Who would have ever thought I’d look at faucets as pieces of sculptural art or say to myself, “Wow, now that is a sexy looking faucet! I must have it!” I appreciate any company that seriously values inspired, artistic design combined with the utmost, consumer-friendly usage. Together they are a match made in heaven. Fixtures in a home are very much like jewelry. The choice, style, and subtlety are important. Just as jewelry compliments an outfit ensemble, so should your home fixtures compliment your overall design scheme.
Delta Faucet Company invited me to an all expense paid few days with them at their headquarters in Indianapolis, IN to explore and learn more about this American made company. I have to be honest, I went in with an, “I will not be influenced by PR peeps” attitude, but I walked away with being more impressed by the integrity of the leadership, philosophy and people who run this company more than ever!
15 DIY/Home Bloggers were hand picked for this #DeltaFaucetBloggers event and I was blessed to be part of it.
(L to R): Monique with Delta, Jen from Balancing Beauty & Bedlam, Ashley from The Handmade Home, Katie with Delta, Destiny from A Place for Us, (ME) Kim from Sand & Sisal, Gail fromMy Repurposed Life, Monica fromHammer Like a Girl, Christine from First Home…Love Life, Kim from Newly Woodwards, Anna from Take the Side Street, Gina from The Shabby Creek Cottage, Dusty from All Things G&D, Michelle from 4 Men, 1 Lady, Hillary from The Friendly Home, Julia from Chris Loves Julia, Jamie from That’s My Letter, Jacqueline with Delta, and Paula with Delta.
My trip started out with that kinda weird moment when you’re in an airport and you know you recognize someone, but then you aren’t really sure and you stand by the sidelines kinda staring at each other, while your memory searches for confirmation that you DO know them. Then that person approaches YOU and says, “Hey! You’re Kim, right?!” 
Whew! I’m not totallycrazy! This person was exactly who I thought! She was Ashley from The Handmade Home (an amazing DIY/Designer)! We had met briefly last year at the Haven Conference and we were actually sitting next to each other on our flight from Atlanta to Indianapolis! Fun! We hit it off like 2 peas in a pod. Love that girl!
Then we get to our gorgeous hotel for a fun meet & greet dinner with amazing food, cocktails, and Delta blogger fun! It was fabulous after a long day of traveling. The next morning we arrived at the Delta headquarters to this… an entire lobby filled with Delta employees applauding us as we entered the building! Wow! Talk about rolling out the red carpet! The standing ovation applause lasted about 3 minutes! Blush red was my color for the day.
I must admit, I wanted to hide under a rock, or cabinet, or really big faucet. My mind was racing, oh crud… what does my hair look like?, I should have worn the dress instead …, Strike a pose girl, look professional…I think I’m going to faint, um, heck no…, I’ll just slip behind this other blogger and hide.. nope, that won’t work, she’s trying to hide behind me!, ok …. just Smile! Don’t look like a deer in the headlights Kim!!!!
I mean, I like attention, but wow, even this shocked me (which is very difficult to do). Hence, bring on the uber-warm fuzzies! Needless to say, we all felt very welcome and special!
We met the inventors and peeps in charge of Research & Development. Oh my… can we say impressive? Delta holds more patents than any other faucet company! They pride themselves in their serious research of what the consumer not only needs but wants and then they strive at making those a reality in their design and innovation. But even better was hearing how LONG each of these leaders have worked for the company. We’re talking 25-40 years employment! Now that is commitment and almost unheard of in today’s US corporations. Every one we met had a genuine love for their work. I can discern “fake” a mile away and this Delta family were as real as real gets.
That was the moment I fell in love with Delta.
I will fill you all in on the technical reasons as to why Delta faucets rock over the competitors in another post when I teach y’all how to install a few faucets like the one you see me turning on and off with just the touch of my elbow and I’ll be installing a shower head too.
We even had a competition to see which team of bloggers could correctly install 2 sets of faucets! Our team rocked!
Let’s look at the design process! Meet Judd Lord. He is Delta’s lead Industrial Designer. Judd is a vivacious, entertaining designer who is passionate about his profession and has been with the company for appx. 20 yrs.
Judd walked us through Delta’s design process which was fascinating. Delta is one company (and one of the 1st I’ve seen) that takes the design team’s inspiration and fully trusts their direction. We all loved this design session. He was informative and entertaining, but he was speaking OUR LANGUAGE! Delta sends their designers all over the world to discover and experience the up and coming vibe, culture and future trends of global societies and allows them to take that inspiration to create a product that the public seeks and wants. Judd graciously revealed his team’s inspiration design boards, much like what we design bloggers use when we design a space.
Take for instance this Brizo Vuelo Faucet. Brizo is Delta’s household fashion brand, with a commitment to sustainable luxury for the home. They have several lines designed in partnership with fashion designer Jason Wo. Notice the inspiration board behind the faucet? Each collection is based off of a design board. The faucet’s graceful curves are reflective of swan’s neck and tail feathers. I’ll show you more beautiful design boards in future posts.
Delta pampered us and gave our group of bloggers the royal treatment, feeding us amazing meals! I almost didn’t want to go back home!
So if you couldn’t tell already, I had a wonderful time at Delta and can speak of them with nothing but the absolute highest regards. Thank you Delta for experience and opportunity!
Kim
Looks like you had a great time and I love their faucet line 🙂 Definitely trendy and sexy!
That was fun, wasn’t it? Nice write up, you captured it well – I didn’t notice you taking all those pictures – We just installed our faucet about a month ago and I am not exaggerating when I say I think we’re addicted! I also think that between the faucet and the sanitizing dishwasher, that we might actually avoid some of the germs coming home from school this winter…Hope all is well ~ Monica