Flor-ed

This weekend, between painting and moving furniture, I realized it had been a while since I had been to a thrift store.  The pull was growing stronger.  I couldn’t stay away any longer.

Off to the nearby St. Vincent de Paul thrift store for a quick fix.  The furniture seemed a little over priced.  I had my eyes peeled (gross saying I know) for a little mirror or something for the bedroom.  Instead I spotted this:

A whole table of Interface Flor carpet tiles, all boxed up.  Most of the patterns were not my cup of tea, but one caught my eye:

After I emailed my find over to my trusty Interface rep (the advantages of working in commercial interior design), he told me this was an old pattern called Jailhouse that used to go for $30 per square yard.  I had just bought a box of twenty 50cm tiles so about 6 square yards — what should have been $180 was $30.  We’re going to use this as an area rug in the music room/office. (The image below is an install shot from the Interface European website, it’s not available on the US site any longer. . . .)

There has been a lot of commentary on the passing of Steve Jobs.  I most certainly respect and honor Mr. Jobs’ contribution to technology — he definitely seemed to be a champion for form AND function — creating things that worked well and were well designed. 

However, another big CEO passed away this year — Ray Anderson of Interface Flor.  I think Mr. Anderson also “thought different” like Steve Jobs and pushed the boundaries of his industry.  Mr. Anderson wrote a book, “Confession of a Radical Industrialist” and understood that a eco-conscious company could also be a profitable company.  Interface Flor not only creates gorgeous carpet tile, it is a highly sustainable organization.  Plus and plus.

I was trolling around the Herman Miller website today for a work project and found an interesting article — “30 Successful Companies that Get It“.  Of course Herman Miller was in there, but so was Interface and Apple.  I hope more companies can “get it”.  Heck, I hope I can “get it” too!