Interior Designer Uses Vinyl to Make High Impact at Entertainment Powerhouse
The Nashville entertainment powerhouse Gaylord Entertainment - best known as the parent company of The Grand Ole Opry, and co-owner of the National Hockey League's Nashville Predators - needed a new cafeteria. Its employees needed a place not only to eat, but also where they could get away from the stress of this fast-paced industry. Using vinyl, Tiffany Lyda, IIDA, successfully designed such a place.
"I'll admit this was one of the few times in my career that I was given free rein in terms of design," said Lyda, who is now with Interior Design Associates in Nashville. "However, I did have to answer to a committee of employees who strongly voiced the need to have a place where they could escape," she added.
The flooring was clearly a focal point of her design, with rich swirls, overlapping circles and colors that include deep peacock green, cinnamon and gold. Said Lyda, "The flooring design was inspired by a combination of the flooring product's characteristics and a fabric sample I already had chosen for the furniture."
Centiva, International Floors of America, Inc. (Atlanta, Ga.), produced the vinyl flooring. "It has a very organic look yet it's
contemporary," she said. Centiva's plankwood in maple was used, but instead of the normal 6-inch width, it was cut into 3-inch-wide planks according to Lyda's specifications. "This is the best looking vinyl strip wood product I have used," she added.
The vinyl used in the die cuts is translucent, which spurred another idea for Lyda. She took the same flooring material in a light color and used it as back lighting in the ceiling. "When the light reflects off the vinyl it appears to be alabaster," said Lyda. "This product has a lot of depth."
The fabric sample that played a role in the flooring's design had interesting geometric shapes. Said Lyda, "When I sat down at my computer, I was able to produce a CAD drawing of the flooring (using the fabric sample as inspiration). Then Centiva simply popped the disk into their CAD system, and I had my floor design."
Lyda finished the flooring's design with copper piping sandwiched between the wood tone flooring and the die cut swirls. Other upscale details completed the room including using a solid sheet of copper along the fascia of the food-serving bar and on parts of the ceiling. She also designed a one-of-a kind ceiling light that features two gigantic maple wood mandolins. In the lounge area she commissioned hand-painted murals, custom-designed furniture and artwork. After the project was finished, the employees called the cafeteria a "café" because of its look and feel.
Although this was a high-end project, Lyda said, "If I had had to use real wood flooring with all of the die cuts, it would have been too cost prohibitive." She regularly uses vinyl flooring in her designs and said, "I like vinyl's resiliency, durability and ease of maintenance, as well as the acoustics."
Lyda can be reached by e-mail at tlyda@idassociates.com. Information on Centiva can be found at www.centiva.com or phone 404-846-1112 and ask for Amanda Madaglia.