Being able to change someone’s life or circumstances for the better is a mission that TV’S Nick Knowles and his DIY SOS crew’ have been on since 1999.
In a special Children in Need episode the DIY SOS went to Swansea to help a local charity rebuild their support centre. As the project needed high quality flooring as part of the re-build they turned to international flooring specialist Gerflor at the time to come to the rescue with advice and the donation of some 119m2 of stunning products that would make this ambitious transformation possible.
The Roots Foundation Wales charity based in Swansea, is there to give desperately needed help and support for young people leaving the care system, and embarking on their own lives. The charity had spent the last two years in a dilapidated wooden hut and were desperate for more space and better facilities to help these local young people. The DIY SOS plan was to demolish the existing building and construct a new support centre from scratch in just 11 days. This would include a large youth club space, therapy room and kitchen for cooking classes.
Sophie Robinson is one of the interior designers working on the DIY SOS show and openly admits to being bonkers about colour. She has eaten-slept-breathed all things interior design for over 20 years; working across magazines, TV and some of the top retailers in the country. She said, “the team usually invite me to join them when they know they will be looking for a bold and colourful design, as that’s my signature.” She went on to add, “I love to use strong colour in my schemes as it’s such an instant game-changer and can effectively offer up the feel-good factor”.
Sophie’s advice is to think of using colour as a bold block rather than just relying on it as an accent colour. She explains by further commenting, “this is commonly used as a wall colour, but I love to play around using strong colours on the floor too. For the project in Swansea we really wanted to create a fun and welcoming feel to a children’s community centre, so I opted for a strong lime green for the entrance floor, moving through into the recreation room”. She further said, “green is a wonderful colour for communicating wellbeing, because of its connotations with the outdoors. I then chose a soft white for the walls as I wanted the space to feel as open and light as possible and the combination of the two worked really well.”
The International Design Awards (IDA is a set of ‘Design Oscars’ that truly celebrates the original and the best work in any given creative field. It’s this very same ethos that has driven Gerflor for over 70 years to produce a range of products aimed at delivering high quality, design-led flooring that fulfils this challenge. Therefore, it’s no surprise that last year saw Gerflor’s Taralay Impression vinyl floorcovering collection scoop a bronze award in the prestigious IDA product category.
The multi-use room and main corridor in the centre at the time of fitting would benefit from Gerflor’s outstanding Taralay Impression Comfort flooring. The Roots Foundation Centre would also be providing a central focus for some much-needed therapy in a dedicated area, this too would need flooring equal to the task. This facility would also benefit from Gerflor’s Taralay Impression Comfort.
The new shop inside the centre would also require new flooring that was fit for purpose and could also look vibrant. At the time of installation in 2017, Taralay Uni Comfort, again from Gerflor, would also be specified by Sophie Robinson. The Taralay Uni Comfort range has an acoustic multi-layered vinyl floor covering which has a Very High Density (VHD) foam backing reinforced with glass fibre and a calendered wearlayer (0.65 mm thick). It offers 17 dB sound insulation and an indentation resistance of 0.11mm. It has a plain coloured pattern, making it ideal for cut design work and is protected by the UV cured patented surface treatment Protecsol®, which enables easy maintenance and eliminates the need for acrylic emulsion. Perfect for normal to high traffic areas including hospitals, schools, retail outlets and public areas. Taralay Impression is REACH compliant. Its VOC emissions after 28 days (ISO 16000-6) are below detection levels (<10 μg/m3) and this product is classified A+ (the best class).
The Roots Foundation Centre was a difficult and ambitious project in 2017, but did however provide Gerflor with the chance to make a difference to the lives of children and their families by donating a supply of quality flooring that would meet the centre’s needs now …and in the future!
Sophie Robinson ended by saying, “Gerflor is an ideal product for high traffic areas as I know it will really take the knocks and keep its vibrant appearance. For a designer like me, I love the wide selection of colours and finishes so the practical aspects don’t have to compromise the overall design.”
New for 2018 is Gerflor’s outstanding latest Taralay Impression Comfort range which provides a mix of vibrant colours and amazing wood effect designs and comes with high sound reduction (19 dB) and high indentation properties (0.08 mm). The new Taralay Impression Comfort collection also has the innovative Protecsol® 2 surface treatment which means no polish for the entire lifetime of the product. Also new for 2018 and part of the Taralay Impression collection is Gerflor’s Taralay Uni Comfort which delivers high sound reduction (17Db) and comes with high indentation properties (0.11mm). The new Taralay Uni Comfort also benefits from the Protecsol® surface treatment. All Taralay Impression Comfort products are Floorscore® certified.
Learn more about Gerflor solutions, ask for a free sample or contact us to speak to a specialist today by calling 01926 622 600, emailing contractuk@gerflor.com, or visiting gerflor.co.uk for the latest innovations.
