Give in to wood planks

For centuries, hard-wood planks have been the ultimate material for residential floors. Combining exceptional durability with unrivalled good looks, oak, walnut, cherry or other solid-wood floorboards add value and beauty to any home they grace.

“Timber beams and wood paneling have always played important roles in historical and contemporary residential design, and continue to do so,” said Linda Jovanovich of the American Hardwood Information Center, hardwoodinfo.com. “But in addition to these classic applications, we’ve seen a strong trend toward the use of floorboard-style wood planks on ceilings and walls. Homeowners are finding it’s a great way to create interiors that are clean and modern yet still have a traditional warmth.”

New York-based interior designer Laura Bohn agreed. A case in point is a vacation home in Aspen, Colorado, where Bohn used tongue-and-groove red oak planks on the floors and living-area ceilings. In some rooms, the wood ceilings extend past clerestory windows to create covered porches that link the interior of the house to the mountain landscape outside. More drama is provided by the natural light that streams through the clerestories and across the ceilings, changing the look of the red oak boards throughout the day.

Rebecca Ascher, principal at Ascher Davis Architects in New York and Newport, Rhode Island, pointed out that only large, high-ceiling rooms can accommodate such visually distinctive overhead treatment without being overwhelmed.

Home renovators discovered that installing new wood floorboards overhead is not only a surefire way to refresh an interior — even change its character entirely, if so desired — but also an effective method of covering old, damaged ceilings with relative ease. Similar decorative and architectural transformations can be achieved by covering existing walls with wood planking. A feature wall clad in honey-colored oak or some other distinctive hardwood can give a room focus, bringing a sense of organization and intention to what was previously an amorphous or confused space. It can also add warmth, color and texture to sleek, modernist interiors that can sometimes feel chilly or austere.

Installing hardwood planking on existing walls has become even easier in recent years with the development of self-adhesive boards. “All you need is a wall surface that has been primed or painted and is clean, dry, and relatively flat,” said Jack Shannon, III of Rustick Wood Co. in Tennessee.

For more information, visit hardwoodinfo.com.

This article is courtesy of Brandpoint.