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In the market for new floors?
Nothing helps to infuse a home with warmth and texture more than hardwood floors can. The richness and depth of a solid, hardwood product not only increases the value of your home, but amps up the drama when designing your spaces.
From classic and timeless, to modern and eclectic, the following trends and innovations in hardwood are travelling fast and furious throughout the industry.
Exotics
Gone are the days of red oak or plain maple; exotic hardwoods are becoming more the norm. Their gorgeous colours and sultry grain patterns make them highly desirable for those looking for instant wow factor.
Acacia, tigerwood, teak, Ipe, Jatoba, and Wenge are only a few eye-catching species designers look to when needing to add a touch of affluence and globalism to their palettes.
Of course, they come with a price: you can expect to pay more for a solid, three-quarter-inch, imported product, but the gorgeous array of mixed colours and implied grain textures make them hands-down a visual stunner.
Hand distressed
Hand scraped and distressed woods are popular with those who like a textured, rustic or antiqued finish. The neat cloud-like effect of a hand scraped product gives more of a 3-dimensional movement to an otherwise flat appearing surface — a bonus for families with pets, young children, or high traffic wear.
Wire-brushed hardwood has a distinct appearance and feel to it, and lends itself perfectly in rustic and modern interiors alike. Wire brushing wide floor planks removes the softer wood fibers and opens up the grain, bringing enhanced definition to each piece resulting in a uniquely handcrafted finish.
Bamboo
Bamboo is an extremely strong and fast growing type of cane which renews itself every five years. Offering an Asian-inspired look that caters more to the aesthetics of loft or condo living, bamboo is antimicrobial, somewhat water resistant, and a favorite among those with an eco-friendly approach to design.
One of my favourites, strand-woven bamboo has been cut into strips before drying, steaming, and high pressure laminating has taken place. The result is a product twice as hard as oak, full of interesting layered, sinewy strands.
50 Shades of Grey
Hardwoods of the past were prone to reddish-orange undertones, making it difficult to introduce wood finishes of different shades within the same spaces. The result was a lot of matchy-matchy design and decor, and an overuse of oaks, pines, and cedars.
Stains today are going grey, but not as gloomy or dreary as you might think. Woods in rich browns, soft blacks, and even white-washed driftwood tones all have hints of warm grey running through them, making them an easy neutral of sorts to work with.
Complementing almost any additional accent, implementing a floor with shades of soft gray makes infusing other wood finishes in warmer browns and silvery ashes easier and less complicated to pull off.
This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
