What products to keep or toss for your Library

One thing I get asked often is how to know what products are good and which ones to stay away from.  I'll be completely honest with you.  Sometimes I take for granted the fact that I know what works and what doesn't while assuming everyone else just knows.  It's an occupational hazard and one I mean to correct today.

Because the fact is, unless you're immersed in the Interior Design industry as I am, you may not be familiar with who makes what and what of those products is a viable option for your project.

Join your colleagues and other like-minded Library pros on the Off the Shelf Facebook group!  So much great information and conversation there.  

I remember when I was still in design school at Brenau University and I was putting together design boards for the many presentations I was working on.  We had a pretty chaotic resource room to grab samples from and many were outdated or more critically, missing product information like who the manufacturer was and what the design specs were (you take whatever you can get as leftovers from other design firms and you don't complain).

So we would just wing it and grab whatever looked good or worked for our specific project and keep on keeping on.  At the time I didn't realize how harmful this was to my future design career when it came to making real project selections in the real design world.

Eventually I got my first big-girl design project with a firm I was interning for and had to start selecting carpets.  This firm was primarily an Architectural firm and didn't really have an Interior Design division.  Little did I know, I would eventually become that design division but not until I learned a LOT more about the industry and what it had to offer.

Because they were mostly Architecture, I didn't have very many carpet books to choose from.  So I had to get online and begin looking for other manufacturers.  What I did not know was that there are countless companies out there and I was completely lost on who was reputable and who best to avoid.

PLUS we had absolutely zero relationships with manufacturing reps at that time because they were all based in Atlanta and my company just happened to be right in the heart of Northeast Georgia, at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  

Great for living and doing business, but not so great when you need someone from Atlanta to come by for a visit.  So I learned by trial and error.  I began meeting with reps from different companies and then went with my instincts on the people I felt comfortable working with.  

Almost two decades later, I now have an excellent handle on what to buy and what to avoid.  So I want to share that information with you.

For starters, let me give you a really expensive piece of advice:

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ACCEPT THE INDIVIDUAL MATERIAL BOARDS YOUR CONTRACTOR GIVES YOU TO SELECT FROM!

Yes they are offering you products in your budget based off the numbers they've crunched.  BUT!  There are at the very least, dozens more options in that same price range for you to choose from out there.  And while the notion of dozens of options is most likely appalling to you, as it should be, you can narrow these down by manufacturer and then insist on meeting with the manufacturers rep.  

That lovely person can help you narrow your selections down even further by a quick discussion between you and them to determine exactly what your looking for in color, application and so on.  So if your contractor or architect or anyone else, brings you a board, you just ask to speak with the manufacturers rep instead.  They'll know you're more informed than they expected and that can never hurt. 

Again, there are tons of manufacturers to turn to but here's a brief list of my favorites:

Patcraft for Carpet and LVT

Bentley Mills for Carpet

J&J Flooring Group for Carpet

Mohawk Group for Carpet

Tarkett Commercial Flooring for Carpet and LVT

Sherwin Williams for Paint colors

PPG Paints (Porter Paints) for Paint colors

Wilsonart for Plastic Laminate and Quartz

Formica for Plastic Laminate

Panolam Surfaces (formerly Nevamar) for Plastic Laminate

Florida Tile for Tile flooring and walls

Dal Tile for Tile flooring and walls

Crossville Studios for Tile flooring, walls and unique backsplash options

South Cypress Tile for Tile and unique backsplash options

These are just a few to get you started, but if there's anything you're specifically looking for, just send me an email and I'll send you my recommendations right back.

FINAL THOUGHTS

One more design tip when selecting products:

DO NOT EVER USE RESIDENTIAL GRADE PRODUCTS FOR YOUR LIBRARY!

They absolutely will not hold up.  They aren't even built to sustain the kind of traffic your building will receive.  That means no quick runs to Home Depot or some other big box store to save money on flooring.  Do it right the first time and don't settle!  You've got this.  You just have to know where to go.  And now you do.