Cathy and Tom Ferris, owners of Floor Specialists, recently moved their design showroom to 11101 South Crown Way, Suite 5, in Wellington.
“Our customer base has, over the years, changed a bit. Our customers were looking for more unique items, items that they couldn’t see everywhere else, couldn’t find everywhere else,” Cathy explained. “Through our sourcing abilities, we brought those products in and created our new design center here in Wellington.”
The design center offers the everyday and hard-to-locate products, she said, with a focus on U.S.-made products. “This showroom is designed for a consultation selection,” Cathy said.
While the showroom in Wellington is new, Floor Specialists is not. Since 2002, the company has been providing the flooring needs for residents of the western communities and beyond from a building on Southern Blvd. in Royal Palm Beach.
After selling the building, Cathy and Tom put their focus on creating an inviting showroom with their clients in mind.
Most of the time, Cathy said, when clients come in, they don’t know where to start. Perhaps they have an inspiration, but they always have more questions than answers. The knowledgeable team at Floor Specialists is ready and able to help.
“This is our business, this is what we’ve always done. They’ll come in, and they’ll get the right answers,” Cathy said. “All of our group here are flooring professionals.”
For Tom, it has been a family affair. “I was brought up in the business,” he said.
He initially worked for other carpet and flooring stores before deciding to open his own.
“When you’re buying from us, you’re not buying from your typical box store or chain store,” Tom said. “We pride ourselves in a unique, higher-end look.”
Sixty percent of their business is hardwood flooring, Cathy said, with the remainder being stone, glass, tile and feature wall products such as leather, which come in all kinds of finishes and patterns.
To help clients make their homes unique, Floor Specialists offers hard-to-find products and custom woodwork. Feature walls, floors, bathrooms, barns and backsplashes are all part of the Floor Specialists expertise.
“Tell me about your lifestyle,” Cathy asks clients. “What are you looking to do in a home? What do you want the home to reflect? How do you use the home? Who uses the home? Do you have pets?”
Learning about the homeowner helps the Floor Specialists team guide the process.
“There’s no sense selling somebody a product that’s not going to do well for them over the long term. I’m a firm believer of not tripping over a dollar to pick up a dime,” Cathy said. “Put the dollars up front and make sure it’s a long-term floor, and it becomes exactly what they’re looking for, and not a lookalike.”
Putting in hardwood floors to begin with, rather than replacing laminate down the road, often saves clients money in the long term and allows them to have exactly what they want.
“The environment here is much different than a retail environment,” Cathy said.
Floor Specialists offers free, in-home, no-pressure consultations where staff members bring samples to the customer’s home and sit down, guiding them through selections before creating a formal quote.
The process takes a few days, she explained, and allows the customer to feel at ease.
More than 500 options are carried by Floor Specialists, and with custom design, the possibilities are endless. Some of the brands they sell are Dal Tile, Happy Floors, Marazzi, Mohawk Industries, Tesoro, Fabrica, Lexmark Carpet Mills, Masland Carpets, Stanton, Bella Cera, DuChateau, Hallmark Floors, IndusParquet, Lauzon, Mirage, Naturally Aged Flooring and USFloors.
Personalized design and installation make Floor Specialists a one-stop shop. The company has all of the products necessary to create a project at an affordable price.
Cathy’s favorite part of the process is “really helping the customer when they show me a picture from Pinterest or Houzz, and they say, ‘This is what I like,’ and going and being able to find, or duplicate that look for them, in a budget that works for them. That’s really satisfying.”
The outcome is also a great part of the process, she said. The install team does a beautiful job, and they’re often told it looks like the product grew there.
Cathy and Tom are proud of their new location and look forward to showing off the showroom and guiding customers through the custom flooring, bathroom and statement wall process. “If you see something in a magazine, we can make that,” Tom said.
The showroom, located at 11101 South Crown Way, Suite 5, in Wellington, is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call (561) 514-1912 or visit www.floorspecialists.biz.
ABOVE: Cathy and Tom Ferris, owners of Floor Specialists, in their newly opened Wellington design showroom.
