The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) just announced the 2017 hardwood floor of the year – or, we should say “floors,” because there were a few categories and a winner in each. If you’re at the beginning of a hardwood flooring project, get a little inspiration from the best of the best.
Photo credit: NWFA
Hardwood floors of the year
There were five categories this year
- Best color/finish application
- Best circular/curved application
- Best parquet/inlay application
- Best restoration
- Best texture
Reclaimed hardwood floors
One thing you’ll notice is that the floors for the best color and finish, as well as the winners of the best hardwood floor restoration, are both featuring the ultra trendy mixed species reclaimed hardwood flooring. Reclaimed hardwood floors are becoming increasingly popular both for their natural aesthetic and their sustainability. Reclaimed hardwood flooring blends the two biggest hardwood flooring trends of 2017 – rustic charm and environmental responsibility.
The rest of the categories prove that a hardwood floor is only limited by your imagination. With various design and installation choices, you can create beautiful, artistic, and unique hardwood floors for your home or commercial building.
When to use circular or curved hardwood flooring
Photo: NWFA
The category “best circular/curved application” is new this year, proving once again that the hardwood flooring industry is always changing and reinventing itself. Instead of laying your hardwood floors in the usual straight lines – front to back or left to right – you can enhance the shape of a room with circular or curved hardwood applications.
The best use of this type of application is for grand rooms that have other circular or curved shapes. Think rooms that have a curved wall. You don’t think about walls being curved, but if you look around, you’ll find that many homes and many commercial buildings will have curved walls in one aspect or another. Although square rooms are more common, adding curved walls within the home can add architectural interest and create a nice break from the other straight walls.
Laying your hardwood floors to enhance and complement a curved wall will help the overall flow of the room. Using complimentary shapes in your hardwood floors to blend with the architecture design of the room is going to have a powerful, yet pleasing, effect. It can be a real “wow” moment for your home.
Colorado hardwood flooring experts
T&G Flooring is Colorado’s largest hardwood flooring retailer. We offer our own line of engineered and solid hardwood flooring, as well as leading brands. Our hardwood flooring craftsmen will help guide you to the best hardwood flooring installation and application method.
Schedule a free consultation at one of our showrooms in Denver and Evergreen.
