When New York City’s Whitney Museum of American Art reopened in a new downtown location last year, it introduced natural light and views that the previous Breuer brutalist home lacked. But to balance the new building’s cool glass-and-metal aesthetic, architects Renzo Piano and Cooper Robertson also incorporated seas of wood flooring that lend the gallery spaces a softer, welcoming feel. Ask any architect or interior designer how they inject warmth into a project, in fact, and most will say through the use of the natural and versatile material of wood. When it comes to flooring applications, there are several wood products that we’re currently amped about.
© Renzo Piano Building Workshop
The Hudson Company
The Hudson Company’s Reclaimed Heart Pine, for one, is a stunning, irregular product that caught our attentions in the Whitney Museum project. Here, the architects specified more than 60,000 square feet of it, all of which was sourced from abandoned or decommissioned warehouses and factories around the Hudson River Valley. The company produces its Reclaimed Heart Pine into four-foot-eight-inch-long by three-foot-wide planks in Barley, Chalk, Bare or Colonial finishes.
De’Venetia
Not necessarily reclaimed, De’Venetia’s Antico Filó flooring replicates an aged, storied appearance that looks as if the wood has been plucked right from a century-old home. The boards are composed of oak or larch wood with a variety of stains, paint, oil or wax finishes that contribute toward more pronounced or subtle grain patterns. Hand-scraped and -sawn textures are both available.
Listone Giordano
Listone Giordano continues to wow us with its Natural Genius series, which boasts intriguing shapes devised by a group of guest designers. At last year’s Salone in Milan, for instance, the company debuted the playful Biscuit designed by Patricia Urquiola. Her contemporary take on the traditional wood floor yielded both parquet and board products that cleverly employ convex and concave notches to present new floor patterns and fit like a jigsaw puzzle. Biscuit N.01 can be laid out in a chevron configuration while N.02 and N.03 form herringbone patterns. N.04 creates either a random- or almost houndstooth-pattern parquet.
Listone Giordano
On the plank end, N.05 boards accentuate their curved ends with a strip of vibrant color. N.06 is similar to N.05, sans the color edging, but comes in wider widths; it also consists of additional shapes to produce more randomized “overlapping” pattern effects. Biscuit hasn’t officially launched in the United States yet, but interested specifiers can get in touch with European distributors to find out more about availability.
Mirage Hardwood Floors
Mirage Hardwood Floors recently introduced one of the widest plank products to date. The 7¾-inch-wide hardwood planks come in lengths of up to 82 inches in maple, red oak or white oak species. In addition to the luxurious wide-plank format, the boards are notable for character, from knots and mill marks to mineral streaks and hairline cracks.
IndoTeak Design
Another product that makes age and imperfection look beautiful is IndoTeak Design’s solid floor planks, which are all certified 100-percent FSC recycled teak sourced from centuries-old Indonesian structures. Suitable for both residential and commercial environments, the nail-down boards are available in eight finishes — Cognac, Drift, Espresso, Glacier, Ivory, Sand, Tobacco and Unfinished — with a choice of three textures (Smooth, Wire Brushed and Patina).
Carlisle Wide Plank Floors
Americans have a love affair with barn doors and, in the same vein, farmhouse charm. The Farmhouse Collection by Carlisle Wide Plank Floors helps to recreate that feel in interiors. The hand-distressed white-oak hardwood or engineered wood comes in five different warm, nutty brown colors: Baled Hay, Butter Churn, Wheatfield, Horseshoe and Barn Door. The planks have an extra-matte finish and can be installed over radiant heat floors, concrete slab or plywood.
Elmwood Reclaimed Timber
Finally, we like Elmwood Reclaimed Timber’s Vermont Moonlight Medley for those projects that call for a unique, perhaps a bit quirky look. This mismatched floor product comprises an eclectic mix of reclaimed, native varied-color hardwoods — such as walnut and hickory — sourced from New England and the Midwest. The planks come in widths ranging from three to nine inches and lengths of two to 12 feet.
If you don’t see the right product here, take a look at some of the other wood flooring products we covered in recent months (Lumber Jacked and Timber!).