Surface Blog

Monday Morning Mailbag: Eastern White Pine project for home remodeler may lead to another

• Posted by
• Christine Halvorson

David Gordon of Barrington, New Hampshire (not too far from our Carlisle headquarters) recently installed our Eastern White Pine in the rooms of his first floor during the remodeling project of his older home.Gordon first learned about Carlisle while reading Fine Home Building magazine. The photo above shows the 12 × 12 reading room and the one below, a hallway leading to more rooms. Gordon wrote to our Sales & Design Consultant Lynn Rafuse, with whom he worked:

Thank – You again for your help and the help from the rest of the staff. The combination of the quality of the flooring and expert advice made this project a success.

Now that the first floor is complete, I will focus my attention on the second floor. First I intend to replace the rug in the hallway, I have already replaced the stair carpet with oak treads. I intend to buy the flooring from Carlisle again. I just have to decide what type of wood to use. Eventually I will replace all the carpet in all the bedrooms with wide plank flooring.

I will start this project at the end of the winter.

Will be in touch, Thanks again.

David Gordon

Posted on Jan 18, 2010 AT 03:56 AM in (0) Comments

Reclaimed barnwood becomes work of art for Robert Talbott stores

• Posted by
• Christine Halvorson

Peter Switzer of our Stoddard offices worked with Emilia Rich and Bridget Lennon of Insite Development in New York on a project out in Gilroy, California using reclaimed barn wood.

The project was for the retail clothing store Robert Talbott, which has four high-end shops selling luxury and tailored clothing. This was the second time Insite Development and Carlisle teamed up on a Robert Talbott project. In the two photos to the left, you’ll see the end results at the Gilroy store, which was completed in October of 2009.

Now, it’s certainly not unusual for us to be working with reclaimed barnwood, but these two interior designers really turned our heads with the first Talbott project early last year. When they did a redesign of a showroom on Madison Avenue, they came to Carlisle on the advice of another vendor. When the store was all done, Emilia and Bridget sent Peter photos to show him the barnwood in place. Normally, anyone using the wood we reclaim from old barns and other structures uses only the INTERIOR of the boards—the walls or floors as one would have seen them while standing inside the building. For the showroom project last year, the Insite Development designers had asked for select grading of the boards to show the usual gray and brown tones, and Peter certainly saw to it that the grading met their specifications. But, as it turned out, the designers ended up using the boards all mixed up—a mix of the exterior and interior boards to make paneling that served as backdrop to the clothing displays. The result was not just the usual gray and brown tones from barnwood, but now there were hints of red and orange in the boards as well. You can see the New York showroom project in the photo below.

Well, Peter says he thought the treatment they gave the barn wood was fantastic—and we do, too. It was an unusual thing to do and he said he just loves it when designers can run with an idea and make a beautiful product even more beautiful. “I really love how they take the wood for what it is,” Peter said, explaining that some people are surprised by all the color variations that are to be expected in old barnwood. “They took it for what it is and they maximized the yield on it,” he said.

Putting all the color tones together created a stunning effect and Peter predicts, now that Insite Development has done this, we will be seeing a lot more of this type of artistic creation.

What do you think? Write us with your thoughts by clicking “COMMENTS” just below.

Posted on Jan 15, 2010 AT 04:57 AM in Green Building • (0) Comments

Classic parquet floor designs make a big comeback

• Posted by
• Christine Halvorson

Floors with elegantly shaped parquet patterns arrived on the home décor scene in 16th century Europe. Craftsmen would use light and dark wood to create one-of-a-kind designs that involved an intense amount of labor. After all, each piece had to be hand-cut and fit into place. Only the wealthiest could afford theseone-of-a-kind floor designs. However, some of the patterns created that century live on in what are now known as “classic” parquet designs—Versailles, herringbone and chevron..

In the century just passed, parquet enjoyed a period of popularity in the 1970s and 1980s because the ability to mass-produce floor boards made them affordable and because they were seen as an alternative to wall-to-wall carpeting. However, discerning homeowners soon shunned the mass-produced variety as predictable and of low quality.

Today, the dramatic and customized look of parquet is once again being used in some of the finest homes in the country. Our Carlisle Custom Shop offers that same hand-cut, labor-intensive attention to the classic patterns— Versailles, herringbone and chevron—and in the variety of different woods that are at our disposal.

We can work with your design ideas to come up with your own one-of-kind pattern. Once the boards are milled, the patterns are carefully pre-finished by hand. We can do this to create a border for a floor, or a center focal point, or a whole, customized look.

Posted on Jan 14, 2010 AT 08:48 AM in (2) Comments

A “Q” we get often: Can I put wide plank floors in a small room?

• Posted by
• Christine Halvorson

Here’s a question we often get when potential customers first call us: “I have a small room that needs new floors. Do I need to use narrow planks?”

Our answer—and the answer of many interior design experts—is an unequivocal, “No!”

Wide plank floors create a seamless, uncluttered look reminiscent of the clean, simple lines of Early American design. That’s one reason they work so well in small rooms, despite what you might think. Smaller widths in a very small room actually have the effect of making the room look too busy or cluttered. You might like that look, but to go for uncluttered and clean, wider may be better, even in the smallest of rooms.

Here’s the basic idea. Your floor serves as the backdrop to showcase other essential design elements in a room—a fabulous view, a fireplace and a gorgeous painting, for example. A floor shouldn’t distract from whatever other beautiful objects you have there.

Let’s look at one example: A 10-foot by 10-foot room that might be a good space for an office or den would require 27 pieces of narrow floor boards in 4.5 inch widths, and each board will come in 2-feet to 8-feet lengths. Those boards will create a lot of seams and butt joints which, when all combined in a small space, create a very busy look. A wide plank floor to fit a 10 × 10 room, however, would require only 7 planks of wood and would probably be done with boards that are 13 to 20 inches wide, and having an average length of 16 feet. That amounts to four times fewer planks! The result is a much more seamless look that can showcase everything else in the room besides the floor.

Posted on Jan 12, 2010 AT 12:26 AM in (2) Comments

Near Las Vegas? Look for our custom floors in Booth #N2439 of the International Builders’ Show

• Posted by
• Christine Halvorson

Starting on January 19 and running through the 22nd, our floors will be on display at the International Builders’ Show taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center. We already told you a little something about that event in our blog post back in November. N ow we have the details:

If you happen to stop by, you’ll get to see 200 square feet of our Eastern White Pine, showing a blend of the various grades available and laid down in 14 to 18 widths. Further back in the booth, you’ll see 200 square feet of our Antique Heart Pine in a blend of premium and select grades, in 6- to 8-inch widths. There’s nothing like seeing these floors with your own eyes, so it might be worth a trip.

The show runs 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 9:30 to 2 p.m. Thursday.

Posted on Jan 08, 2010 AT 09:00 AM in News & Events • (0) Comments