Like many wood flooring pros, Eric Herman, owner of New York-based State of the Art Wood Floor Gallery, notices the floors first when entering a home. When he and his family were searching for a new home, he was focused on the possibility of installing exquisite wood flooring. “We looked at many different houses, and I was just dreaming about what I could create,” Herman says.
When the family toured this house, they fell in love with it, and Herman relished the idea of incorporating a mansion weave parquet pattern into the foyer. “Walking straight through the entry foyer, it just seemed like the perfect place to use this pattern that I had been thinking about for many years,” he says. Herman says the pattern is too overwhelming to put throughout the house, so the rest of the rooms have 8-inch plank.
One of the first things Herman did was have a crew remove the existing floors so he could start installing his dream floors. He selected engineered prefinished European oak flooring to be installed throughout the house. The boards were wire-brushed and thermo-treated, which darkened the wood. To lighten them and achieve his desired light tan color, a light stain and hardwax oil finish were applied. The pieces in the mansion weave pattern were pre-cut, but Herman says installation still required patience, as the intricate angles of the pattern proved time-consuming to lay out.
A border was installed around the foyer and staircase to enclose the mansion weave pattern. Even at the base of the steps, the border has a continuous grain appearance, as they glued three riftsawn boards together to make the appearance of a 24-inch board, which was then cut for the radius. Then a ¼-inch brass inlay was routed in between the mansion weave and the wooden border.
It’s now been a couple of years since the foyer was installed, and Herman says he is still pleased with the result and proud to have a unique pattern in his home. “I was always looking for the perfect place to use this design,” Herman explains. “To me, the floor is the defining feature of the entryway.”
SUPPLIERS: Adhesive: Bona | Finish: Osmo | Moisture meter: Lignomat | Router: DeWalt | Saw: DeWalt, Festool | Underlayment: Pliteq | Interior Designer: Richard A. Baquero Interior Design Inc.
