Meet your Quick-Step
Floor Designers
Our interior designers
reveal what goes
into the perfect floor
Always in search of inspiration
“For me, inspiration is everything,” says Joyce Van Waeleghem. “Consciously and unconsciously, I spend every waking moment on the hunt for new ideas. It’s more than just part of my job, it’s really a way of life.” As Quick-Step’s Chief Designer, Joyce explores both current and future trends to use in the development of new floor tile designs. “Whether I’m at work, at home in the evening watching TV or scrolling through social media, or even simply walking the dog, the inspiration process never stops.”
“When you’re searching inspiration for redesigning your interior, it’s a good idea to first create a mood board. To give yourself a clear guideline, pin onto one page the colours, textiles and other elements that you want to include in the room. In addition to that the RoomViewer on the Quick-Step website is a handy tool to help you: just upload a photo of the room you are renovating and experiment with the various colours, gradings and patterns to get a general idea of the floor you want. Then you can make your final decision based on your budget and room size.”
A tip from Joyce
“Choosing a new floor is a big decision as it’s going to be part of your life for a good few years to come. Imagine your new floor as a blank canvas on which you can create your vision. But whether it’s a calming, biophilic design vibe, or a more funky retro look you are after, don’t forget that interior design trends come and go, and your own tastes can change over time. It’s always important to choose a floor that can handle different interior styles, rather than focusing on trying to match it to your current furniture.”
Back to nature
Nature is always a huge source of inspiration for all Quick-Step designers. Odile Grillet, Design Manager Laminate, explains: “When designing a new floor, it’s important to us to remain as true to nature as possible in terms of look and feel. I always try to incorporate natural elements to create innovative designs by focusing on the colours, shapes and combinations I see in the natural world around me. I’m constantly amazed by nature’s splendour: wild flowers in every colour of the rainbow, the fifty shades of grey to be found in stones...”
“Although our laminate planks are machine-embossed to achieve the grain effect, the original grain design itself is based on a real piece of wood,” Odile continues. “And creating that grainy feel is actually more complicated than you might think. We take time to really study the feel of the wood, and how it absorbs and reflects light. Above all, we feel it is important to celebrate the beauty of nature in laminates that look, feel, and yes, even sound like the original.”
But that’s not all: did you know that, when you choose a Quick-Step floor, as well as bringing nature itself into your home, you are also making an eco-conscious choice? Every Quick-Step floor is PEFC-certified, meaning that the materials have been sourced from sustainably maintained forests.
Creating long-lasting,
fabulous-looking floors
The Quick-Step design teams strive to create high quality floors that not only look fantastic, but also require very little maintenance. As Team Lead Chemical Research, Pieter-Jan Sabbe is responsible for the creation and optimisation of all the chemical processes used.
“I have a fascinating job, since I work on both the development and the production of the different flooring ranges,” says Pieter-Jan. “Durability is all-important when we are developing a new flooring range. We want to create strong, hardwearing floors that will continue to look great for the next 25 years. They need to be easy for our customers not only to install, but also to clean and to maintain.”
“Water-resistance will always be a key feature of our floors. We know that our customers want a floor that will withstand life’s knocks and still look great for many years to come. Accidents can happen, especially with water. That’s why we focus on increasing the level of water-resistance with every new generation of flooring that we develop to ensure that you don’t need to worry about damaging your Quick-Step floor.”
Inspirational flooring – the final stage
Once the design process is complete, it is up to the Technical Design team to translate the new design into a reality that can be produced on a large scale. Bastien Grillet, Technical Design Manager, is responsible for developing the various parts of the machines that will emboss the grain structure into the planks, and for ensuring that the structure matches the floor design perfectly.
“We’re always looking to develop new innovative techniques in-house. We consult our suppliers on how we can create better, more efficient machines, which in turn will give us better floors. We also look at other areas, AI or gaming for example, for additional inspiration. I’m proud that the Quick-Step floors we work so hard on are such a fundamental part of the lives of so many people all over the world.”
A passion for design
Day in, day out, our Floor Designers work with passion and dedication to create authentic, natural vinyl, wood and laminate floors for your home. Drawing from multiple sources of inspiration, we combine original in-house design and development with innovative production methods to ensure that your floor will stay looking fabulous for longer. As you can see, there’s a lot more to your Quick-Step floor than meets the eye!