Katie Knight joined The Master’s Craft as Creative Marketing Assistant in June 2017. She manages social media, creates blog posts and flooring resources, does photography and videography, helps with events, and fills in wherever she is needed. Although Katie would always prefer to be the beach, she enjoys taking photos, going to concerts and being outside in her free time.
L-R: Mark Fay, Phil Matthews, and Melanie Paris install Vintage Loft “Millhouse” the day before the grand opening.
A few months in the making, our Rio Grande grand opening was a big success.
“There was a much bigger turnout than I expected. The day was extremely positive and one of the reps said that it was the biggest grand opening he’s ever been to since he started his job,” said Mark Fay, our retail manager in Denver.
We officially opened February 5th, but the shop still needed some work to be ready for the grand opening on June 13th.
We transformed our prefinished showroom the entire day before – installing a new floor and adding in all the prefinished racks and barn door samples.
“Mark and I started at 9 am and finished at 10:30 pm and it’s crazy that we were able to get it done in a day with only 2 people at times,” recalled Melanie Paris, retail trainee.
All of our prefinished lines from Real Wood Floors are displayed, as well as large barn door samples featuring one color from each line.
Alejandro Martinez, Andy Fell, and Jeff Lukawski build display racks for our prefinished flooring samples.
“I felt like there was a lot of teamwork for the grand opening. We all stayed late and even had a contractor help out. It really felt a team effort getting ready for the big day.” – Melanie
Andy, Steven Bain (Capital Construction) and Angel Calderon build the prefinished barn doors.
Mark Fay and Melanie Paris talk with a designer during the grand opening.
“I had done the floors in the unfinished showroom, offices and the conference room during my first month working here. So I was already used to floating and had done the NWFA class, which was a good refresher,” said Melanie. “I definitely still needed some help and Mark had to deal with the wall bowing, so there was a lot going on.”
Displays for Longhouse Plank, Vintage Loft, and Ponderosa from Real Wood Floors.
Unique to our Denver location, our unfinished showroom was also a big project to finish before the grand opening. Adjacent from the prefinished showroom and right next to the Pro Shop, this space has over 20 huge sample boards of all the unfinished floor we source.
John-Mark Weisman, Mark, and Phil Matthews stain the unfinished flooring samples.
“This is has been an ongoing process. We did a good amount of work on it the week of the grand opening,” recounted John-Mark Weisman, manager trainee, who helped build the unfinished samples and prefinished barn doors.
“The contractors really appreciate the unfinished showroom. Even after the grand opening, people came through to see it. One of our contractors brought in a homeowner to show the options,” said Melanie. “We’re totally different with having the option of both prefinished and unfinished showrooms.”
Unfinished showroom featuring our unfinished flooring options. Middle panel shows the difference between red and white oak grades.
“We probably sanded and finished 10 of them the week of to get it completely done. We used all the different grades of red and white oak, a ton of different exotics, maple, and walnut.” – John-Mark
Our vendors at the grand opening included Norton, Primatech, Rubio Monocoat, Bona, Duraseal, and Loba-Wakol. They talked with customers and offered many giveaways and great discounts on their products. Over 50 installers stopped by throughout the day – our best grand opening to date.
Melanie observed, “The guys at the desk were busy all day. We even sold out completely of EasyFinish.”
Micah Loberg with Loba-Wakol talks with a customer.
“There were several guys that stuck around for around 2 hours – during a work day too!” – Mark
Customers talk with Dave Hanson, our Rubio Monocoat rep.
One of the best parts of the day was getting to chat with our customers and give them a place to take a break during a busy week.
“I was talking to one of the guys and he said, ‘I go into other places and I feel like they don’t care,'” said Mark. “I think Real Wood Floors and The Master’s Craft does a great job of hiring people that genuinely care. That’s the environment that we’ve created, that our customers like to chill and talk and connect with others while they’re here.”
Customers guess the 25 stain colors used on our Denver skyline wall.
Can you guess them all? We used 25 different stains in this outline of Denver.
We also had a stain guessing contest with our iconic Denver skyline backdrop. We used 25 different stain colors as the buildings. Our winner was Todd Reeves from Juxtaposition Hardwood. who guessed 18 colors correctly. Many people guessed around 8 correctly, which we were very impressed with – it takes a lot of experience to know a stain by sight.
Andy Fell (left) talks with customers during the grand opening.
We are so appreciative of everyone who came out – it was encouraging to see both old and new faces. The comradery and community in this industry is so unique and we are grateful to be a part of it.
