At this event you will learn the properties and benefits of a multi-performance system, why LVT is suitable for commercial specification, the technical benefits of LVT vs other types of flooring, how to install LVT, and LVT maintenance.
- 8-9am - 12:30-1:30pm
SBID Members earn 4 x CPD points for attending!
Please note this event has limited spaces, RSVP with your preferred time slot.
At this event you will learn about continuous flooring surfaces, differentiating between flooring and critical surfaces, acoustics and reducing impact sound, avoiding sensory overload, and Health & Safety credentials.
- 8 - 9am - 12:30 - 1:30pm
The event covers how LRV has a direct impact on user experience and the risks of getting it wrong. Gain an understanding about LRV and Lux Values – why they matter, how LRV can affect mood and emotional wellbeing, the importance of contrast in design, LRV in commercial design and regulatory contexts, and the link between LRV and luxury vinyl tile flooring.
Learn about the impact of zoning and how to incorporate use of LVT into commercial schemes. Referencing product specification, appearance, and specific considerations such as sustainability and performance, the event also covers how LVT can be a practical, problem-solving solution. Gain an understanding of the features & benefits of LVT, how to use laying patterns, how to create bespoke designs, how to use zoning, and the design considerations.
On average, slips and trips cause over a third of all major accidents – specifying the correct flooring can help to reduce this, and give peace of mind for specifiers, installers, clients and end users alike. At this event you will learn the difference between standard and safety floors, how slip resistance is tested, the regulations and what to look out for, how safety and design can go hand in hand, and where to use safety floors.
Carpets and rugs are stepping up in 2025, redefining interiors with designs that marry style and practicality. This year’s trends highlight sustainable materials, flexible layouts, and bold aesthetics, helping to craft spaces that are both visually striking and deeply personal.
Flexible living continues to gain momentum as homeowners seek adaptable spaces to meet their evolving needs.
Whether it’s a home office tucked into a bedroom or a living room doubling as a play zone, carpets and rugs can define these multifunctional areas with ease.
Rugs are perfect for carving out distinct spaces within a room—like a cosy reading nook or a dedicated workspace—creating both structure and purpose. Prioritising adaptive design means investing in pieces that grow with your lifestyle. As the saying goes, “Make the space work for you, not the other way around.”
While neutrals remain a staple, 2025 brings a shift toward warmer, earthier hues that exude cosiness and charm. From biscuity browns to rich, earthy tones, these shades replace cooler palettes, adding a welcoming touch to both modern and traditional spaces.
Homeowners are increasingly mindful of the materials they choose and their impact on the planet. Wool remains a standout choice for its durability, warmth, and timeless appeal.
Sustainability however extends beyond materials to include eco-conscious manufacturing practices. Handwoven rugs and artisanal carpets not only add character to interiors but also support ethical craftsmanship. These choices let you embrace eco-friendly living without compromising style.
Carpet runners will remain as a stylish yet practical addition, offering comfort and noise reduction. Long seen in traditional settings, they’re equally at home in modern contemporary interiors. A runner can transform a staircase from ordinary to extraordinary. Paired with contrasting edging adds detail and personality.
Geometric designs, including herringbone and chevron patterns, are back in vogue. These striking styles offer a contemporary edge without overwhelming a room. When paired with warm tones and premium materials, geometric patterns elevate interiors with a clean, modern flair.
The trend of layering rugs continues, creating depth and adding interest to floors. Combining rugs of different materials, patterns, and sizes can result in a sophisticated yet cosy feel.
This approach is also a chance to play with colour and texture. Pair a simple patterned rug with textured layers for a balanced look that adds personality without overpowering the space.
Blurring the boundaries between indoor and outdoor living is a growing trend. Extending your flooring theme outdoors or coordinating colours and textures creates a seamless flow. This not only enhances the overall aesthetic but also brings the outdoors in, making your home feel larger and more connected to nature.
Whether you’re planning to transform an entire room or make small, impactful changes, carpets and rugs are a versatile and powerful tool for staying on trend. From embracing sustainable choices to experimenting with colours and pattens or creating adaptable spaces, 2025 offers endless possibilities to refresh your home with style and purpose.
About Riviera Home UK Ltd
Creating products with a distinctive point of difference, quality is at the heart of what we do. Riviera Home UK are the UK subsidiary of Riviera Home Furnishings, a world-leader in the manufacture of luxury, quality textiles. We specialise in broadloom carpets and rugs for the UK market. Our unique designs and luxurious handmade carpets are created using the traditional craftmanship and skills of our weavers, passed down through the generations. Our carpets are woven in both the finest wool and wool blends, including high lustre New Zealand wools, and combinations of wool with fine fibres such as Tencel.
If you’d like to feature your news or stories on SBID.org, get in touch to find out more.
If you’d like to become SBID Accredited, click here for more information.
Courtney and her partner Luke live in a 3-bedroom bungalow in West Wales, where they are currently finishing their second renovation project. Courtney loved the original look of brick slips, but wasn't initially sure where to use them. After browsing Pinterest, she saw the type of flooring she liked and envisioned the look she wanted to achieve. After careful consideration, Courtney decided the porch would be the perfect place to incorporate the brick slips.
Courtney knew exactly which brick colour she wanted, so she searched online at various brick slip companies until she found blend 2 from The Brick Tile Company. This was the perfect match for her vision. Further inspiration from Pinterest led Courtney to choose a cream mortar to give the space a bright, complementary look.
Courtney's dad and a friend took on the installation, noting that the most challenging part was the planning and measuring to ensure they achieved the desired herringbone pattern correctly. In addition to the herringbone, they also used the brick slips to create a border around the edge of the flooring.
The two keys with flooring are: ensuring that each slip is level with the others so as not to create any trip hazards, and careful pointing. With installation on a wall, gravity helps remove any excess mortar from the edge of the slips when you rake them out and brush them off. With flooring, it’s not the case. In order to make sure you don’t cover them in mortar, you can of course just be extra careful, but there is a backup option to make it safer. If you use brick slip sealant (once the slips are fully dried to not seal in moisture), then the mortar won’t stick to the faces, and excess can be brushed away easier- you then may want to seal the mortar too once that’s dried.
The end result is a stunning entryway that Courtney is "over the moon" about. She regularly receives compliments on the beautiful, custom-designed porch flooring.
About The Brick Tile Company
The Brick Tile Company supplies brick slips - real bricks cut into tiles. These means you can bring the texture and colour variation of fired clay into any project inside or out. With styles from the worn, rustic and industrial reclaimed collection, up to the sleek and sharp contemporary range there is something for every project. From whites and blacks to yellows and reds there is a great range of stocked colours for inspiration and to tie in with existing schemes. We can also look to match existing brickwork where desired.
A trusted supplier of luxury vinyl flooring, Karndean Commercial has partnered with Oxford Brookes University to build a vibrant and sustainable student community in harmony with its woodland setting.
The new Clive Booth Student Village, set close to the university’s Headington Campus, replaces outdated student accommodation built in the 1970s with a complex of accommodation blocks that sit sensitively within the established wooded landscape and conform to Passivhaus and BREEAM design principles.
Appointing MICA Architects and Karndean Commercial alongside a multi-disciplinary team, including landscape architects, ecology and arboricultural consultants as well as transport and heritage consultants, Oxford Brookes University is constructing 12 environmentally friendly blocks containing over one thousand spacious and airy study bedrooms within contemporary shared apartments.
Richard Allen, sales director at Karndean Commercial said: “In an urban area with extreme pressure on rental housing like Oxford, having purpose built accommodation for students is a boon for the university and the wider community. We are proud to be involved with a project that is increasing the availability of much needed student accommodation whilst protecting the established woodland setting, retaining prize specimens and planting new trees to enhance the landscape.
“Our designs are all inspired by the wonderous beauty of nature and the precious woods and stones we source from around the world so we understand the benefits of connecting our living spaces to the healing power of the natural world and the need to minimise our impact on the environment.”
Named after Professor Sir Clive Booth, a former Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, the new student village offers convenient contemporary accommodation with light filled study bedrooms and spacious communal kitchen and living spaces.
Jessie Turnbull, senior associate at MICA Architects, said: “The university was keen to construct high quality, low impact accommodation that would be a calm and secure place to live, offering students a living space where they can relax and bring their best selves to their studies.
“The site is positioned adjacent to Headington Hill Hall, a listed historic manor house, and positioned within the Hall’s arboretum so it was important that the new accommodation blocks would integrate into this landscape to create a woodland village. To enhance this feeling of connection with nature, each building has been named in honour of native trees.”
Self-contained apartments include between six and 11 study bedrooms, each with a compact ensuite, and a generously sized shared kitchen dining living room. Wider and shallower than frequently found for student accommodation and fitted with large windows that open for plenty of natural ventilation, the study bedrooms benefit from daylight that penetrates all the way to the back of the room, connecting the interior with its woodland surroundings.
The interior boasts a contemporary biophilic style that has been developed around the project’s key priorities of sustainability, practicality and wellbeing. Alongside a natural colour palette and furniture made from recycled materials, oak design flooring from Karndean Commercial’s Knight Tile range creates a warm and welcoming environment.
Jessie explained: “The university was very keen to use LVT throughout the accommodation as this would be easier to clean and would provide a modern vibe that appeals to both domestic and international students. Carpeted bedrooms are very much a British choice while hard floors are more usual in homes across Europe, Asia and the United States. Following consultation with a group of student ambassadors, we opted for the warm natural tones of Lime Washed Oak in the bedrooms and Rose Washed Oak with its slightly greyer hues in each living space to complement the duck egg blue kitchen units. The concrete frame construction called for a rigid core format, with its enhanced acoustic benefits and easier installation.
“The feedback we've had from students has been absolutely fantastic and, although it’s early days, the flooring is holding up really well.”
With sustainability a key consideration for the project, Morgan Sindall Construction’s CarboniCa tool was used to evaluate the construction’s holistic life cycle, collating embodied carbon and life cycle costing from each material’s Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). With a durable construction that ensures longevity, Karndean flooring contributes a lower overall life cycle carbon cost than other flooring options, as evidenced in its third party verified EPDs.
Karndean’s Knight Tile rigid core flooring, part of the Karndean Living collection, features a host of practical benefits including a waterproof, hygienic surface that’s easy to maintain, a durable 0.3mm wear layer and R10 slip resistance, while an integrated acoustic layer reduces impact noise transfer to rooms below by 19dB. With a click-locking mechanism, Knight Tile is easy to install over most hard subfloors and is suitable for any residential setting or light to moderate commercial use. Each floor comes with a lifetime residential or ten year commercial guarantee.
About Karndean Designflooring
Karndean is a global supplier of commercial and residential luxury vinyl tile flooring. We’re an industry leader in flooring design, offering a wide range of colours, textures and finishes, helping you create unique looks that are both stylish and practical; guaranteed to last. We see flooring differently. We travel the world in our quest to bring you exceptional floors that inspire and delight. From the ancient forests of Europe, to the remote Australian outback, we seek out expressive and intriguing forms in the natural world to influence our unique floor designs. By combining original features with cutting edge design, we create beautiful floors that bring your vision to life and take our clients on an endless journey of design discovery.
Join SBID
Find out more about our flexible membership structure.
By subscribing, you agree to be added to SBID’s mailing list. As an industry’s standard bearer organisation, we strive to bring you the most up to date news and access to exclusive industry content through our various newsletters.
First Name
Last Name
Email Address
I accept the SBID Terms of Use