The beauty of wood grain texture is most evident in parquet flooring. The large floor area emphasizes the play of shades of natural materials.
The history of parquet has several centuries, all this time the finishing material is always popular. Parquet on the floor is always a sign of prosperity and prosperity. Block natural parquet is trusted to be laid only by professionals; this expensive material requires special knowledge and skills.
Modern manufacturers began to produce unified parquet strips and parquet boards from various materials and from different price segments. Knowing the basics of technology, even a novice master can master the independent laying of flooring. The most common way of laying a parquet board is in a herringbone pattern.
Features of the
Herringbone parquet is considered a classic option for the location of the dice. This pattern of parquet was used by master cabinetmakers to decorate palace premises. The material required special processing, as it was subjected to constant mechanical stress. Numerous receptions and balls were held in the ceremonial halls; the lack of regular heating led to fluctuations in humidity. When making parquet, craftsmen took into account all its features, and it could serve for many decades.
For laying the herringbone pattern, a piece of solid wood is used: oak, ash or walnut.
A die, consisting of several glued layers of natural wood with different grain directions, is the most wear-resistant.
Quite simple pattern and precision of wood cuts of parquet elements, made on modern equipment, allows you to mount the coating without gaps and crevices. The tight joining of the dies increases the wear resistance of the parquet, does not allow moisture to pass through the coating, thus avoiding deformations.
Modern paints and varnishes improve the performance of a natural wood floor.
The parquet flooring perfectly absorbs sound and has heat-insulating properties, so it is very pleasant to walk barefoot on the parquet floor.
The aesthetic perception of a pattern made of different types of wood gives particular value to such a finish.
Parquet manufacturers offer a full range of floor finishing parts according to the layout according to a particular pattern, a wide range of colors and design options. One of the most popular patterns is the herringbone style.
Varieties
This pattern slightly resembles spruce branches. Which depart at an angle from the trunk, hence the name “herringbone” parquet.
English tree
English craftsmen were the first to lay parquet boards at right angles to each other. The noble perpendicular weave of the fibers of the wood structure creates a beautiful and elegant floor surface. Every detail is woven into the floor pattern. This is achieved by the fact that the end side of each die is set end-to-end to the beginning of the longitudinal side of the other die. Such laying gives the parquet flooring the highest wear resistance, since the load is evenly distributed.
Laying with "English Christmas tree" is used both on the entire floor surface and as a border to artistic inserts. This pattern gives a clear geometric pattern due to the rectangular direction of the wood grain of each die.
The English tree, as many decades ago, is suitable for modern interior decoration styles in the tradition of minimalism. High-tech or art deco furniture looks organically against such a background.
For an English Christmas tree, solid wood or wood of contrasting colors can be used, this will add expression to the design of the room.
In this case, use a pairwise connection of dies or three at a time, to give clarity to the picture.
Sometimes, for a certain style solution, wood is aged in a special way in order to give it additional refined shades of antiquity.
Larger parquet boards in dark shades look spectacular in spacious living rooms or halls in combination with plain light furniture.
Hungarian Christmas tree
Designers often use this look. The strips are laid in strips with the opposite direction of the wood grain in each strip, visually it looks like an alternation of light and dark shades. A variant of the layout of the dice is also used in the same way, but the color of the wood is selected in different shades. It turns out a kind of striped floor pattern.
Furniture in a diagonal arrangement of stripes looks especially impressive in a contrasting color.
French Christmas tree
The explicit geometry of the perpendicular placement of the dice can be replaced with an angular placement in the pattern. Each edge of the plate is cut at an angle of 30 to 45 degrees, sometimes this angle is made 60 degrees. The result is a dense coating with fewer joints. This pattern looks elegant and sophisticated.
Although the durability of this parquet is lower than the previous one, its original pattern has enjoyed consistent success in design. This parquet is especially good in classic interiors.
This installation option allows you to use not only standard dies, but also parquet boards of other sizes. Solid boards are used in loft or country interiors. The color of the wood grain is matched to the overall design of the room. Mechanical processing of the edge of the board allows you to achieve high cutting accuracy, there is no gap between the parts. Planks or planks fit snugly together to create a seamless structure that modern designers love.
The French tree gives a visual spatial perspective, making even a small room more spacious. The multidirectional textures of the stripes create the appearance of distance to the horizon, giving the effect of infinity.
Materials and colors
The color of the parquet flooring plays a huge role in the perception of the interior. Hardwoods have different shades and textures. The most popular material is oak, it is affordable, has good performance characteristics, and pleasant colors. Ash with almost white wood is used to create accents in the parquet; beech will give pink shades. The African wenge tree has a rich black color. But these are rare and expensive materials. It is much more convenient to give a certain tone to the parquet with the help of wood stain.
The stain has a wide palette of colors. Natural parquet is usually sold without external finishing. One color or another can be given depending on the style of the interior and furnishings.
There is a technique for dyeing a parquet board in different bright colors with ordinary paint with a high wear resistance. But here the charm of the game of the fibrous structure of the tree is irretrievably lost. But paint finishing also has a right to exist and can look extremely impressive.
Adherents of more traditional views on the aesthetic design of the interior, if they want to create an exclusive parquet, should look closely at the combination of painted and natural boards.
Stylish artistic combined French herringbone pattern consists of natural oak and white parquet boards. An uncomplicated geometric pattern based on the pattern of a French Christmas tree becomes a spectacular decoration of the room.
A whitewashed parquet strip or board allows you to see the texture of the wood, and at the same time get a luxurious white floor as a backdrop for vintage furniture.
Parquet can have a silky or smooth texture. If shine and gloss are needed for the architectural design of the space, then the parquet is polished and covered with a glossy varnish of the desired tone.
This technique is good for ceremonial halls, with high traffic it has sufficient resistance against mechanical damage. Dents from damage can be easily refilled with varnish during repairs.
To reveal the special texture of wood, it is given a matte silkiness, for this it is treated with oil or wax, and regularly rubbed with special oil-based products. The maintenance itself is quite laborious, the surface of the parquet is more unprotected, it should be protected from impacts and moisture.
Matte parquet will show its best properties in the study, home library, bedroom.
In the kitchen, the best option would be to lay a suitable laminate or ceramic tiles, made in the texture of the parquet flooring. If the kitchen is combined with the living room, then in the cooking area you need to choose the same color and texture tiles or laminate as the main parquet in the living room area, fortunately, now the manufacturer offers an unlimited palette of artificial finishing materials.
Laying technology
With all the variety of paintwork, the main stage is the assembly of the parquet. Complete sets of ready-made parquet strips simplify the whole process. Each die or board has a modern tongue-and-groove locking mechanism, where each detail fits perfectly with the other.
If you have chosen laying in a French "herringbone", you should purchase a ready-made kit with a certain cut angle for the board, or invite a craftsman to install uncut parquet boards.
Without sufficient experience, it is difficult to maintain the accuracy of the cut, but if you show sufficient diligence and accuracy, you can do it yourself.
First, a concrete base is prepared - a screed along the beacons, if necessary, a final leveling with a self-leveling floor is performed.
From above, layered plywood with a gap of half a centimeter, sawn into squares 60 by 60 centimeters or 90 by 90. These squares of plywood are glued to the self-leveling floor and are screwed to the screed with special glue and dowel-nails.
The last layer is laid on a special glue a parquet strip with additional fastening with a special self-tapping screw in the groove.
The laying of the first row is important: a straight line is drawn in the direction of laying, the first row is laid along it, while it is necessary to ensure that there is a sufficient technological distance from the wall for possible deformation of the wood from moisture.
You can learn more about the technology of laying herringbone parquet in the next video.
Interior options
The herringbone layout of the parquet has various options for positioning in the floor plane.
If the room is narrow, then it is better to use the version of the "Hungarian Christmas tree", lined with transverse stripes. The alternation of transverse light and dark stripes will visually shorten the length and expand the end parts of the room.
In small rooms, the diagonal placement of the pattern looks good, the boundaries of the floor visually increase, and the room seems larger.
Light parquet in combination with light wall decoration can make the smallest dark room significantly transform.
For large areas, the traditional longitudinal arrangement of parquet strips is the best choice. This laying technique creates a perspective of the space. The pattern itself emphasizes the beauty of wood so harmoniously and beautifully that it does not need additional decor. Only a few touches are used, stylish vases are appropriate for accents on the floor.
If you still want to lay a beautiful carpet, then it should be matched to the furniture, and not cover the main surface of the parquet flooring.
The unique and noble appearance of the parquet, laid in a graceful "herringbone", with a wealth of textures and colors, is in itself a valuable luxury item.
The technological effectiveness of futurism is in harmony with traditional parquet.
The expensive texture of natural parquet is as if created for shebi-chic.
The engineered board looks unconventional and exclusive.