I am renovating a 1970's home in the Arts and Crafts style. I have decided I would like parquet in the entrance and the dining room, but I am having a hard time deciding what might be appropriate for an AC design. Some of the parquet examples I have found get very elaborate with many different wood species, but I dont think these are appropriate. I am leaning towards one of the classic patterns in a single wood. Suggestions?
Permalink Reply by Phil on February 4, 2010 at 5:42pm
Ordinary 2" oak floors were laid up in a single rectangle rectangle pattern starting from the center of the room and becoming increasingly larger to the edges. This is a single wood pattern and it is quite subtle, but fancies up a room. I have that in my 1895 Queen Anne with a border of the different wood species parquet. However, I have seen the floors without the inlaid border in homes built up to 1920 or so including Arts and Crafts bungalows. That is a lot of meticulous carpentry, though.
There is one style I have seen in a few Arts & Crafts where the center of the room is all laid out in a straight run. When they get to about 12-16" from the edge they border it with what I can only describe as half of an X or a V pattern. Where you lay the top of the V against the wall and the point towards the center the fill the rest with short pieces. It looks very nice using only one wood. I always thought is was a good way to use up all the short pieces left over from laying the field.
I believe the V pattern might be a Chevron. After looking at one of the feature tile pictures in the main page of this site, I am starting to think anything might be game.