes we’ve featured in Maine HOME+DESIGN come to mind:

Back in May, 2007 we featured a home in a piece entitled “Island Elegance.” In that home (which included Douglas fir walls and ceilings) the antique southern yellow pine floors gave the small island home an added level of sophistication.

In June of that same year we featured an early 1880s farmhouse in South Freeport where the homeowner (who is also an interior designer) picked old wide-pine-board floors and gave the space an almost French countryside aesthetic.

Lastly, a Goose Rocks Beach home featured in our new issue, “Land of Leisure” (August, 2008), has gorgeous wide pine floors throughout. While some could argue that pine isn’t “strong” enough to withstand the wear and tear of sand-covered feet, the homeowner and architect felt strongly that the natural aging of the wide pine would add beautifully to the beach cottage-meets-farmhouse aesthetic that they were aiming for.

Posted on Aug 13, 2008 AT 03:05 AM in Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • (12) Comments

Interior Design and Hardwood Flooring:  Spotlight on designer Krista Stokes - Part II

• Posted by
• GuestBlogger

By Albert Waitt

Krista Stokes is one of Maine’s hippest designers and the proprietor of Favela Chic Salvage Boutique and Design.  She was of 14 professionals chosen to work at the exclusive Hidden Pond Resort in Kennebunkport, ME, where she created the “Lazy Days” cottage.  Her work there was pictured in the Boston Globe and chronicled throughout New England.

The Floor

No Knock on Wood

Krista:  Go for the hardwood, wide plank floor because of “the feel” of it.  And the way it sounds.  The feeling of wood is what I go for-everything else is secondary.  You can do anything you want with it.  It’s a really versatile tool.  You’re not pigeon-holed into anything.

Taking Wide Planks One Step Beyond

Krista:  I love going into a place that has a floor laid in an unexpected way.  It gives people a chance to make the statement:  “You know, I actually thought about my floor.”  Anytime you can say that in your home in a nice and easy way, it’s great design.

For example, you can always take what one would expect a hardwood floor to be and change it.  This ranch I’m doing now is really long.  It already goes on forever.  So instead of doing the floors lengthwise, we said let’s cut the room in half and lay the planks short-wise.  You enter through the French doors and on the other side of the room is York Harbor.  The floor takes the distance of your eye and shortens it.  Now you walk in the door and the wood takes your eye outside to the harbor because the floor is pointing you that way.

If I were a Carpenter:

Krista:  Carpenters can lay your planks at an angle, do an original design, a compass rose, or parquet your floor.  You can do anything you want.  The sky’s the limit if you can find somebody who likes to work with wood for wood’s sake or craft’s sake.

The Décor

Come Together:

Krista:  Hardwood flooring is the most versatile thing in your house.  It will do whatever you want it to.  It’s all about the décor.

You can take the same heart pine wide plank floor and:

Put a chrome table, with chrome and black leather seats, on that floor.  Paint the wall bright red and hang motorcycle parts on it.  Place a juke box in the corner.  If you like that sort of thing, you’ll be thinking, “Sweet.”  You’ve got a floor that is perfect for the room.

Then take all that away, and hang ship wheels on the wall.  Place an old farmer’s table in the center of the room, and put up a fireplace mantle with a boat on it.  And wow, the floor’s perfect for that room.

Clear those pieces out and bring in some Angela Adams elements like an area rug or print, an espresso nut dark wood table with white leather chairs, and a bowl of fruit and a side board.  Now you’re contemporary and funky, yet traditional.  And the floor is still perfect. 

As long as you are following other rules that balance out your design and balance out the objective of what you want the room to feel like, you’re going to be successful with a wide plank floor.  Everything adds up to create the atmosphere you want.

Posted on Aug 12, 2008 AT 03:35 AM in Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • (0) Comments