Herringbone, Chevron, Versailles Wood Parquet Floors

Elegant Wood Floor Patterns for Your Home

The most elegant wood floor patterns – such as herringbone, chevron, and Versailles – are known as parquet floors.

When you select parquet floors from Michigan Hardwood Floor Services, you are choosing a beautiful, long-lasting, hand-crafted hardwood floor created based on time-tested European wood-working techniques handed down through the centuries.

Parquet Floors Table of Contents

What is a Parquet Floor?

The History of Parquet Floors

What Makes Parquet Floors so Beautiful and Durable?

Selecting a Pattern for Your Hardwood Parquet Flooring

Gallery of Herringbone and Chevron Parquet Floor Patterns

Contact Michigan Hardwood Floor Services for Your Parquet Floors

What is a Parquet Floor?

A parquet floor is a hardwood floor installed with a pattern or design. This design can be simple or extremely complex. Herringbone floors as an example offer a straightforward angularity, while a Versailles pattern opts for a more intricate design. In both of those cases, parquet wood flooring captivates great visual interest and introduces a whole new level of beauty to any traditional or contemporary space.

Traditional hardwood installation involves laying wood strips side by side. With hardwood parquet flooring, the hardwood floorboards are installed in varied patterns. This type of flooring originated in Europe in the 16th century and has been a symbol of luxury and elegance ever since.

The History of Parquet Floors

Hardwood parquet flooring dates back to the 1500s when large sums of money were paid for highly detailed and finely-crafted parquet floor designs in the manors and castles of Europe. When you visit the Palace of Versailles, for example, one of the main attractions is the hardwood floors. This work of art has become such a celebrated portion of the Palace that the particular flooring pattern, Versailles, has been named after it.

Whether it be herringbone, chevron, or Versailles, these patterns adorned European castles and were adopted into American homes in the late 60s. These parquet patterns not only add beauty and sophistication to the space but they have also performed well over centuries thanks to keeping the temperature inside these palatial spaces at a constant temperature so as not to affect the condition of the wood.

Beauty and durability – no wonder that high-quality parquet is making a comeback with herringbone, chevron, and Versailles floor pattern installations in many of the finest homes and spaces in the country.

What Makes Parquet Floors So Beautiful and Durable?

What is the secret to the beauty of these floors? The hardwood itself and more importantly the quality of the wood used matters. So does the wood-working technique used to create these different parquet floor patterns.

What Kind of Wood is Used in Parquet Floors?

Any type of wood can be used to make hardwood parquet flooring.

Many homeowners choose oak parquet flooring for its warmth and versatility but any species used for traditional installation are often adopted for a parquet pattern. To add more visual interest, some installations involve two types of wood or colors, while others mix materials such as wood and tile to create a singular look.

Why Are Handcrafted Woodworking Techniques Important for Parquet Floors

An important aspect of high-quality herringbone, chevron, and Versailles parquet floors is how the wood is milled, which affects how it is installed and how the end product will perform.

Stronger and Sturdier Parquet Floors

Michigan Hardwood Floor Services handcrafts parquet floor patterns using time-tested European wood-working techniques to individually mill each wooden board with a tongue at one end and a groove at the other end.

This milling technique allows for one individual board to serve as the left side, and another wooden board to serve as the right side. What results is a stronger and sturdier floor. The tongue is lathed from the wooden board and does not need to be glued to the spline at the ends to obtain a left-sided board or a right-sided board.

More Fluid Flooring Installation

This method also allows for a more fluid installation — instead of being slowed down by stopping and gluing the spline at the end of the board, the installer just guides the wooden boards so they neatly secure to one another.

This method ensures all boards are locked together properly and the entire installation blends into one piece. In this way, each of the boards intertwines with one another ultimately creating one single herringbone installation piece.

This is in contrast to modern methods that depend on tongue-in-groove boards to ensure the stability of the installation.

Selecting a Pattern for Your Hardwood Parquet Flooring 

When it comes to selecting a parquet pattern, you have three major categories to choose from: herringbone, chevron, and the Versailles Pattern.

You have different effects to consider such as beveled edges, hand-scraping, and the type of wood to use. Below you see an example of each of the three major parquet patterns.

Herringbone

Herringbone is one of the most sought-after patterns. In this pattern, boards of equal length are arranged in a zig-zag pattern across the floor.

Chevron

The Chevron pattern is more contemporary for parquet flooring, with many homeowners choosing a Chevron pattern with boards arranged in a series of V shapes.

In a Chevron floor, the ends of the boards are cut at an angle so as to form the V-shape.

Versailles

Versailles is a very intricate parquet pattern with a woven appearance. Named after the famous Chateau of Versailles palace of King Louis XIV (also known as Louis the Great), this pattern features boards that are cut in a range of long and short lengths.

Gallery of Herringbone and Chevron Parquet Floor Patterns

Below, you will find a gallery of herringbone and chevron patterns in different wood types.

Herringbone Patterns

Chevron Patterns

Contact Michigan Hardwood Floor Services for Your Parquet Floors

Michigan Hardwood Floors Services, LLC. provides hardwood parquet flooring produced in a range of patterns as well as custom patterns for a design unique to you. We handcraft each board one at a time so your floors become works of art that transform the space they grace.

Craftmanship is timeless, as are herringbone, chevron, and Versailles parquet floor patterns.