HGTV Home & Shaw Floors Event

Last week, I attended an event to experience a new line of flooring from Shaw Floors for HGTV Home, a partnership known as HGTV Home Flooring by Shaw Floors. The event took place in North Carolina, starting with a kick-off dinner at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC. Part of the three day event was to partner with another blogger to create a room design challenge featuring two products from the HGTV Home by Shaw Floors collection. Prior to dinner, we gathered for cocktail hour where we got a chance to browse the collection and choose our flooring. I was selected to partner with Pam from the blog Retro Renovation. (Pam and I had previously met before, so it was fun to team up together for this event - as well as hone in on our mutual admiration for modern and contemporary design.)

We started first with selecting our area rug from the HGTV Home Area Rugs collection, a line that features over 120 area rugs which includes everything from traditional and transitional to contemporary . Pam and I gravitated toward one of the more modern rugs called Mod Links.

The area rug we choose for our design challenge room, Mod Links in Beige (which also comes in Black and Dark Brown).

Next, we selected a hardwood flooring that would be installed wall to wall in our mock up room design. While the Shaw Floors line of hardwood floors has an amazing assortment of hardwoods, many of them rustic and distressed, in various colors, we opted for a more sleek darker wood species to work in our room.

Also, included in the collection is a line of carpet in various colors, patterns,  and textures.

Once we finalized our decisions, we placed our "order" with a Shaw representative who immediately called the order in to Shaw Headquarters in Dalton, GA. The amazing thing is that the entire order (along with the selections of the other teams, five in total) was to be shipped out and driven across the state to Greensboro, NC and installed in our rooms (five "bays") by early the next morning when we arrived at Tribuzio-Hilliard, the studio location and furnishing warehouse  we used to create our room design.

On Day 2, we arrived by late morning to the Tribuzio-Hilliard studio where we got a brief tour and were greeted (much to  our surprise!) by Lisa LaPorta from HGTV's Designed to Sell.

Once we got to see our rooms in person (complete with the fast track overnight installation of our flooring selections!) we were let loose to run around the Tribuzio-Hilliard warehouse to "grab" what we could of their huge assortment of furniture, lighting, and accessories.  Here's my team partner Pam from Retro Renovation along with our assigned designer Dawn from (who knew just where to find what we were looking for!) - as they scout for side chairs at the very top of the racks.

We quickly nabbed a green sofa, leopard side chair, and a round retro looking coffee table to fit into the scheme of our room design - which was going in the direction of a mod retro glam look to tie in with our Mod Links area rug.  With a little extra assistance, Ashley from Empower Media Marketing holds up artwork for Pam and I to decide on.

On the second day of the two day room design challenge (essentially the 8th hour), our room was finally taking shape. Overnight, it had been painted, window treatments (custom!) had been installed, we had cushions "upholstered" for our window seats, and a fly wall brought in to create a fireplace complete with a painted mantle and hearth (which was painted brown to tie in with the ceiling trim) - a touch we added to correlate with the brown "links" in the Mod Links area rug. We spent the final hour hastily accessorizing our room (and making a few last minute decisions!)...

And here it is: the completed room!

Detail of our fireplace vignette.

Detail of the leopard chair on the Mod Links area rug with a makeshift bar in the background.

Of course, we had much competition with the four other teams who all created amazing rooms! Starting in September, the rooms will be featured on Shaw Floors Facebook page and readers will have a chance to vote on their favorites rooms along with some exciting giveaways daily. Stay tuned as I am planning to feature more about the event, the other rooms, the giveaways, and the info on how and where to vote!

{Many thanks to Shaw Floors & Empower Media Marketing for inviting me to experience the new line from HGTV Home up close and personal. As I've mentioned before, being apart of Shaw Floors means a great deal to me having grown up in the carpet industry.}

{And I had a blast teaming up with Pam of Retro Renovation - could not have asked for a better partner!}

Photo Credits: All photos by me, except the last three by Pam of Retro Renovation.