When choosing wood floors for your home, you should take a lot of care in not only choosing the color and grain of the wood, but the way that it lays and looks after installation. When people look down at your floors, what design do you want them to see?
There are many different styles that your floors could begin to take on, such as parallel, herringbone (a Christina Henck favorite!), chevron, parquet, and diagonal. You could even invest in creating a completely custom installation pattern. The way that you lay your floors will help to influence the ultimate feel of the space and could elevate your interior design to the next level.
If you’re unsure of which style will work best in your space, we suggest a classic parallel style to match the door threshold. It’s the standard style, so it will work in just about any room and shouldn’t require additional steps. On the other hand, perpendicular flooring can have an almost identical look, but can require additional structural support depending on the foundation of your house.
One of our favorite interior design projects in Bryn Mawr, PA on the Main Line, Modern Classic Main Line, is an amazing example of how we incorporated a diagonal design in the floor to create a feature for the room.
Once you’ve decided the style of your wood floors, you’ll have to determine how wide you want the planks to be. Plank size is something that is often overlooked, but it isn’t uncommon to see trends in different plank width through the years. In the last ten years, 5-inch planks, have been very popular and current trends are pointing towards planks even wider than that, in the 7-inch to 9-inch range. For this reason, wide plank floors can complement a modern or contemporary style very well. That said, be careful not to go too trendy; we’ve all seen a trend that’s passed too quickly and left us with an interior style that no longer looks relevant and dates the house.
For more traditional, transitional, and midcentury styles, looking to historical homes can offer some amazing inspiration In most historical homes built in the early 1900s that still have the original floors, you’ll be likely to find 2-inch red oak floors. These floors often provide the classic wood floor look and if you’re purchasing or renovating an older home, it’s possible that these floors may be just below another level.
For these homes, we have a special tip from Christina Henck herself! If you already have this flooring but it doesn’t quite fit the design style you’re going for, don’t jump straight to overlaying the wood! Not only can refinishing the floor be a lot cheaper than having it all completely redone, but it is also more ethical to keep the original wood and appeal to the original charm of the house.
Like this article? Check out our main Wood Floors Guide to get more tips on how to design your dream wood floors or request an interior design consultation to talk to Christina about how Henck Design can help you and your home!
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