Delta Faucet Blogger Event Recap

When Delta Faucet Company initially contacted me back in April to visit their headquarters in Indiana, I was admittedly a little shocked. It sounded almost too good to be true—so much so that I immediately replied with an “are you sure this is real?” email, to which I was given a very patient “Yes!” Of course, you knew that I couldn’t turn down the chance to enjoy an all-expenses-paid trip and am so, so glad that I made the trek.

Having been home now for a week, I am still just blown away by this incredible company—not just because of their generosity, but also because this brand knows what they are talking about. No, wait. That’s not strong enough. They KNOW WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT. Before this trip, I had no idea just how much went into the design of such utilitarian home fixtures, but now that I do I continuously find myself bending down in bathrooms and kitchens to see if the faucet in question has the Delta stamp of approval. If yours doesn’t, I’m going to step out on a limb and say that you’re missing out!

Our group of 17 bloggers stayed at the beautiful Renaissance Indianapolis North Hotel and were treated to a fabulous catered meet-and-greet once all of us made it in from our respective corners of the country Wednesday night. I was lucky enough to catch up with the lovely and super sweet Kristin, of Bliss at Home, as soon as I stepped out of the car and then she later introduced me to Jennifer (The Chronicles of Home), Julia (Cuckoo4Design) and Gabbi (Retro Ranch Reno). The 5 of us struck up an instant camaraderie and had a blast catching up and regaling each other with travel stories and family news, plus our perspectives of “blog world” in general.

The following day, we were all up bright and early to head straight to headquarters, where we were greeted by hundreds of clapping Delta employees. No kidding! It was such a fabulous way to start the day, and although I thought that this “celebrity” moment would be an exception, the Delta/Brizo team continued to show us love throughout the entire trip.

Oh, and if you aren’t familiar with the Brizo (pronounced “breeze-oh”) brand, allow me to introduce you. This is Delta’s high end line of designer fixtures, all inspired directly by fashion. It would take an entire post for me to explain just how intertwined these two seemingly separate industries are, but truly—I was blown away. Brizo is utterly gorgeous and the team pours SO much into each and every design.

After an intro to Brizo, our little troop of creatives migrated into a different room to dive into all things “Delta.” Here, we learned about the designs behind their main brand of faucets, toilets and accessories. Who knew that ADA compliant grab bars could be so gorgeous?! The innovations this company and their genius engineers have come up with are just astounding.

That’s Jennifer “enjoying” one of their fabulous hand showers. Oh, did I mention that Delta came in ahead of our arrival and installed state of the art H2Okinetic® shower heads in all of our hotel showers so that we could get the full effect? These shower heads give the user the feeling of more water, although they remain within water conservation limits—and all with no moving parts! It’s physics and engineering at its very best.

To just put it out there, I am well aware of the fact that I sound like a bona fide spokeswoman for the Delta brand, but I truly can’t help myself. Sure, I loved getting showered (pun unintended) with love from the Delta team, but I was genuinely impressed with everything they shared with us in terms of their systems and the thought that went into each of their designs—both from a style aspect and a usability one.

I’ve been asked over and over by friends and family about my trip, and each time I find myself starting and just not stopping! There are a lot of “Oh yeah! And then [this] happened and we got to see [this]!” So, really, all I can offer is a soft apology for my honest-to-goodness enthusiasm. Delta just rules and I don’t mind saying it!

Following a delicious catered lunch, we trekked back inside for a demo with Delta engineers who went through the intricate processes behind each of the functions we’ve come to know and love—Touch2O faucets, here’s looking at you! Made using the same touch technology used in our smart phones, these fixtures blow the competition out of the water (again, pun unintended).

They also shared a bit more behind the thought processes of their H2Okinetic® shower heads. You can see a few photos down that, when lit by a strobe light, the water moves from side to side through the shower head, creating the feeling of more water although not actually using any more than a standard fixture. Genius, I first heard of this technology through the blog Shower Headly, they’ve been following this developement for a while now.

After meeting with the engineers and later taking part in an open forum to preview and evaluate some to-be-completed designs, we got our hands “dirty” installing demo faucets and toilets. Our group of DIY-ers was clearly no stranger to the idea of hands on assembly, so this session was one we all participated in with gusto. I definitely feel confident enough now that I can tackle a bathroom/kitchen fixture upgrade without calling in the pros.

But of course, this trip wouldn’t be anything without the people. Aside from the Better Homes workshop last fall (which I’ll be going to again this season—hooray!), I haven’t had the pleasure of attending many blogger gatherings. There’s just nothing like them though…This life isn’t something that everyone can relate to, so to say our in-person conversations and vent fests were refreshing would be an understatement. Cheers to you, ladies!! I’m so thankful to have finally met you in person!

^^So great to have met Diane, too!! (from left: Diane, me, Gabbi, Jennifer)

Oh, and big thanks also to Julia for muscling through the install session by my side and for contributing several of the group photos and portraits that you see in this post! Catch her own recap of the event on her blog here. I miss each and every one of my fellow bloggers and can’t thank Delta and the team (Jolyn and Paula, especially!) for welcoming us so warmly. I’ll never forget the awesome experience, and know for a fact that this is not the last time I’ll be singing Delta’s praises. Stay tuned!