Over the past few years a steady rise in disposable income has coincided with the wider dissemination of design trends through an array of easily accessible media, making us keener than ever to incorporate new ideas in and around our homes.

One of the most recent and successful examples of how powerful fashion can be in affecting interior design is wood flooring, including solid and engineered real wood, and wood effect laminate.

Wood flooring has benefited enormously from the trend to more ‘natural’ flooring and away from carpet, as have materials such as stone, hessian, and seagrass.

The ‘redecoration cycle’, or rate at which consumers prefer to change their living spaces, is also increasing. This in turn affects the growth of wood flooring, as it is perceived to complement most interior schemes and can be easily ‘accessorised.’

The IKEA effect

Pale laminates have been the most popular type of wood flooring to date, due to the fashion trend for minimalist, Scandinavian-inspired design – ‘the IKEA effect’. Consumers have tended to choose beech, maple and light oak laminate flooring that matched their newly-purchased, neutral coloured furniture.

These lighter shades will be popular for some time to come, especially at the budget end of the market. However, the market is starting to shift and it appears that different laminate finishes are coming to the fore. Darker and warmer timber species such as merbau or cherry and more luxurious finishes like walnut are being driven by an increased emphasis on ‘individualism’.

Wood flooring is desired by a great number of consumers, but because so many of their friends and peers like it too, they are now searching for something that makes them different. They want flooring that says, “I am unique, innovative, special”.

Manufacturers and suppliers of laminate flooring have been fuelling this desire by introducing new patterns and styles, such as realistic timber grains, grooves, parquet block, more exotic timber species and even effects such as ceramic tile, stone and marble.

At Richard Burbidge we are following this new individualism, recently adding three new glueless laminates to our existing wide selection of textured, V-groove and planked boards and timber finishes.

And fashion has not only influenced the continued growth of laminates, it has helped engineered and solid timber flooring increase their market share too. The trend for ‘natural’ elements in interior design is clearly encouraging more consumers to go one step further and choose real timber flooring.

Engineered and solid flooring are incredibly aspirational, and more and more consumers appreciate that the organic features of real timber such as knots, grains and grooves give the flooring a unique character that changes over time, as the timber ages and mellows.

Individual designs

The range of real wood flooring planks, parquet blocks and tiles means that there is huge potential for individual flooring designs, for example borders, motifs, marquetry, inlays and combining light and dark species of timber. The opportunity for individual design is heightened by the fact that solid flooring is mainly installed by professional flooring contractors, who are able to create more complicated and distinctive flooring designs.

Looking at the market as a whole, there are a number of trends that translate across all wood flooring sectors. There is a move away from strip to plank floorboards and to more rustic features such as knots, highly textured/distressed surfaces and bevelled edges. Other likely trends are changes to floorboard sizes, both longer and wider, and surface finishes such as waxed and oiled.

Other developments showcased at the German flooring exhibition, Domotex, held in January this year included an increase in the number of exotic wood species such as zebrawood and wenge, aimed at the niche, ‘individualistic’ sectors. The rising popularity of solid oak flooring, particularly for the mass market, was also evident.