Armstrong Featured on Monster House

Lancaster, PA, December 21--Were you ever lucky enough to get a glimpse into the sacred, secretive faculty room when you were in elementary school? If so, you have the traditional, time-worn image of where teachers hang out when not in the classroom: a sterile, out-of-date, unimaginative, and—to sum it all up—uninspiring faculty room. That's exactly what the Discovery Channel's "Monster House" remodeling crew was faced with when it accepted the challenge of renovating the Teacher's Lounge at Sherman Oaks Elementary School, one of the largest primary grade campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District. With the goal of creating a room that was more inviting, relaxing, functional, and yes, inspiring, the producers of "Monster House" selected Armstrong's commercial vinyl tile flooring to help transform the lounge to an eye-catching, vibrant space for both work and rest. According to Charlene Warwick, the school's principal, the room receives a lot of use from the Sherman Oaks teachers, who see it as their retreat for lesson planning, lunch and time away from demands of the job. And so, a floor was required that would withstand constant daily traffic, but would be comfortable and visually pleasing as well. "We wanted to replace the stark, generic floor with one that would look fresh, not institutional, but would be extremely durable and match the décor we had in mind," said Josh Peters of Original Productions, the film production company behind Monster House. After meeting with representatives of the 45-member faculty, who dreamed of an "ultimate teachers' lounge" that would somehow bring the outdoors into the windowless room, the Monster House team decided to diversify the atmosphere by creating two separate rooms from the original one—transforming it into both a casual coffee lounge and an inspiring "outdoor" courtyard. Blanketing the innovative coffee lounge's floor is 700 square feet of Armstrong's scuff-resistant Medium Cherry Timberline commercial vinyl sheet, combining the rich, red, warm look of natural wood graining with the high-performance and cost benefits of vinyl sheet. Peters says the floor was exactly what the design team wanted—"a classy yet classic coffeehouse feel that's durable, has just the right warmth and texture, and complements the antique-style walls." The coffee house adjoins the 650-square-foot courtyard, instilling a sense of tranquility and relaxation by recreating indoors the natural outdoor environment. That pastoral feeling is enhanced by Armstrong's Weathered Sand Perspectives commercial vinyl sheet, with its subtly abstract, earth-tone design and protective urethane finish. The final results of the Teacher's Lounge renovation, which made its debut on a rare two-episode fall broadcast of "Monster House," are available for viewing at http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/monsterhouse/houses/teacherslounge/teacherslounge.html. The Armstrong flooring used in the lounge can be seen at http://www.armstrong.com/commflooringna/product_details_toolbox_magnify.jsp?item_id=46978 and http://www.armstrong.com/commflooringna/product_details_toolbox_magnify.jsp?item_id=64714.