Hardwood Flooring

by Dave Ferrari President Virginia Hardwood Co.

wood flooring scheme up the walls. It is being done in home recreation rooms, dens, and executive offices, clothing stores, fixture stores, and other types of retail complexes where it will lend an exotic backdrop to the products being sold. Plank is probably the most popular for wall paneling but parquet or a pattem such as herringbone can be used to beautiful effect.

Speaking ofplank, an interesting trend is taking place among d-i-y home remodelers, and professional interior decorators. The "linear look" is coming back. That's right the old fashioned wood strip look is "in!"

Of additional interest to home centers and building supply yards is that this new plank can be sold by the square foot! For instance, the Bruce Hampton plank measures 3" wide by 48" longone square foot. This unique feature enables the plank to be sold in a uniform measurement similar to parquet. And, since many retail merchandisers successfully promote parquet on the basis of "What you don't use, bring back and we'll give you credit for it," this same sales policy can now be applied to plank because of the simplicity in calculating returns.

Together with the strip look popularity, the latest color trend is toward light colored floors instead of dark. Decorators are asking for strip plank flooring in the lightest of colors even white. What a splendid opportunity for home centers, lumber yards, and building supply yards to capitalize on this current interior design color craze and promote the new strip plank to the d-i-yers on the basis of "Buy by the square foot and return what vou don't use!"