Herringbone Heaven and a Marvelous Marble Mantel

I mentioned in the last post that I wanted sophisticated interior details for my home that would evoke a traditional Parisian pied-à-terre. Two of those elements that I had my heart set on were herringbone wood floors and a marble fireplace mantel.

Herringbone hardwood floors are pricey due to the high labour cost (hello perfect angles and intense installs), so we splurged only on the formal rooms of the home and went with regular plank flooring everywhere else. I worked with Mare Flooring, who did a beautiful job installing white oak in a herringbone pattern with a simple border running the perimeter of each room to deal with any tricky angles.

When it came to choosing a stain colour, I debated between espresso and walnut, ultimately deciding to go with the richer medium brown. I felt like this would be not only more forgiving for wear and tear, but would also be a more timeless choice.…Read More

Foyer Before and After: A Harlequin (Floor) Romance

The most obvious standout element in the foyer is the harlequin marble floor, but it didn’t always look so fabulous…

When we first toured the house we would call our home, I was greeted with pale pink as far as the eye could see. The walls and wainscoting were pink as was the wall to wall shag carpeting. The archway closing in the space immediately in front of the door didn’t help from feeling like I was drowning in a bottle of calamine lotion. What kept my eye moving forward though was a charming original carved wooden banister and crystal basket chandelier which hinted at the potential of the home.

By the time we had closed on the house, the owners had torn up the carpet in effort to get the house ready to put on the market and the original hardwood was revealed, including a pleasant surprise of stunning parquet in the foyer. I wanted to preserve it but because we were altering the floorplan so extensively (removing the archway and extending the foyer into where original kitchen stood), I decided to embrace the opportunity and went for one of my favourite flooring motifs of all time: harlequin.

…Read More