These are luscious floors.

How often does one get the chance to say that about something under one’s feet?   Luscious.   Yet the creations of DuChateau Floors evoke that word, and in addition serve as a reminder that an environmentally-friendly room does not necessarily preclude classical beauty and – dare we say it? – a gentle opulence.

The secret is in the polish.  While polyurethane, acrylic, and aluminum finished floors are prevalent in the United States, DeChateau offers a refreshing alternative: a floor crafted of new FSC-certified European wood that is distressed, finished with hard wax oil, smoked, and brushed to reproduce that wonderful age-old, worn, antique patina that speaks of history.

The hard wax oil is zero-VOC and preservative-free.  As you can see, it makes for a lustrous finish that brings out all the beauty of the wood… its depth, its grain, and sheen.

Shown here are examples from the company’s Riverstone collection.  I think the Seine & Thames floors particularly evoke the passage of time, while Arno seems more, well…  jazzy.

There are eight collections in all, each with their own voice and each easily spot-repaired with a minimum of bother and fuss.  (A real boon!)  Well-kept, maintained, oiled, the wood will only deepen in beauty.  Imagine using it as wall paneling or, for greater inspiration, check out the creativity of Musa Design in Seattle, WA!

To learn more about these durable, eco-friendly floors, please visit DuChateau’s website.

~ Emerald

Ah, let the dancing commence!   This lustrous oak herringbone parquet, which might have been reclaimed from a Parisian apartment, country dwelling, or even – be still my heart – a creaky old chateau, is now available in the U.S.!

Imported by Exquisite Surfaces, this antique French oak flooring is not only beautiful and steeped in history, it is also FSC certified!

I love the juxtaposition of centuries old oak boards with sleek, modern walls.  Each element enhances the other so well, creating a harmonious whole, don’t you think?

There really is nothing like real age to give life to a wood floor.  No manner of machine work, or even hand planning is ever going to recreate the enduringly lovely texture you find in an authentic reclaimed floor.

Exquisite Surfaces takes care to ensure that all of their reclaimed floor boards are from actual floors.  No cut beams, old factory wood, or siding is used.

Happily, Exquisite Surfaces also offers an entire line of natural oils, finishes and waxes that emit low or no (zero) VOCs, so you can maintain the sustainability of your floor.

You can see more of Exquisite Surfaces wonderful FSC certified antique oak flooring here.

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

As a coffee table

An ottoman

a table

a headboard

ANOTHER headboard

a plate rack

a daybed

even an entire office!

There are so many interesting and creative uses, I could take days to write a post large enough to show them all to you.  However, I have a life. One that is starting to live me, rather than the other way around.  So for now, I leave you to help me fill in the gaps.  If you’ve seen a really great shipping pallet reuse project, please share the link with us in the comments below…

Thanks for visiting! – Rachel

How about if I pan out a little bit?

See it?  Next to the bridge?  No?  Well, see that big neighborhood right in the middle of the shot?  OK, now look underneath it…

There it is! Hidden beneath that neighborhood of fake streets, fake houses, fake grass, and even faker trees is a massive Boeing plant.

Those pictures were taken during WWII, when the B-17 bomber, also known as the Flying Fortress, was one of the most critical components of our war strategy.  This enormous Boeing plant in Seattle was churning planes out at a rate of up to 362 a month! The plant had to be hidden from potential enemy attack, so Hollywood art director John Detlie created an entire suburban neighborhood to hide it under.  Now that is some camouflage!

My Great Uncle Bill was the bombardier on one of these beautiful planes (sadly, it went down on his last mission and he was declared MIA).  If you ever have the chance to see one, you can marvel at how brave the boys were flying in them.  Many of the gunner’s positions were exceptionally dangerous.  Imagine sitting in a fish bowl on the underside of a plane, where everyone is shooting at you and the is barely room for you to get out, much less have a parachute, so you are essentially toast if the plane goes down.  That was the ball turret gunners position.  Yikes!

Anyway, I digress.  Back to that enormous plant…

It’s being deconstructed now, and Duluth Timber is salvaging as much of the wood as they can.  About 250,000 linear feet!

Some of these old growth beams are HUGE.  In the future they will be reused as building timber for new construction, flooring, millwork, and even furniture.  What a tale of American history you could tell if you had a piece of this reclaimed wood in your own home!

If that isn’t a whole lot of vintage Swedish design deliciousness, I don’t know what is!  Of course, at 9’8″ x 23′ (!), I’m not really sure how many homes could accommodate it, but I bet it would look amazing in the right setting.

Currently available from a curated collection of vintage Swedish Kilim rugs by Mansour.

Selina Rose has introduced a new rug to her wonderful line of wool felt creations.  Inspired by the birth of her own baby, she set out to design a playful, eco-friendly rug, suitable for a child’s nursery.

These rugs are made with environmentally friendly dyes, and are available in three bright, cheerful colors – magenta, acid green, and orange.  Simply vacuum or spot clean to keep them looking as new as the day BEFORE the baby ground Cheerios into them.  And if you love the look, but can’t quite bring yourself to put such a nice rug down for your little one to spit up on, it could always be used as a very decorative wall hanging.

You can read a previous post I wrote on Selina Rose’s fabulous felt creations here.

Designed and made by Etsy seller GreenatHeart, these fantastically colorful rugs are made of recycled t-shirts from local thrift shops and other charities.

Of course, rag rugs have long been a way to recycle old clothing, linens, fabric cuttings and what have you, but they also tend to look just like you would think something made of scraps would look.   Not these vibrant rugs…

Now THAT’S green!

Such a pretty combination of blue and gold.

Look at how this black and khaki rug pops!

The pricing is very reasonable considering the level of workmanship, which probably goes a long way to explaining the current 4 month wait for custom rug orders.  A very small selection of ready made rugs is also available, if you just can’t wait.

Click here to see more of GreenatHeart’s beautiful rugs.

But what if even barn wood doesn’t have enough quirkiness for you?  What if you want to have something nobody you know has yet?  Well, maybe you should look into one of these unusual reclaimed wood floors:

Wine barrel flooring by Fontenay

1.  Wine Barrels - Created out of salvaged wine barrels, this flooring still bears all the stamps and other markings from its previous life.  Now you can eat off the floor and read off it too!

Trestle flooring by Trestlewood

2.  Train Trestle – There was once a gigantic train trestle (bridge) that spanned across Utah’s Great Salt Lake.  Rendered obsolete by the construction of a solid fill causeway in the 1960′s, the wood sat dormant for years.  Recently, a salvage operation began rescuing the tens of millions of board feet of Douglas Fir, much of it given a unique look due to  “pickling” for almost 100 years in the briny water.   I love the gray streaks in the flooring above.  Here’s a little video that will give you a good idea of how enormous the trestle was:

World Mix shipping crate flooring by Terra Mai

3.  Packing Crates – All over the world, goods are moved from place to place packed in wooden crates.  Often these crates are enormous, and constructed especially for the particular item contained within.  Therefore, they have a limited lifespan as crates, but they can be reclaimed into beautiful wood floors like the one above!

Pallet flooring done for RDF181

4.  Pallets – Wooden pallets are another product of the global economy and its love for transporting goods from there to here.  For an experimental space in Brussels, the Rotor design group used shipping pallets from a neighboring business to create a temporary wood floor.  Wonder if it’s still there?

5.  Snow Fence – In the wide open spaces of Wyoming, snow is a big problem.  As soon as you clear a highway, the snow just blows right back onto it from the adjacent fields and meadows.   The only way to keep the snow at bay is to literally fence it in.  Hence the term “snow fence”.   After several years of taming snow, the fences start to come apart, and the boards are reclaimed into wonderfully weathered flooring and other products.

Have you seen an unusual source for reclaimed wooden floors?  We’d love to hear about it, so feel free to add it to the list in the comments below!

Interstyle

Oceanside Glasstile

Vetrocolor

Oceanside Glasstile

Hakatai

So, what do you think?

TORLYS

EcoDomo

Veledo by Merida

TING (made of leather belts)

Click on an image to find out more about the company.

Now, back to bed and a cup of tea for me.