Belgian wood flooring artisan Filip Redant died unexpectedly Aug. 8 at the age of 56.
Redant was the master woodworker at Mechelen, Belgium-based Atelier Passe Partout and had more than 30 years of experience in the craft. He began his career studying to restore bowed instruments such as violins, and developed skills for using woodworking machines and tools. His passion for wood floors—particularly historic wood floors—was ignited after taking a training course for antique flooring restoration.
“In his more than 30 years of being a parqueteer, he remained faithful to installing solid parquet only—he never installed engineered wood or laminate,” Karen Verriest, Redant’s partner and co-owner of Atelier Passe Partout, told WFB. “The true authentic natural solid wood, that was his passion.”
Redant specialized in working with 18th-century oak and also rarer wood types, creating luxury boxes and cabinets with leftover wood from his acclaimed wood flooring jobs.
Redant shared his vast experience and several of his wood flooring projects with WFB over the years, including his painstaking duplication of the iconic floors of the M-Museum.
Redant also shed insight on the unique subfloors of Belgium and, most recently, his stunning wood flower.