Parquet flooring in kitchen/family room

[SLad]

Dear all,

Hope some clever family roomer can help with this. We're designing our new family room (knocking through to create a big kitchen/dining/family snug space) and I love reclaimed parquet flooring. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of using it in a kitchen and could provide some insight? I'm assuming that so long as it's well sealed it should be fine, will be relatively warm underfoot (compared to the existing freezing cold slate we have in our kitchen at the moment) and forgiving for small bodies who are prone to fall over onto it a lot.

Or is it just a big nightmare around water?

Thanks in advance for all your help with this.

S

[Lochie]

We moved into a new house a few weeks ago and the old owner had put parquet flooring in the hallway and kitchen/dining room. It looks amazing and everyone who has visited us has commented on the floor! In terms of actually living with it, I would say that it never feels cold underfoot and we've had no problems with staining so far (I have two young children who treat the floor like a bin). It does feel less of a threat to small people who may fall over which also is a bit of a relief. The old owner said she just kept it clean with a mop and bucket so don't think its that difficult to maintain either.

[SLad]

Wow, that's great news Lochie. Thank you for your post. Certainly makes me feel a bit more confident about exploring this route. There are some beautiful bits of reclaimed parquet out there and I can't wait to see how it would look in our home!

Thanks again

X

[treehugger]

Over the years my husband has laid a number of reclaimed parquet floors (one came from the hospital in west square that was being demolished and one from the BBC!). I have really loved them: warm, beautiful and easy to clean. They need to be re-oiled once or twice a year so they don't look too scuffed and high heels will mark them, but apart from that, I think they are a perfect choice for a kitchen, family room or even bathroom.