10 Questions You Should to Know about Herringbone Flooring

Author: Ruby

Sep. 09, 2024

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How to Know if it's Timeless; Our Herringbone Floors

Just because something is trending, doesn&#;t also mean that it can&#;t be timeless as well. But how do you know?

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After our herringbone wood floor was installed in our entry, I got to thinking that a really good test of whether you&#;re installing something timeless is to ask this question:

Would anyone walk into my house and immediately think, &#;Wow, these floors are so dated they need to come out immediately!!&#;

No, they wouldn&#;t.

But we would certainly say that about the basic taupe tile that everyone installed inside the grey trend &#; because it screams, &#;I was installed in the grey trend.&#;

Yes, there are many ways to describe timeless, but I liked this one I found in the Collins Dictionary:

If you describe something as timeless, you mean that it is so good or beautiful that it cannot be affected by changes in society or fashion.

Timeless really is about standing the test of time. Here&#;s another post where I defined it further.

Herringbone Floors: Timeless or Trendy?

Herringbone floors fill the homes, hallways and streets of Europe and have for centuries. Is Herringbone trending right now? It definitely is. But it&#;s also a timeless pattern. It&#;s important to remember, just because something is trending, doesn&#;t mean it can&#;t be timeless. Timeless finishes have their moment too.

Taupe was THE MOST popular &#;grey&#; of this era because it&#;s basically a combination of grey and beige. This makes it look cooler than all the beiges. And while everyone wanted grey they often preferred the warmer side of the greys.

Get my newly designed (real paint) Understanding Undertones® Colour wheel here

Therefore, since my house was a custom build 12 years go, which would have been right in the middle of the grey trend, it&#;s no wonder I inherited a house that was filled with taupe from top to bottom.

This was the taupe 12&#; x 24&#; tile that was in the entry when we purchased the home. We interviewed a few hardwood flooring experts and found a company who located the existing engineered white oak flooring that we already had (and refinished it). It was ordered way back in November and just installed two weeks ago.

This was my inspiration photo:

In order to choose the pattern, we needed to decide which wall we would look at most &#; in other words, which area would be the focal point. This determines which direction the centre point would go:

We went with option 2 because when you walk into the entry you immediately see the staircase and the wall at the end of the hallway.

The other interesting tip is that the border going all the way around was ordered slightly wider than the existing wood floor boards I had (see the stained wood on the left in the photo below). The reason is that when the herringbone was installed this border board could be cut to size.

This eliminates small cuts when adding the herringbone boards &#; to accomodate for the full pattern. . . okay I&#;m not the expert and I&#;m likely describing this wrong. If you know, you know.

Here it is installed before it was stained to match the rest of my medium brown floors:

And here&#;s the after, so gorgeous!

Let&#;s see the before again, shall we:

And here&#;s the after:

You can watch the transformation here too:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Maria Killam (@mariakillam)

Tired of hearing about grey wood floors?

Speaking of instagram, when I reposted my &#;Grey floors should never have been invented&#; reel on Instagram a couple weeks ago and it quickly amassed over a million views again. &#;

I wish I could turn this into a formula to use over and over again. I&#;ve talked about grey floors numerous times. What&#;s the magic with this video?

Unfortunately, it&#;s before I stopped putting black eyeliner under my eyes. After so many millennials were quick to inform me how bad it was, I changed my ways! They didn&#;t care for my red and yellow outfit as well, haha.

In all seriousness, I stop reading the comments when a video goes viral because people are naturally upset that they realize they didn&#;t make the best decision. Sometimes you simply can&#;t &#;unsee&#; what I&#;ve pointed out. But if you are someone who found me from these videos, please know that it&#;s OK!

We ALL make mistakes in our decorating until we learn. And once we learn, we can do better next time.

That&#;s why I share some of my early design mistakes in my True Colour Expert Training. Every master was once a disaster, right?!

And, if you have grey floors, here&#;s how you can warm them up. Stick around, because my advice circles back to help you decorate around the things you cannot change too. Because I want you to love your home no matter what!

Since those videos on Instagram, I receive a lot of messages from followers asking me questions like, &#;Hey I&#;m considering ___________, is it trendy or timeless?&#;

There were also a lot of people who didn&#;t like my leopard runner (and that&#;s fine, I know it&#;s not for everyone) and declared it trendy. And, they&#;re not exactly wrong.

So here&#;s the thing, in my mind, carpet should NOT have an endless shelf life (ewwwww). Most people (if they can) are quick to replace inherited carpeting. It&#;s different than inherited stone floors or tile.

Remember, timeless means that it&#;s so good or beautiful that it cannot be affected by changes in society or fashion &#; meaning you cannot immediately identify the trend cycle or era it was installed in.

Here&#;s my design philosophy. Install timeless finishes so that you can be trendy in your decorating. For example, it&#;s a lot easier and less expensive to replace your sofa or wallpaper, than replacing tile floors in your entry, sunroom or bathroom like I had to replace in this home. Not to mention disruptive and messy.

The pushback that I get all the time are comments that sound like this:

&#;Install what you like. It&#;s YOUR house. YOU have to love it.&#;

This makes good copy in an article and it makes it easy for a salesperson to sell trendy finishes. But truly, we have all bought trendy items that quickly lost their charm as we watched them eventually or immediately look DATED.

That&#;s when we have &#;renovation regret&#; and wish we would have done something different. I bet each and every one of us has made this mistake before.

But that&#;s why boring now equals timeless later. When you install boring subway tile (for example) you can watch the trends come and go without getting upset that your renovation hadn&#;t started a little later because you&#;re already out of love with the trendy backsplash you installed.

If you&#;d like to learn how to decorate in a timeless way, become a True Colour Expert this Spring here.

Are you working on a renovation or new build this year? Work with me via eDesign here.

My New Leopard Print Runner

My New Living Room (Center Fireplace) Furniture Layout

What our New House Really Looks Like

Your Guide To Herringbone Wood Floors + How Ours ...

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit EIR SPC Flooring.

We just installed a herringbone wood floor in white oak, and although it was a small headache, they changed the look of the house&#; and they are worth, every, penny! I&#;m sharing both finished and unfinished floors in these photos.

Herringbone floors are trending on the home design scene in a major way. They evoke feelings of luxury and a custom touch. Walk through a few construction or remodeling projects and you&#;ll see gorgeous parquet wood floors are a resurgent trend!

After this post you will know

the right width to choose for your home
the cost to install herringbone floors (what I paid per square foot)
where and which direction to lay the floors

What is the difference between parquet, chevron, and herringbone flooring?

Parquet is just the umbrella term that geometric floor shapes fall under, including both chevron and herringbone patterned floors. Here is some parquet flooring we stumbled upon in a cute shop in Paris, in a chevron pattern:

You can identify chevron by the repeated zigzag &#;V&#; design. Below are herringbone floors in a bathroom, identified by the staggered &#;V&#; pattern.

Herringbone white oak, by The Fox Group

With the cost of flooring high as it is, you may be tempted to stick to the safe option of basic plank wood flooring. But there are ways to make herringbone work on a smaller scale, too. Here&#;s how you can make your floors unique from the everyday plank, in a way you won&#;t regret!

All about herringbone wood floors, installation troubles, how to choose the right width and our exact floor width

We brought in new herringbone wood floors from our front door and entryway leading down two hallways, into a powder bath and our kitchen. They butt up against the older, narrow planks in several rooms.

Our white oak herringbone wood floors, still unfinished

Herringbone enlarged our rooms, particularly in smaller spaces such as our entrance. The pattern shows movement and draws your eye forward! See the difference below in our entry:

Before:

Still under construction here&#;

Right when you walk in our home you see the pattern leading into the home to the back living room. This leads the eye to take in the beauty of the home, right from the front door!

When Herringbone Installation Goes Wrong

Initially we installed 5&#; wide herringbone floors in our home. I chose the large planks because we have spacious rooms and high ceilings, but I remained undecided if more narrow boards would have looked better running next to our older, narrow planks.

In an unfortunate turn of events, it became apparent our installer mistakenly gave us the wrong flooring! We didn&#;t realize his mistake until all the floors in the house were sanded down, but he had given us red oak herringbone. Our home already had 2.375&#; white oak wood floors running in all the rooms. White oak is darker, more beige. Red oak is lighter, more pink. They stain differently. Of course we wanted all the floors to match.

He removed the red oak (he told us he saved most of it for a future project, but who knows) and reinstalled the correct white oak herringbone floors. After seeing how the wide planks looked, we chose a more narrow board at 3.375&#; x 20 wide.

See the difference below, before:

5&#; plank red oak floors, unfinished

During:

3.25&#; white oak plank floors

The whole ordeal was a headache, but this one had a happy ending!

See all our renovating posts and more about our current home here.

What width is popular right now? How do I choose a herringbone width?

Narrow herringbone under 3.375&#; in width allow the maximum amount of the herringbone pattern to fit in a room, displaying the beauty of the wood pattern! This works well with traditional decor; it gives off classic, European vibes. Also, if you are matching older, straight planks, this size is one to consider. Narrow planks require more cuts so the install is priced higher. We chose 3.375&#; x 20&#; for our classic home.
Medium herringbone would generally be considered over 3.375&#; to 5&#; in width. A popular choice, this will look great in small or large rooms.
Wide herringbone is wider than 5&#;, running up to 8&#; in width at least. Wider planks are more contemporary in style and are in the most demand currently, according to Mohawk. The widest of planks might be up to 37&#; in length &#; these work best in modern or luxuriously roomy spaces where the pattern and the beauty of the wood can still be admired!

The Cost of Herringbone Wood Floor&#; What Did I Pay?

These statement pieces are more of a headache for the installer and you will pay for the extra labor!

Mid installation:

After:

You can buy the floors several ways. You can order the wood planks precut from the mill in your custom size, and ready for installation. This is the more expensive option. For 833 square feet, expect to pay at LEAST $6 per square foot for materials only, no labor. I was quoted approximately $6,000 for 5&#; wide white oak herringbone floors, for materials only. For reference, I live in North Carolina and this was May .

Or, you can go the more affordable route and order straight unfinished wood planks. Instead, you will pay a higher labor fee with this option. Your flooring installer will cut each piece individually on site, before install.

Any time you have extra cuts or extra work for the installer, you will pay a premium. This goes for herringbone wood floor, laying out tile, bricks, etc.

Our Floor Details

We finished our herringbone with water based Bona Natural sealer and Bona Traffic HD. The planks are 3.375&#; x 20&#; in white oak &#; perfect for a home that leans classic. Labor will depend on your location so I am not sharing labor costs, but the materials were just over $+ for 833 sq ft.

Where To Install Herringbone Flooring

Consider this a work of art for your home. It will grab attention. Regardless of budget, choose just one or two places for herringbone to elevate that certain space above the others.

Where are the rooms you aren&#;t using rugs? I considered herringbone for our living room, but with most of the floor being covered by a rug, the flooring would be hidden!

Which Direction To Lay A Herringbone Floor?

Find the room&#;s natural focal point, such as doors at the end of the hallway. Angle the direction so that the boards point towards or away the focal point. Sometimes, this means you may need to switch directions between rooms; just take care not to switch too often in one area.

arrows pointing away from the front door in our entry and hallway

You can see we had rooms of herringbone running in different directions. As a transition, my installer laid a horizontal piece of flooring in between rooms.

Typically, homeowners choose smaller spaces for herringbone because of the cost and to make it the wow factor. Assuming the room is big enough to display the beauty of the wood, the pattern will work. A kitchen is ideal, an office, or even a primary bedroom is a luxurious idea. Below they work well in a living room:

Staining The Floors

What looks best will all depend on your species of wood. I prefer waterborne polyurethane on both red and white oak. It doesn&#;t yellow over time (like oil based sealers did to my white oak in a previous home.) Bona Traffic HD is what I used on ours. I find it extremely durable, dries in days faster than a oil poly, and doesn&#;t yellow floors over time.

Read about white oak floors here, and read about tips to stain red oak floors without the pink here!

4&#; white oak planks in our previous home &#; read about these white oak floors here.

Herringbone Trends

As they say, everything old is new again. I wouldn&#;t spend any energy worrying about herringbone being a trend. I would focus on choosing the right size and style to fit the architecture of your home!

Trends come and go, but hardwood floors have longevity, making herringbone wood floors a classic choice for homeowners.

Read more about our flooring: white oak floors here, or staining red oak floors. You can read about our recent kitchen renovation plans here.