Stories & Inspiration
How to Prevent Fading on Hardwood Floors: Design Guide
An architectural approach to managing sun exposure on wood floors, from spectrally selective glazing to finish choices and uniform patina development.
Protecting End Grain Wood Block Flooring from UV Fading
Discover the science of oak photodegradation and how to protect end-grain wood floors from UV fading using advanced varnishes and architectural design.
The Craft of Marquetry Parquet Flooring and Panels
Marquetry parquet flooring bridges historical French palace geometry with contemporary minimalism, bringing architectural structure to luxury interiors.
Modern Versailles Parquet: The Classic Panel in Today's Interiors
The woven oak panel first laid in a palace still works in a contemporary room. What changes is the color, the construction and how freely the weave is drawn.
What Is Smoked Oak Flooring and How Does It Age in Sun?
Discover what smoked oak flooring is, how core smoking protects against sun fading, and how natural light develops oak patina over time.
Wood Floors in the Bedroom: How to Choose a Calm, Quiet Floor
Wood is warm underfoot, easy to keep dust-free and lasts for decades in a low-traffic room. How to choose the color, finish, layout and acoustics of a bedroom floor.
Light Oak Flooring for Bright, Sunlit and Coastal Rooms
Pale oak suits sunlit and seaside rooms, if you get the finish right. How light oak changes in the sun, and what sand, humidity and glare mean for it.
Parquet Floor Restoration: Is an Old Parquet Floor Worth Saving?
Loose blocks, gaps, stains and a worn finish can all be put right. How to tell whether an old parquet floor is worth restoring, what the work involves, and when it is not.
Wood Floor Interior Design: Pairing Oak with Linen, Stone and Brass
Start with the floor, then balance it: stone for weight, linen for softness, brass for light. A practical guide to designing a room around wood.
Wide Plank Oak Flooring for a Minimalist Interior
Fewer joints, a clean grade, a low sheen and one direction through the house: how to choose wide plank oak for a minimalist interior, and when an end grain grid does the job better.
Wood Floor Colors: How Light, Warm and Dark Tones Change a Room
Light floors open a room, warm ones settle it, dark ones close it in. How to choose a wood floor color for your light, your furniture and the way you live.
An End Grain Oak Floor at the Hôtel de Crillon, Paris
The Butterfly Pâtisserie at the Hôtel de Crillon is floored in Opus, endgrain oak in the Natural finish. What the floor is and why it suits the room.
Wood Floor Direction: Which Way Should Boards Run?
Along the long wall and toward the light, in most rooms. How light, the entrance, room shape and structure decide which way wood floor boards run.
What Is the Best Wood Flooring for a Family Home?
Oak, a stable layered board, a finish you can maintain and a tone that forgives: what actually makes a wood floor stand up to children and pets.
Squeaky Wood Floors: Why They Squeak and How to Fix Them
A squeak is friction: wood on wood, wood on a nail, or a subfloor moving on its joists. Find which one it is and the fix follows.
Parquet Flooring Installation: Glue-Down vs Floating Floors
Glued, floated or nailed: how parquet flooring is installed, why herringbone, chevron and end grain are glued down, and what a good fitter checks first.
Parquet Flooring Cost: What Drives the Price of a Wood Floor
Boards, pattern, finish, subfloor and fitting: what makes up the cost of a parquet floor, why patterns and end grain cost more, and how to compare quotes.
Chestnut Flooring: How It Compares to Oak (and Elm)
Chestnut looks like oak without the ray fleck, warmer and softer. Sweet and American chestnut, how elm compares, and when oak is the better choice.
Cherry Wood Flooring: Color, Hardness and How It Ages
Cherry starts pale pink and turns a deep reddish brown in light. What that means on a floor, how soft it is next to oak, and how to get a similar warmth in oak.
How to Clean a Parquet Floor: A Simple Care Routine
Dry dust often, mop rarely and barely damp, never steam: the routine that keeps a parquet floor clean, and how lacquered, oiled and endgrain floors differ.
Bespoke Parquet Flooring: What It Means and What to Expect
Bespoke parquet is a floor composed for one room: its pattern, layout and finish decided by the designer. How a project runs, step by step, and what to check.
Smoked Oak Flooring: What It Is and How It Differs from Stain
How smoking darkens oak from inside, why it wears better than stain, why no two boards match, and how smoked and charred oak floors compare.
Luxury Wood Flooring: How to Choose the Right Collection
Four decisions narrow any luxury wood floor down to one collection: the cut of the wood, the pattern, the finish and the traffic it must carry.
How Bespoke Parquet Flooring Is Made: From Endgrain Cut to Joint
From oak cut on its endgrain to a spiral bent four meters across: how a bespoke parquet floor is made, finished and laid, and what you decide along the way.
What Makes Luxury Wood Flooring Different?
Not the price tag: the cut of the wood, how the floor is built, where the color comes from and what it is rated for. Here is how OscarOno Paris answers each one.
What to Expect from Milan Design Week
The trade fair, the city-wide events, the districts and how to plan your days, plus what to look for in the materials on show.
Design Fairs Worth Knowing: Milan, Paris, Copenhagen and Beyond
Which design fairs matter, when they happen, what each one is for, and how to get the most from a few days on the floor.
Warm Wood Floor Colors: How to Choose and Pair Them
Honey, amber and smoked brown: what makes a wood floor color warm, how light changes it, and what to pair it with on the walls and in the room.
Marquetry Flooring: What It Is and How It Differs from Parquet
Borders, medallions, inlaid squares and grain turned against grain: what marquetry flooring is, how it is made, and how it differs from ordinary parquet.
French Oak Flooring: What It Is and What Really Matters
Where French oak comes from, why its forests grow straight, even trees, and why grade, cut and finish matter more than the country of origin.
How Parquet Flooring Is Made: From Tree to Floor
From log to finished floor in seven steps: sawing, drying, grading, building the board, cutting the pattern and finishing, and what each step changes in the floor you walk on.
Light Oak Flooring: How Daylight Changes a Pale Oak Floor
Why light oak floors look different at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., in north and south rooms, matte and glossy, and how to pick a pale oak that suits your light.
Parquet de Versailles and Other Heritage Floors for Period Homes
Versailles panels for the grandest rooms, chevron and herringbone for the rest: how to choose a floor that belongs in a period house, and the finish that keeps it there.
Wide Plank Flooring in an Open-Plan Home: One Floor Throughout
One floor, one direction, no thresholds: how to run wide plank flooring through an open-plan home, zone it without changing material, and plan the kitchen, the edges and the step outside.
Wood Floor Acoustics: How to Make a Wood Floor Quieter
A wood floor raises two separate noise problems: echo in the room and footsteps heard downstairs. What causes each, and what actually fixes it.
Japandi Flooring: Choosing a Wood Floor for a Japandi Interior
Pale, matte, quiet: what a Japandi floor looks like, why straight boards and simple grids suit it, and where a charred black floor belongs.
Wabi-Sabi Interiors: Choosing Imperfect Wood That Ages Well
What wabi-sabi means for a room, how it differs from Japandi and minimalism, and how to choose a wood floor that grows better with age.
Luxury Wood Flooring and Quiet Luxury: Why Texture Matters
In a quiet luxury interior the floor carries the room. What makes wood flooring feel luxurious: texture, depth, finishes that age well and a quiet footfall.
Biophilic Design Flooring: Why Natural Wood Makes Rooms Feel Better
The floor is the largest natural surface most rooms can have. What biophilic design asks of it, and what the evidence on wood and wellbeing really says.
Hotel Flooring: How to Choose Wood That Lasts in Hospitality
Heavy traffic, fire rules and no time to close: what to check in hotel flooring, which wood suits each area, and how it is kept looking good.
Dark Wood Floors: A Practical Guide to Designing With Them
How to light a room with a dark wood floor, what to pair it with, which surfaces hide dust, and why the way the color is made matters more than the color.
Wood and Marble Floors: How to Pair Them and Join Them Flush
Where the wood should stop and the stone begin, how to make the joint flush, and how to choose a pattern and finish that sit well beside marble.
Wood Floor Colors: How to Choose Warm, Cool or Neutral Tones
Pale, honey, brown, black or gray: what each wood floor color does to a room, how to read its undertone, and how to match it to walls and furniture.
Wood Flooring Trends 2026: What Is Rising and What Is Fading
Light oak, wider boards, chevron, endgrain, smoked oak and woven parquet: the wood flooring trends for 2026, measured in search interest, not opinion.
How to Prevent Fading on Hardwood Floors
Light changes every wood floor. What causes it, how each species reacts, and the layered measures that slow the change and keep it even.
Wood Floors in Kitchens and Bathrooms: What to Know
Yes in the kitchen, sometimes in the bathroom: which wood floors and finishes work around water, where to stop, and how to look after them.
Wood Floors and Underfloor Heating: What Works and What Doesn't
Yes, oak and underfloor heating work well together. Which boards to choose, how to lay them, and the temperature rule that protects the wood.
Chevron Flooring: What Point de Hongrie Is and How to Use It
Boards cut at an angle, meeting point to point on one straight line: what chevron flooring is, where the name point de Hongrie comes from, and how to lay it well.
Summer 2025
At OscarOno Paris, we’re drawn to materials that tell a story. Stories that reveal their beauty not despite their transformation, but because of it. Enter Shou Sugi Ban: the centuries-old Japanese...
Matte Wood Floor Finish vs Gloss: Choosing a Floor Sheen
Matte, satin or gloss: what each sheen does to the look of a wood floor, which one hides scratches, and why the shine has nothing to do with how tough the finish is.
White Oak Flooring: Bleached, Limed and Whitewashed Finishes
Bleached, limed, whitewashed or lye-treated: four ways to make an oak floor paler, what each looks like, and how to keep it from turning yellow.
When to Refinish Hardwood Floors: Signs, Sanding and Finishes
Scuffs need a recoat; bare wood needs sanding. How to tell which your floor needs, how many times it can be sanded, and how to make the finish last longer.
How to Repair Scratches in a Wood Floor, Oiled or Lacquered
Most scratches in a wood floor can be repaired. How to tell how deep a scratch is, and what to do on an oiled or a lacquered floor.
Smoked Oak Flooring: How Fuming Darkens Oak Naturally
Smoked and fumed oak are the same thing: oak darkened by ammonia reacting with its own tannins. How it works, why boards vary, and how it compares with a dark stain.
What Is Wood Floor Patina, and Why Is It Desirable?
Light changes the color of wood and feet polish its surface. Here is how a wood floor patina forms, how each species ages, and how to care for it.
How to Clean an Oiled Parquet Floor and When to Re-Oil It
Oiled parquet is cleaned with soap, not detergent, and renewed with oil, not sanding. How to wash it, when to re-oil, and how to repair marks yourself.
What Is Hardwax Oil and How Does It Protect a Wood Floor?
Oils that soak in, waxes that stay on top: how hardwax oil protects a wood floor, how it compares with lacquer, and what it asks of you in return.
Oiled vs Lacquered Wood Floors: Which Finish Is Best?
Oil soaks in and can be patched; lacquer seals the surface and wipes clean. How the two finishes compare on look, spills, scratches and upkeep, and which suits which room.
Parquet Borders, Friezes and Inlays: How to Frame a Wood Floor
What a parquet border, a frieze and an inlay each do, which patterns need framing, and how to plan the edge of a herringbone or panel floor.
Wide Plank Flooring: How Board Size Changes a Room
What counts as wide plank flooring, how board width and length change the way a room looks, and when narrow boards are the better choice.
Spring 2025
Perched amidst breathtaking mountain scenery, the Colorado Suite embodies the perfect synergy between architecture and nature. Designed by Simon Hamui, this refined retreat seamlessly blends natural...
Herringbone Flooring: Why the Pattern Never Goes Out of Style
Pure geometry with no ornament to date it: why herringbone flooring has lasted, and how board width and color keep it current.
Parquet Patterns for Small Rooms: Which Make a Space Feel Larger
Chevron for long, narrow rooms, herringbone for square ones, straight boards when you want calm: how pattern, board width, direction and color change a small room.
What Is Versailles Parquet? The Famous French Panel Explained
A square frame filled with a woven diagonal lattice: what parquet de Versailles is, where it comes from, how the panels are made and how to lay them in a room.
The History of Parquet Flooring: From Versailles to Today
From Roman herringbone and the oak panels of Versailles to Paris apartments and today's layered boards: how parquet became the floor it is.
Herringbone vs Chevron: How to Tell Them Apart
Square ends or angled ends: how to tell herringbone from chevron at a glance, what each does to a room, and which costs more.
Wood Flooring and Allergies: Is a Wood Floor Better Than Carpet?
Why a wood floor holds fewer allergens than carpet, what actually affects indoor air (finishes, adhesives, rugs), and the cleaning routine that keeps it that way.
How Long Does Wood Flooring Last? Lifespan by Type
Solid, engineered or end grain: how long each kind of wood floor lasts, why the wood above the joint matters most, and what actually wears a floor out.
What Makes Wood Sustainable? A Guide to Sustainable Wood Flooring
Certified forests, an unbroken chain of custody, no wasted wood and a floor that lasts: the four things that make a wood floor sustainable, and how to check them.
Light Oak Flooring vs Ash, Maple and Beech: Choosing a Pale Floor
Ash, maple, beech or oak: what each pale wood looks like on a floor, how it ages in sunlight, and why light oak is the usual choice.
What Is Bog Oak? How Morta Wood Turns Black Over Millennia
Oak that lay for thousands of years in a peat bog, blackened by iron and tannin: how bog oak forms, what it is like to work and live with, and the alternatives.
Figured Wood: Burl, Fiddleback and Bird's-Eye Explained
What causes burl, fiddleback and bird's-eye figure, why figured wood seems to move in the light, and why floors show figure in a different way.
Reclaimed Wood Flooring: What It Is and Whether It Suits Your Home
Old beams, barn boards and salvaged parquet blocks: where reclaimed wood flooring comes from, what it costs you in care and waste, and what to ask before you buy.
Why Wood Floors Move, and How Engineered Wood Flooring Helps
Wood swells in humid air and shrinks in dry air. Here is why, why floors gap in winter, and why engineered wood flooring moves far less than solid boards.
Quarter Sawn vs Plain Sawn Oak Flooring: What's the Difference
The angle of the saw to the growth rings decides how an oak board looks, how much it moves and what it costs. Plain, quarter, rift and live sawn, explained.
Oak Flooring Grades Explained: Prime, Select and Rustic
Prime, select, rustic, AB, CD: what oak flooring grades actually sort for, why a rustic board is as tough as a prime one, and how to pick the grade that suits your room and pattern.
Walnut Flooring: Color, Hardness, Care and an Oak Alternative
What walnut flooring looks like, why it lightens with age, how it compares with oak for wear, how to care for it, and how to get the look in oak.
How Hard Is Oak? Oak Janka Hardness Explained
Oak scores around 1,300 lbf on the Janka scale. What that number measures, how oak compares with walnut, maple, hickory and teak, and what Janka does not tell you.
European Oak Flooring vs American White Oak: The Real Differences
European and American white oak are close cousins. Here is what actually differs between them, why red oak is another matter, and what decides how an oak floor looks and lasts.
Engineered vs Solid Wood Flooring: Which Should You Choose?
Solid boards or a hardwood top layer on a cross-layered core: how the two are built, where each works best, and what to compare before you buy.
What Is End Grain Flooring, and Why Does It Last?
End grain blocks put the ends of the wood fibers at the surface. Here is what that means for wear, sound, finish and installation.
Best of 2024
Parkline Place, designed by the internationally acclaimed Foster+Partners, is redefining Sydney’s skyline with its stunning architecture and forward-thinking design, setting a new standard for...
Best of 2023
At the 2023 edition of Maison & Objet, Raphael Navot was aworded as Designer of the Year 2023. OscarOno Paris is particulary proud of Raphael as he’s the designer of our Opus Collection and Forêt...
Design Miami | Masters Expo
This year again, OscarOno Paris is partnering with les Ateliers Courbet for their booth on Design Miami. Ateliers Courbet to unveil new works from its editions Courbet catalogue of artists &...
We Design You Create | October
Opus Simple (flatgrain) is the democratic alternative to Opus (endgrain), an organic endless pattern obtained with just one tile. Inspired by mosaico in Venice during ancient times, the Opus...
We Design You Create | Get Inspired
Nildo José, a renowned Brazilian interior architect, has crafted a captivating interior design project that exudes both minimalism and warmth. Throughout the 400 m2 apartment, our Classics collection...
Get Inspired | Autumn 2022
This year again, OscarOno Paris is partnering up with les Ateliers Courbet for their booth on Design Miami (Nov 30 – Dec 04). Les Ateliers Courbet will unveil a limited series of hand-crafted...
Best of 2021 | Knock on Wood 2022
The Opus Collection creates an organic endless Terrazzo pattern with just one single tile. This handmade wooden surface comes completely preassembled, ready to install tile by tile with seamless...
Les Ateliers Courbet | The Master Craftsmen’s Gallery
Born in Jerusalem, Raphael Navot moved to Paris, where he currently works and resides, after graduating from Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The multidisciplinary designer focuses on...
Amazing Wood Stories: The Man Who Talked to Trees
Did you know a couple of architects prevented a very peculiar set of trees from going extinct? Find out about this amazing tree story.
Shou-Sugi-Ban
Hardwood has been used since the beginning of time to create homes and artifacts. The evolution of mankind is deeply connected to the invention of techniques and traditions to tame raw materials...
We Follow Nature Not Trends
Nature is life but it also is climate change and disasters. Nature is wild and powerful, yet it needs to be preserved. Nature is beauty, light, colours, and lines. Nature is all four elements...
Raphael Navot
Raphael Navot is a discreet man yet an impressive interior architect. Our first event together was on the set of the 2016 edition of the AD Intérieurs exhibition at the Monnaie de Paris. It also...
Get Inspired | Opus Launch
The Opus Collection is a unique handmade wooden surface that comes completely preassembled.