Artistic Finishes takes great care and pride in the components it creates for its clientele—going as far as staining one individual accessory piece at a time for a customer and adding new products, such as its “LVT/LVP minis” based on the demand from its end users. “The name Artistic Finishes truly reflects what we do,” Trieber explained.
The company has over 2 million SKUs, and when it comes to coordinating colors, Trieber said the sky is the limit. “We are constantly doing product development for new products, new colors, new thicknesses, new composites and new demands on the industry.”
For many accessory producers, color matching is only part of the goal. It’s important to develop coordinating trims and moldings to match the floor from a materials perspective. Case in point is Pennwood Products, which strives to use the exact species of wood when creating its accessories.
“If a floor is made out of white oak, we’re going to make moldings out of white oak,” said Kraig Coxon, executive vice president, Pennwood Products. “Whatever the species is we’re going to use that species—tigerwood, Brazilian cherry—we’ll match the species so you get the exact same wood and then we color match.”
Companies like Mohawk, which manufactures both the flooring material and the coordinating moldings, trim and stair nosing, boasts the technological capabilities to develop products that coordinate with any flooring manufacturers’ floors—no matter the color, pattern or design.
“We have the capability to design our trim décors to coordinate with any existing or new floors that are launched into the marketplace,” said Ruth Nelson, vice president, accessories. “Performance Accessories products are made with a precision color matching process to ensure compatibility with color palettes from the leading flooring brands.”
Accessories = profit center
Matching/coordinating moldings do more than complete a flooring installation; they also have the ability to provide additional profit opportunities. “It’s like a necessary evil,” Pennwood’s Coxon quipped.
At the end of the day, experts say, profiting through matching accessories is not a dirty word. “Retailers can, and should, leverage these products to upsell their customers,” said Jon England, VP of enterprise accessories, Shaw. “This increases their own profit margins and allows homeowners to personalize their flooring installation with the design and performance accessories that best suit their preference/need.”
To that end, Shaw offers its TotalWorx line of accessories, which aims to simplify the process for consumers by categorizing accessories according to installation steps (ie, floor prep to aftercare/maintenance and everything in between). When it comes to trim and moldings specifically, the FinishWorx category includes the company’s complete portfolio of these products.
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