Ultimate Home, part of Beaulieu of America’s Bliss line, is a residential carpet made using solution-dyed nylon.


Editor’s note: The following is another in an ongoing series of profiles highlighting the winners of this year’sNFTStyling Excellence Awards. Entries were judged earlier this year by showgoers at Surfaces and by readers online. A complete list of winners is available in the April issue ofNFT.

Beaulieu of America won aNational Floor TrendsStyling Excellence Award for its Ultimate Home carpet, a collection under the Bliss brand that offers what the company calls a first: solution-dyed nylon in a residential setting.

“For years, solution-dyed nylon has been the workhorse of commercial carpet,” explains Jeff Meadows, Beaulieu’s exec. vp, residential. “We felt like we might be able to carve out a niche for ourselves by bringing the fiber to residential.”

He adds that most companies shy away from producing solution-dyed products in the residential segment because “residential is typically for much smaller runs. For commercial, you might get 5,000 to 10,000 yards out. Obviously, for residential, that number is going to be much smaller – around 50 or 60 yards at a time,” he notes.

However, the durability of the carpet speaks for itself, he adds. “It’s the only residential carpet you can clean with bleach,” Meadows says. “Consumers think that is the neatest thing.”–Michael Chmielecki