How to Know if it's Timeless; Our Herringbone Floors

Just because something is trending, doesn&#;t also mean that it can&#;t be timeless as well. But how do you know? 

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After our herringbone wood floor was installed in our entry, I got to thinking that a really good test of whether you&#;re installing something timeless is to ask this question:

Would anyone walk into my house and immediately think, &#;Wow, these floors are so dated they need to come out immediately!!&#;

No, they wouldn&#;t.

But we would certainly say that about the basic taupe tile that everyone installed inside the grey trend &#; because it screams, &#;I was installed in the grey trend.&#; 

Yes, there are many ways to describe timeless, but I liked this one I found in the Collins Dictionary:

If you describe something as timeless, you mean that it is so good or beautiful that it cannot be affected by changes in society or fashion. 

Timeless really is about standing the test of time. Here&#;s another post where I defined it further. 

Herringbone Floors: Timeless or Trendy?

Herringbone floors fill the homes, hallways and streets of Europe and have for centuries. Is Herringbone trending right now? It definitely is. But it&#;s also a timeless pattern. It&#;s important to remember, just because something is trending, doesn&#;t mean it can&#;t be timeless. Timeless finishes have their moment too.

Taupe was THE MOST popular &#;grey&#; of this era because it&#;s basically a combination of grey and beige. This makes it look cooler than all the beiges. And while everyone wanted grey they often preferred the warmer side of the greys.

Get my newly designed (real paint) Understanding Undertones® Colour wheel here

Therefore, since my house was a custom build 12 years go, which would have been right in the middle of the grey trend, it&#;s no wonder I inherited a house that was filled with taupe from top to bottom.

This was the taupe 12&#; x 24&#; tile that was in the entry when we purchased the home. We interviewed a few hardwood flooring experts and found a company who located the existing engineered white oak flooring that we already had (and refinished it). It was ordered way back in November and just installed two weeks ago.

This was my inspiration photo:

In order to choose the pattern, we needed to decide which wall we would look at most &#; in other words, which area would be the focal point. This determines which direction the centre point would go:

We went with option 2 because when you walk into the entry you immediately see the staircase and the wall at the end of the hallway.

The other interesting tip is that the border going all the way around was ordered slightly wider than the existing wood floor boards I had (see the stained wood on the left in the photo below). The reason is that when the herringbone was installed this border board could be cut to size.

This eliminates small cuts when adding the herringbone boards &#; to accomodate for the full pattern. . . okay I&#;m not the expert and I&#;m likely describing this wrong. If you know, you know.

Here it is installed before it was stained to match the rest of my medium brown floors:

And here&#;s the after, so gorgeous!

Let&#;s see the before again, shall we:

And here&#;s the after:

You can watch the transformation here too:

For more information, please visit Herringbone Flooring.

Tired of hearing about grey wood floors?

Speaking of instagram, when I reposted my &#;Grey floors should never have been invented&#; reel on Instagram a couple weeks ago and it quickly amassed over a million views again. &#;

I wish I could turn this into a formula to use over and over again. I&#;ve talked about grey floors numerous times. What&#;s the magic with this video?

Unfortunately, it&#;s before I stopped putting black eyeliner under my eyes. After so many millennials were quick to inform me how bad it was, I changed my ways! They didn&#;t care for my red and yellow outfit as well, haha. 

In all seriousness, I stop reading the comments when a video goes viral because people are naturally upset that they realize they didn&#;t make the best decision. Sometimes you simply can&#;t &#;unsee&#; what I&#;ve pointed out. But if you are someone who found me from these videos, please know that it&#;s OK!

We ALL make mistakes in our decorating until we learn. And once we learn, we can do better next time.

That&#;s why I share some of my early design mistakes in my True Colour Expert Training. Every master was once a disaster, right?!

And, if you have grey floors, here&#;s how you can warm them up. Stick around, because my advice circles back to help you decorate around the things you cannot change too. Because I want you to love your home no matter what!

Since those videos on Instagram, I receive a lot of messages from followers asking me questions like, &#;Hey I&#;m considering ___________, is it trendy or timeless?&#;

There were also a lot of people who didn&#;t like my leopard runner (and that&#;s fine, I know it&#;s not for everyone) and declared it trendy. And, they&#;re not exactly wrong.

So here&#;s the thing, in my mind, carpet should NOT have an endless shelf life (ewwwww). Most people (if they can) are quick to replace inherited carpeting. It&#;s different than inherited stone floors or tile. 

Remember, timeless means that it&#;s so good or beautiful that it cannot be affected by changes in society or fashion &#; meaning you cannot immediately identify the trend cycle or era it was installed in.

Here&#;s my design philosophy. Install timeless finishes so that you can be trendy in your decorating. For example, it&#;s a lot easier and less expensive to replace your sofa or wallpaper, than replacing tile floors in your entry, sunroom or bathroom like I had to replace in this home. Not to mention disruptive and messy. 

The pushback that I get all the time are comments that sound like this:

&#;Install what you like. It&#;s YOUR house. YOU have to love it.&#;

This makes good copy in an article and it makes it easy for a salesperson to sell trendy finishes. But truly, we have all bought trendy items that quickly lost their charm as we watched them eventually or immediately look DATED.

That&#;s when we have &#;renovation regret&#; and wish we would have done something different. I bet each and every one of us has made this mistake before.

But that&#;s why boring now equals timeless later. When you install boring subway tile (for example) you can watch the trends come and go without getting upset that your renovation hadn&#;t started a little later because you&#;re already out of love with the trendy backsplash you installed.

If you&#;d like to learn how to decorate in a timeless way, become a True Colour Expert this Spring here.

Are you working on a renovation or new build this year? Work with me via eDesign here.

Related posts:

My New Leopard Print Runner

My New Living Room (Center Fireplace) Furniture Layout

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