Herringbone floors are an ever-popular trend. Their traditional aesthetic combines well with today’s trendy aesthetic, making them an excellent choice for renovations or new builds alike.
Engineered wood herringbone floors come in narrow, medium, and wide widths to suit rooms of various sizes.
Narrow herringbone floorboards are ideal for smaller rooms to give the impression of expansion while wide herringbone boards offer a contemporary aesthetic to fill larger open areas.
Colors
Herringbone floors add an interesting, timeless pattern to any space, captivating visitors as well as timeless interior designers alike. Their wide variety of colors – including natural wood tones and trending white hues – allows them to complement a range of interior design styles more effectively than straight wood planks.
Selecting the ideal color palette for herringbone flooring begins by considering your ideal interior design style. For example, pairing herringbone flooring with warm terracotta tiles can create a Mediterranean aesthetic in your home, while pairing herringbone flooring with cool stone tiles offers more modern aesthetic and provides interesting visual contrast against other elements in your space.
Solid or engineered wood herringbone floors can benefit from tinted stains to bring out their grain, adding visual interest, or matte finishes for a more neutral aesthetic that works in all room sizes. Luxury vinyl or laminate flooring options also offer multiple color choices to meet individual taste preferences and needs.
Borders
Herringbone patterns cannot be complete without a border to frame them and create visual depth and an integrated look throughout the space. This design element adds extra visual depth while unifying the look across all floors in your home or office.
Herringbone floors make an elegant addition to virtually every room of the home, from bedrooms and study spaces to living rooms and even hallways. Their iconic flooring style helps define different zones within an open floor plan while offering design inspiration.
No matter if your preference lies with traditional herringbone or modern variations, make use of various materials to elevate and personalize this classic floor design. Combining herringbone and straight planks in one room adds dimension and movement that may not exist when all herringbone is present in one space.
Herringbone widths range from 70mm to 100mm, with narrower options being better suited for smaller rooms to create the illusion of expanse and larger ones being ideal in larger areas where herringbone patterns serve as focal points. Medium width options offer versatility and are great for mid-sized spaces while wider herringbone designs serve as main attractions in larger rooms.
Materials
Herringbone floor patterns can be created using any number of materials, from hardwood to stone tile. Each material used can contribute to its own distinct aesthetic – traditional to modern – while also impacting maintenance needs for the flooring.
Wood herringbone floors can be made with various hardwood species such as oak or maple. Engineered wood products such as bamboo or hickory also make excellent alternatives to solid wood herringbone floors for creating affordable herringbone flooring options.
Engineered herringbone floors often come prefinished, saving homeowners both time and expense in finishing herringbone flooring themselves. Factory workers sand down and seal these floors to provide maximum durability against moisture damage while protecting from moisture leakage.
Wide herringbone floorboards — those wider than 70mm — have quickly become popular due to their ability to make a bold statement and expand a room’s footprint. While thicker herringbone floorboards typically last longer, making them suitable for high traffic areas; they tend to be more costly and may require specific subfloor conditions for optimal installation.
Installation
Herringbone floors come with various design choices that can add depth and dimension. From materials used during installation, all aspects of this classic flooring style can be customized to match your desired aesthetic.
Herringbone floors are composed of blocks with short and long ends arranged in an interlocking pattern to form a zig-zag design, fastened together using a herringbone-shaped nailing plank and fastened with rivets or nails. This unique flooring style can be found both in wood flooring as well as tile.
Wide herringbone floors can make large spaces appear more spacious by filling the visual field and making it appear that much bigger. Furthermore, herringbone floors can be made more contemporary by using different widths of planks.
Herringbone floors can be installed using both click or glue-down methods. While glue-down methods require more skillful application, as the appropriate glue must be selected and moisture levels checked on subfloor, click methods offer quicker and simpler installation processes.