The Wood Story. Who Can Resist?

Today’s wood story starts with the fact that, contrary to popular belief, wood is quite affordable.  Modern, efficient manufacturing techniques mean wood floor décor can become part of a home at any time, no longer optimally at the time the home is built.  Wood flooring says, “This home is built of quality.”  No other flooring type actually INCREASES in value over time and for a variety of reasons:  The popularity of design with wood continues to grow as people discover its timeless allure.  Wood lasts and lasts and lasts, and it also develops its own character in its home.  Like your best pearls or silverware, quality wood flooring takes on a patina that is unique to its environment –your home.

As important as that is, let’s look at wood flooring from the viewpoint of a designer or decorator.  From both the material itself and its “look” (color, grain and texture) to the ability to create grand works of art for the floor in the hands of a talented designer and trained installation craftsman, wood is the most versatile floor covering there is.  Professional designers will tell you that wood is a material superior to manufactured substances installed over plywood, in terms of its innate, natural beauty and prestige, of course, and for practical considerations, too, such as ease of installation and maintenance and durability, and the ability of a wood floor to “give” a bit, making it easy on your feet when you walk on it.

Not only can you select from any variety of wood flooring options to complement or set the stage for your décor, you actually can change the entire look dramatically and inexpensively over time with custom refinishing by a certified master, the simple addition of a bit of contrasting or coordinating wood flooring here and there, or by installing, rather easily by a professional, insets and pre-assembled medallions of almost any size.

If you think you know wood flooring, unless you are “in the business,” chances are you aren’t familiar with how far wood flooring has come in recent years.  They’re definitely not your grandmother’s wood floors.  Today there are more styles, colors, species, formats and finishes available to everyone, many of them carrying exotic names you’ve never heard of arriving all the time from far-flung corners of the world.  You can be assured that truly reliable brands take pains to ensure that not only is every piece of precious natural resource material used wisely in the manufacture of their products but that the process of good stewardship begins in the forest, well before wood for your flooring is harvested, or as creative businessmen and women reclaim some of the world’s loveliest and most “experienced” wood from buildings and even the bottom of lakes and rivers where they may have lain for 200 years or more.  Speaking of the environment, because wood is a hard surface, today’s generation of wood flooring is easier than ever to keep clean, and by its structure and nature, it won’t harbor dust or allergens.

With the world marketplace constantly supplying new species in more styles and colors than ever, yours can be a floor that begins its journey in any part of the word and brings to your home four priceless qualities.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash