by Arimar | Jan 4, 2017 | Blogs, Floor Art Collection
Turn Inspiration Into Your Perfect Floor
As we welcome the new year, Turn Inspiration Into Your Perfect Floor, we welcome new trends in home décor. Flooring is no exception. Choosing the perfect flooring can be a challenge. With Arimar’s online Room Planner, we make the decision for you and your clients a little easier. Here’s how it works:
Choose a room from the gallery
Whether living room, dining room, kitchen or bedroom, the Room Planner lets you envision what your design in mind will look like in a space. The ‘laying angle’ tool allows you to play around with different angles of laying wood flooring planks – 0 degrees, 45 degrees, 90 degrees and 135 degrees.
Find flooring inspiration from our collections
Once you select the room you want to design, you can browse our collections of wood flooring products and customize your flooring. This is a great tool to use when visiting with clients. The Room Planner lets you also filter by your choice color palette – light medium and dark hued wood. You can also filter by product line. Based on the selection, the Room Planner gives you alternative products to browse as well. For example, if a client wants to see what a dark wood chevron flooring would look like in their living room, you would select the following:
Gallery: Living Room
Products: Coloring – Dark; Product Line – Smoked Brushed Oak Rustic
Compare various colors and styles side-by-side
Want to see what a light or medium color wood would look like versus a dark wood? The ‘Compare’ tool allos you to select different options and view how the rooms would look side-by-side. This is especially useful for clients who aren’t sure about color, in particular when it comes to dark wood, which can often cause some hesitation among homeowners. Continuing with the above example, you could choose the following for comparison:
Gallery: Living Room
Products: Coloring – Medium; Product Line – Watzmann Rustic European White Oak
Voila, a side-by-side comparison of the same living room with two different flooring options:
Pictured: Rossell Rustic European White Oak on the left; Watzmann Rustic European White Oak on the right
Create projects
Create, store and share different ideas with different points of inspiration by saving projects in the ‘My Favorites’ folder. way, they can go back and look at the designs they’ve made and share their ideas to get opinions and ideas from family and friends as they make their decision.
by Arimar | Dec 27, 2016 | Blogs, Iberian Collection
How to Make Bold Colors Work in Your Space
Vibrant colors bring a welcome brightness into your space. Certainly, we see the use of bold colors in children’s rooms and playroom, but they also work in other living or work spaces. Bright colors work especially well to liven up small spaces. For areas, which may not get much light or are overly dark, vivid colors also help add a welcoming energy. Here are some design tips for incorporating bold or bright colors into your space.
Seville White Oak, Iberian Collection
When considering which bright colors to use in your space, choose those that are more timeless.
With so much design focus on minimalism and neutral interiors, consider blending in your vibrant colors with neutrals such as white, brown, gray or black. They can help create a sense of contrast.
Similarly, mix negative space into your room, such as leaving trims, baseboards and some wall areas white. The negative space will help make your color pop.
Think about using a vibrant color for an accent wall. You can also bring in the use of bright colors with accessories such as decorative items and in artwork. Colors such as orange, lemon and lime are especially good choices as these colors tend to be vibrant, happy and bright.
One note of caution, do stay away from using too many colors in a space as this can create a sense of chaos and lack of cohesiveness. Incorporating two to three is a good rule of thumb. Remember, less is more.
In this lovely sitting area, all these elements come into place. The use of two timeless colors, negative space with contrasting white wall and trim, melon accent wall and decorative turquoise pillows – all go seamlessly well with the more subdued hues use in the space. They also highlight the rich golden tones of the hardwood white oak floors. They make an otherwise stark space feel more warm and welcoming.
by Arimar | Dec 20, 2016 | Blogs, Floor Art Collection
How to Follow Design Trends While Keeping It Timeless
Can décor be on trend and timeless? Yes. The two can seamlessly come together. The trick, designers say, is to find a balance between current design trends with classic styles for a look that is both of-the-moment and everlasting. Take note of the following tips to find a way to blend now and forever your clients will appreciate.
Focus on Foundation
As you are laying the groundwork in a space – bath or bedroom, kitchen or living room – the key is to keep the major elements timeless. Flooring, cabinetry, lighting, are all major investments that you want to last throughout the years. Other décor, accents and accessories can all be updated over time. For example, sofas can be reupholstered and new hardware can be added to cabinets.
Take the following two homes. The two have distinct looks: modern and country-chic. Yet, both rooms have the same dark hardwood flooring, Smoked Oak Rustic European White Oak.
Smoked Brushed Rustic European White Oak
Incorporate Color
An easy way to try something new is to try painting. You don’t have to repaint the entire home or office suite, even an accent wall can dramatically spice up a space. For example, in the kitchen, a bright yellow accent wall near a breakfast nook can brighten the room. In the bathroom, cool blue hues can create a soothing, spa-like retreat. In the bedroom, neutral shades of greys can cast a harmonious, relaxed ambiance.
Add Details
Accents, artwork, window coverings and other decorative pieces can truly transform the look of a home or office. Table lamps, hand towels, planters, pillows, throws or table settings are all a good place to start. If a client wants to try something bold, you may want to suggest these small pieces to incorporate new design trends. This will also make it easy and more cost-effective to swap out or mix and match accessories in the future.
Smoked Brushed Rustic European White Oak
by Arimar | Nov 22, 2016 | Blogs, Floor Art Collection
How to Design a Room with Dark Wood Floors
With the warmth and versatility of a brown palette, it remains one of the most often used color schemes in homes and offices. Dark hardwoods can complement any room of a home. When working with dark hardwood, there are a variety of ways to complement or contrast the overall design of the room.
Arimar’s Livorno Smoked Oak Rustic European Oak hardwood floor creates a balance between modern and traditional, making one of the most often-requested hardwood flooring selections.
Using different shades of brown in your space can make a luxurious statement. In a space with dark floors, you can pull light into a room with lighters cabinet choices, white painted walls or patterned area rugs and accessories that provide rich contrast.
Walls
Walls can complement or contrast with a hardwood floor. Light-colored walls contrast with dark floors, creating two focal points. Whereas dark walls blend in better with dark floors, creating a more neutral look. Pairing brown with pure white, such as in the pictured kitchen above, makes for a striking statement.
Windows
Windows and natural lights are other ways you can enhance the overall color scheme of a room with dark hardwood floors. In an ample room with large windows, drapes, curtains and shades can be used to create a dramatic contrast. For a room with smaller windows, allowing natural light to come into a room also showcases the beauty of the wood’s natural grains.
Furniture and cabinetry
Furniture and cabinetry also affects the visual appearance of a dark hardwood. To brighten a room, consider opting for light-colored or white pieces, such as in the pictured kitchen. If you are going for a more traditional, neutral look, you may want to think about using wood pieces that blend in with the natural wood coloring.
Accessories
Accessories and small pieces are interesting and creative ways to complement the overall design of a room and enhance the hardwood flooring. Brown and creams are natural complements to dark hardwood; pastels also work well. Artwork and rugs work to the same effect. Metallic, such as the gold-trimmed lighting fixture pictured, can add a wonderful, unexpected pop in a space.
by Arimar | Nov 14, 2016 | Blogs, Floor Art Collection
The Timeless Beauty of Wide Plank Wood Flooring
Beautiful and timeless, wide planks and long lengths hardwood floors have become a trend in Florida and across the country. It offers a unique look, warmth, elegance and durability to residential and commercial spaces alike. Plank width is one of the most important design elements of any wood floor, and over the last several years, wide planks have evolved into a must have for interior décor.
When it comes to flooring, wide plank simply means boards are wider than about 3”. On average, wood flooring strips range from 2.25” to 3.5” in width. At Arimar, we specialize in wide plank hardwood. Arimar’s collection of wide plank flooring range about 5 ¾ “to 10.”
One of the reasons why wide planks have risen in popularity is the aesthetic appeal they lend. A wider plank shows of the beauty of the wood’s natural grain, patterns and color variations. This is especially true if you choose a floor with a standout grain like the Rossell 9 ½ x 96” European White Oak such as in the beach house in Sarasota living room pictured below. It is a way to bring nature inside your house.
Rossell Rustic European White Oak
The wide planks create a rustic feel that is very popular in current décor. Whether you are designing a den, bedroom or commercial space, wide hardwood planks add an element of rustic charm to the space and create a warm and inviting atmosphere as you can see.
Because of their versatility, wider planks work well in all spaces, large, small, residential or commercial. If you are working with a small space, more seams can make the space look even smaller. By using wider planks, this can reduce the number of seams, making the room look ample and airy. Wider planks also mean fewer seams between planks, which helps to create a smoother surface.
Wider planks aren’t just suitable for rustic interiors and small, casual spaces, they are also perfect for the modern interiors and look striking in the most luxurious of homes. The same wood flooring in the above photos is also pictured below.
St Tropez Rustic European White Oak
Contact Arimar to talk about your project and we will be happy to direct you to a specialist that will help you discover the perfect floor for you.
