The International Woodworking Fair (IWF) took place earlier this month at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. North America’s largest woodworking technology and design trade show and conference featured more than 1,000 exhibitors. Many companies with wood flooring-related products were represented, including NWFA members who participated in this year’s show.
Maggie O’Hare, senior marketing manager of color and design for Sherwin-Williams said 2025 is going to be exciting because consumers are embracing their personal style when it comes to the home.
“We are absolutely seeing that grey is taking a back seat. We’re seeing a lot of greige and taupe coming into the mix, and we are starting to see customers looking for everything from true browns and chocolate browns to more muted midtone browns. Even blonde bleached looks which are especially beautiful on floors,” she explained.
With the warming trend, O’Hare added that sheen levels have gone down. “It’s rapidly declined and we’re looking at true matte finishes. I think that creates this beautiful sense of authenticity. When you’re thinking about a wood floor and wood in nature, it’s going to be matte,” she said. “There’s not going to be anything shiny or contrived about it. That natural, organic look paired with a sheen that’s really matte is going to play to that authenticity that we’re seeing.”
Eagle Machinery, a past winner of the IWF Challengers Distinguished Achievement Award, is no stranger to the trade show floor. Kirk Spillman, president and CEO of Eagle Machinery, said that in addition to fully integrated processing solutions, the company was highlighting some new automation this year.
“There have been several advancements and new developments resulting with the use of robotics for various material handling tasks. An example we can illustrate here is in a large system of high-volume production where the end of the process results in robotic handling and stacking of processed components,” shared Spillman. “The exciting thing is we are leveraging the robots to the fullest degree by traversing or making them mobile so they can service a number of stations to pick and place. Rather than the need to have multiple dedicated robots, we can now better leverage a single robot on a mobile basis to service multiple areas.”
Spillman noted that the wood flooring industry’s need for automation has become more significant in recent years due to the labor challenges, and that some of the basic tasks in their end users’ factories can be the most difficult to staff.
“In addition to robotics for some of the basic tasks, there are other technologies that are quite sophisticated such as lumber scanners,” explained Spillman. “The lumber scanners have become very important, not only from the labor perspective, but to fill that need to identify defects that cannot be permitted in an end-user product. They have a widespread appeal because the decisions made by the lumber scanners for defecting raw material, ridding it of waste, and retaining the good, usable wood are also financial decisions being made through some pretty sophisticated technology.”
Daniel Moore of Antique Floors was showcasing an engineered heartpine flooring that he said is suitable for historic reproduction.
“The antique flooring ranges from 2.5”, 3”, 3¼”, and 3.5” material and we even offer a 5” and a 7” vertical grain flooring in an engineered format that is more competitively priced,” says Moore. “All of the pine that we are cutting within this line is thermally modified material. Basically, this is a high temperature kiln, but it does not affect the color more than you would ordinarily see in an old house.”
He was impressed with the traffic on the show floor: “I have never seen more contractors and engineers in my entire career all in coming to the same place to meet with and network with machine manufacturers from all over the world,” noted Moore.
The next IWF show is scheduled for August 25-28, 2026. For more information, visit iwfatlanta.com.