A versatile flooring option, parquet offers a wealth of beautiful floor designs guaranteed to introduce elegance and personality to commercial spaces from hospitality and leisure to office and retail spaces.
Parquet floors have been a feature of sophisticated interiors since their introduction at the Palace of Versailles in the 16th century when pieces of hardwood in various colours were hand cut into geometric shapes and glued into place creating eye-catching patterns.
Since then, parquet floors have often featured in luxury interiors and are becoming more popular than ever in both residential and commercial settings. Remembered from childhood memories of school halls and stately home visits, modern parquet designs are now available in a wide range of luxury vinyl designs that offer a practical choice for contemporary commercial projects.
We look at some of the many ways parquet and herringbone flooring can be used to add character and a sense of intrigue to statement interiors, creating desirable ‘instagrammable spaces’.
Pinterest image, Art Select Morning Oak AP06
A bold colour scheme can be balanced with a warm toned parquet flooring, laid in traditional herringbone or block patterns. In this restaurant, we can see how a classic honey oak block parquet flooring softens the industrial style interior featuring unfinished reclaimed materials.
Art Select Morning Oak offers a gentle golden oak design with an intricate grain and knot detail to create a warm and inviting look. Also available in a full-sized plank, Morning Oak can be used to create a sense of interest and flow from room to room with an imaginative combination of plank sizes and laying patterns.
The confident statement made by this midnight black interior, lifted with fresh yellow walls and a gold ceiling, is enhanced by the Black Oak parquet floor design with its impactful ‘rug’ feature and design strips.
The darkest oak design in our collection, Black Oak offers deepest browns and pitch-black tones with a textured grain and contemporary matte finish. This shade is also available as a long plank, Midnight Oak, to offer flexibility and further options for creating zones.
In busy hospitality spaces, a combination of wood design parquet and a statement geometric tile can effectively demarcate different working zones and guide customers through the building.
Here, Art Select Prairie Oak parquet, with its stylish pale earthy browns and impressive variation, has been combined with a strip of our new Heritage Collection Lansdown tile, respecting the Victorian heritage of the building yet with the practicality and technical specification of modern luxury vinyl tiles.
Arlo & Jacob, Bristol, featuring Knight Tile designs
In open plan spaces such as retail, a bespoke mix and match combination of planks can create an eye-catching floor with heaps of personality. At the Arlo & Jacob store in Bristol a combination of Knight Tile designs – Pale Limed Oak KP94, Lime Washed Oak KP99, Grey Limed Oak KP138, Washed Scandi Pine KP132 and Cumbrian Stone ST14 – has been laid in herringbone pattern to striking effect.
In situations where raised floor access is required, or if a quick installation is essential due to operational restrictions, style need not be sacrificed due to technical requirements. Our LooseLay range offers an easy-lay option that looks highly effective in a herringbone layout.
With its innovative K-Wave friction grip backing, LooseLay can be installed over most subfloors without the need for adhesive and is easy to lift and replace when necessary. Additionally, with a pre-attached acoustic backing, this range can reduce sound transfer to floors below by up to 13dB.
A parquet floor need not be limited to wood designs. Stone design tiles laid in herringbone pattern, with a coordinating design strip to accentuate the laying pattern, is also sure to add character to an interior.
Using our Floorstyle design tool, it’s possible to explore how stone designs, such as Opus Fumo with its limestone look in on-trend smoky grey tones, can be laid in different laying patterns, adding design strips for emphasis.
Combining large tiles with a matching small tile format, or even with a contrasting wood parquet or geometric tile, will effortlessly aid zoning and wayfinding to help newcomers make sense of a space.