Weathered wood floor is a term used to describe everything from distressed wood floor, whitewashed wood floor and even reclaimed wood floor. A highly popular option for anyone looking for something a bit different, this type of flooring adds real charm and a highly modern twist to any room.
Anything that looks old right now has a really strong appeal, because it suggests that the owner has a strong connection with the past and has perhaps inherited the item or enjoyed it for many years. In order to get the idea of this concept, all you need to think about is jeans that have been deliberately holed, ripped and have had paint splashed on them. This type of product, along with aged leather goods and home furnishings, has a real kudos about it and is highly sought after. Flooring is no different, and with a bit of shopping around you can either seek out a genuinely old, reclaimed floor, or a new, modern product that will fit the bill.
Reclaimed flooring is in big demand right now and everything from school gyms to church halls are seeing their floors enjoying a second life. This is great news for anyone who’s patient enough to hang around until their dream floor comes on the market. Although there are a growing number of reclaimed wood flooring resellers on the market, tracking down exactly what you want at a price you are prepared to pay is a game of patience in many cases. Making sure you build some flexibility into your plans and ideas will always help you sniff out a reclaimed wood flooring option that will work for you, so do try to have an open mind if you’re fixed on this option.
A real and credible alternative to reclaimed wood flooring is new wood flooring that has been artificially (either by machine or by hand) made to look old. Opting for this sort of flooring to achieve the weathered look you’re after, will not only reduce your price tag in most instances, but it will also enable you to have a wider choice and an immediate result.
There are various ways that a new floor can take on a weathered look. Here are just some ideas to help you achieve what you’re looking for:
Whitewashed: if you fancy a light coloured floor that has a nice, weathered look then a whitewashed floor is hard to beat. Whitewashing as a paint technique dates back decades and originally was achieved using a combination of calcium hydroxide and chalk. A way of protecting wood that was associated with poor people in its day, whitewashing today is a greatly appreciated way of making new wood look old.
At Wood and Beyond, we have a superb range of white and whitewashed flooring to choose from and you’ll find it here. Within this range, you’ll find solid and engineered white washed options that have either been oiled and brushed or lacquered. You’ll even find a really unusual fired, brushed and white oiled option that has a seriously unusual weathered look.
Distressed: Today, distressing is used to make everything from handbags and purses to jeans and sofas look old. While previous generations would no doubt find our obsession with stuff that looks old completely bizarre, basically if something looks old, to many of us it has even more value.
When it comes to flooring, there are various ways of distressing floor boards to make them look old. First, there is hand distressing, which involves hitting the boards with chains, hammers, scrapers and basically anything that’ll cause damage. Needless to say, any technique that’s carried out by hand adds significantly to the price tag. Thereafter, distressing can be carried out by machine using a technique called tumbling. Tumbling involves placing the boards in a big drum that contains damaging objects and the drum is then turned, a bit like a giant tumble drier and the boards become damaged. Here are some great examples of distressed flooring.
So, if you have your heart set on a weathered floor and are fed up waiting around for the right reclaimed option to come along, there really is no excuse to wait any longer. At Wood and Beyond we offer both free samples and we have a London showroom, so you can touch and feel our flooring products before you buy. Add to this our money back guarantee and you start to see why so many people are choosing us for their weathered flooring project.