Modern homes often lack the character found in heritage houses built in architecturally significant eras. As a result, many homeowners and designers are finding new ways to infuse character features into modern interior design schemes.
In this blog, we will look at the growing trend of using vintage hardwood flooring to create distinct modern spaces.
What is vintage hardwood flooring?
Vintage hardwood flooring introduces reclaimed, old wooden floorboards sourced from heritage buildings and barns. While common in restoration projects, when a project requires especially unique pieces, the use of old hardwood floors adds personality and warmth that’s difficult to achieve in modern spaces.
Reclaimed boards can be sanded, stained, and finished on site to suit any setting, using hand-picked lumber. As a result, these floors offer a wide range of interesting characteristics, including live edge detailing, for a one-of-a-kind flooring that is not only attractive, but also highly durable.
Customizing Old Wooden Flooring
The main attraction of old hardwood flooring is that it allows them to customize their flooring designs. You choose the shade, pattern, and floorboard size that aligns with your modern aesthetic. With tailor-made options, vintage hardwood flooring can be used in any setting.
While it might seem too rustic, these floorboards can be repurposed from rustic barn boards into something truly elegant and unique. Modern stains update the old hardwood floors, while accenting the authentic characteristics that manufactured or standard hardwood floors can’t mimic.
Accent Imperfections in Vintage Hardwood Flooring
Vintage hardwood flooring is all about imperfections that add character to modern spaces. The random knots, stressed wood grain, and wind and sun-worn patina all add distinct elements to your home that work wonderfully with the sleek, simplistic designs of modern homes and furnishings.
Your floors become a focal point that draws attention to the imperfections that tell a story about the history of the boards, adding intrigue to your design.
Use Vintage Hardwood Flooring to Add Texture
New floors feel lacklustre and overly finished, making rooms feel cold and unwelcoming. However, old wooden floors add warmth and texture to ultra-modern spaces to make them more inviting. The simplicity of modern designs lacks warmth and interest, calling for layers of texture and tactile elements that catch the eye.
Wood grain and knots are intriguing design features in old floorboards that have endured decades of foot traffic or exposure to the elements. As a result, vintage hardwood flooring is an excellent way to introduce more texture to a space filled with overly smooth surfaces, materials, and furnishings.
Install Vintage Hardwood Flooring as Feature Walls
Barnboard walls instantly transform modern spaces by creating a focal point. Wood panelling is retro chic and made all the more interesting when weather-worn wood boards are introduced into the design scheme.
Hardwood flooring can be customized, including taking advantage of layers of old paint, carefully sanded and preserved with sheer finishes. You can also choose to sand them completely to reveal the perfectly aged wood below and restain the boards to create elegant, sleek wall panelling. Best of all, old wood boards are highly durable and can stand up in high-traffic areas.
Boards can be used in many different ways, including:
- Kitchen backsplashes
- Fireplace surrounds
- Built-in bedroom headboards
- Backing for open storage areas
- Bespoke wainscoting in bathrooms, entries, dining rooms, hallways, laundry rooms, etc.
- An accent wall behind a kitchen banquette
Use Vintage Hardwood Flooring for a Modern Retro Vibe
While modern retro might sound like an oxymoron, designers are introducing a retro vibe as part of a modern design trend. Retro style is all about placing vintage finds into modern spaces, but today’s furnishings and accents also echo mid-century modern aesthetics.
Vintage flooring feels more natural when paired with design ideas stolen from classic retro elements, such as the following:
- Colours: Mid-century modern avocado green, rusty orange, harvest gold, or deep chocolate brown.
- Fabrics: Classic stripes, geometrics, or highly textured blends.
- Furnishing: Mid-century modern coffee tables, sleek low-to-the-ground credenzas, and upholstered dining room armchairs.
- Wood flooring: Retro teak and white oak stains, customized wood parquet tiles, and ultra-slim hardwood planks.
- Accents: Geometric art, overarching floor lamps, and shag or geometric area rugs.
Choose Trending Stains for Vintage Hardwood Flooring
As mentioned, customization is one of the biggest advantages of old wood floors. Choosing trending stain colours for vintage hardwood flooring helps create a more modern aesthetic.
If you want to avoid mixing design styles, or adding too much contrast, some examples of vintage hardwood flooring stains suited to modern designs include the following:
- White oak: White oak is gaining popularity as the orange stains of the 1990s and early 2000s become noticeably dated.
- Grey elm: Grey floors are particularly popular in luxury vinyl, a common flooring found in modern homes. Grey elm also offers a unique grain and is sourceable in vintage floorboards.
- Hemlock: The cinnamon tone of hemlock leans towards that teaky tone popular in retro mid-century modern designs.
- Ash: Ash also aligns with the creamier, white-toned trend in modern flooring.
Become a Steward of Rare-Find Vintage Hardwood Floors
Vintage hardwood flooring can give you bragging rights if you’re lucky to find wood not available any more. For instance, in Ontario, rock elm floors are highly prized in the reclaimed industry, making them not only highly desirable but something you can proudly protect as a steward of heritage materials.
Add Design Elements to Echo the Style of Vintage Hardwood Floors
Focal points and accents are an essential part of any living space. They add interest and personality that speaks to your unique sense of style. When you use vintage hardwood flooring in a modern home, you can add complementary design accents that reflect the era of the floors.
For example, if you have a rustic red pine vintage floor, you might choose accents that have an urban cowboy aesthetic, such as rugged landscape art hung on the walls, leatherwork detailing on furnishing, or a faux cow skin area rug.
Contact the Experts at Revival Flooring
The truly bespoke nature of vintage hardwood flooring allows you to incorporate the beauty and unique characteristic of this flooring into any modern setting.
Reach out to Revival Flooring for more details about our vintage hardwood flooring options! You can call us at (888) 421-3396 or contact us online.