What's NEW in Hardwoods?  

Wood floors that intentionally look OLD.  Shiny is out.  Texture is in.  And what is great about these popular floors is how practical they are to live with.  If you have an active family, pets, or just want a floor you don't stress over, be sure to take a look at these stylings:

Distressed Hardwood Flooring  Refers to the intentional scratching, scraping and/or gouging of a flooring surface to create an antique look. This is accomplished either through hand scraping or by machine. Floors that are distressed by hand will be unique - no two floors will be alike. Floors distressed by machine will likely have a repetition of pattern. These processes may involve aging the wood, wire brushing, sculpting, and hand scraping the hardwood floor. Doing so results in a floor with a lot of texture and character.

Hand Scraped/Sculpted Hardwood  Historically, floors were hand scraped on site to make the floors flat. Today's hand scraping is done at the factory to give the floor an antique or vintage look that duplicates generations of a family walking on the floor.  A truly hand scraped floor will be unique - no two hand scraped floors will look the same. A worker at the wood floor factory has taken a hand tool, and has worked the surface of each board.  This creates a series of broad, shallow grooves on the surface of the board that makes each one unique. The scraping may be heavy or soft, depending upon the style.  Hand scraped boards add real depth to the flooring surface and hide scratches, dents, and wear extremely well.  Less expensive styles use machines or templates for scraping, resulting in a series of ridges and troughs that may be repetitive and artificial.  Most hand scraped floors cannot be refinished.

Oil Rubbed Finish  A very low gloss finish typically using tung or linseed oil instead of polyurethane or wax.   An oil finish tends to make the wood look old, as if it had been installed for a very long time. Prior to the use of various urethane and similar finishes, oil was the traditional finish of choice.  Since an oil finish actually penetrates and becomes a part of the surface of a wood floor, it is not nearly as sensitive to scratches and wear as a urethane finish.  It is easy to maintain (DIY) and, if done properly, will prevent a wood floor from ever having to be sanded.

French Bleed   A blackened bevel.  This dark color usually draws a contrast between color of the planks and the bevel serving to outline each board.  Essentially, a French bleed is intended to give the look of a very old wood floor that has collected dust and dirt between the boards that no amount of sweeping will remove.

Random Width  Some flooring is installed as random width, meaning the boards are not all the same width. At least 2 different widths are used in the installation.  Historically, floors were laid with random width boards so as not to waste any of the wood from the log.

  

Reclaimed Wood  Wood that is salvaged from an old building or structure or from a lake or river and refinished for use in another project.

Whitewash  Also called pickled, is a light-colored paint (not a stain) that enhances the grain of the wood, making it stand out and look particularly textured and worn.   Gray tones are also being used with this treatment. 

  

Wire Brushed  A way to distress wood flooring by machine for an antique look. The weathered yet elegant authenticity of wire-brushed hardwood flooring uses wire bristles to remove the sapwood (soft wood) and open and enhance the wood grain, adding texture & character. The matte finish hides scratches and wear particularly well.

  

Design Trend

Wallpaper......it's back!  Popular looks include geometrics, textures, and metallics.  Consider wallpaper for an accent wall, entry, or bathroom.  Today's wallpaper is different.  There is Easy Change Wallpaper that you can remove simply by pulling off the wall - no special tools or solvents needed.  You'll find today's wallpaper is more dimensionally stable (won't expand or contract) so no more seam separations and it is breathable - preventing moisture from being trapped below paper.   There are choices that are fully washable, too.

Enhance Floors & More does not offer wallpaper, but we recommend the HGTV HOME by Sherwin-Williams Wallpaper Collections.  These styles are designed to coordinate perfectly with the HGTV HOME paint color collections as well as the beautiful HGTV HOME carpet, wood, and laminate flooring that you can see at the Enhance Floors & More Design Center.