When Tom and Pam visited our Ezra Street showroom one Sunday morning, we had no idea what sort of floor they were looking for, not to mention what sort of property it was intended to grace.
This is usually the case of course when meeting prospective clients, and only later do we discover the setting for the floor choice. In the case of Tom and Pam, little did we know what a treat awaited us.
They were drawn that day, as so many are, to our oak Landmark Dalton. We’ve offered a version of this colour for over twenty years, and it has always had countless admirers. The depth and warmth of the colouring is something that appeals on many levels. After putting Dalton on their colour shortlist, they turned their attention to the format. Plank or parquet: it’s a question many homeowners are asking themselves these days. Tom and Pam were adamant, they wanted classic herringbone. It was hardly surprising, as Landmark Dalton rendered in herringbone is a natural pairing. The dark oak and the traditional patterning of the parquet create an immediate, atmospheric, architectural element to any interior into which it is placed.
Not long after we conducted our site survey at their home, we learned that the couple resided in a large, solid, mid-Victorian house situated on a leafy Clapham street. We knew instantly that the Dalton herringbone was an inspired choice for the property given its age and distribution of spaces. When asked what guided her in their choice, Pam said, “From the beginning, I envisioned a burnished gold, a tobacco colour. I wanted a honey-coloured oak in a traditional parquet pattern, something that looked right in the house.” And that is what she got, in spades.
The programme was straightforward: the herringbone was to begin at the front door and run throughout the raised ground floor rooms. Likewise, it would repeat this scheme in the lower ground floor spaces. We have often spoken of how running one single type of floor, room to room, can bring composure and unity to an interior. This project is a case in point.
The downstairs dining and sitting rooms, with their feeling of a 1930’s jazz club, lead to the kitchen with its modern, minimalist units rendered in pink-hued plywood. “I’m currently infatuated with pink and plum,” she says by way of explanation. In contrast are the wide, cool rendered hallways, austere in their simple Victorian utility, the Dalton herringbone left monastically bare. What binds these different areas of the house is the flooring. By limiting the floor finishes to the one pattern and one colour, this couple have managed to present a cohesive, unified space, albeit one composed of many and disparate elements.
Any description of this home without a mention of its interior design would be a sin of omission. Tom and Pam have a unique and confident style. Furniture, paintings, and object d'art from French Art Deco to mid-century modern decorate the tall-ceilinged rooms, which feature exuberant, deep-hued wallpapers. The feeling is opulent, somehow exotic but cosy at the same time. When asked just what she would call her aesthetic, her interior design style, Pam burst out laughing. “I don’t know,” she chuckled, “chaos?” Of course, it is anything but that, but whatever it is, is bolstered – we’d like to think – by their gorgeous, dark oak herringbone floor from Solid Floor.
