Options for bespoke oak flooring
We have some outstanding ranges of oak flooring at Charles Lowe & Sons. In our workshops we produce a wide, well proven colour palette across various ranges of unique and attractive surface textures, compassing styles to satisfy all manner of tastes. That is not to say that what we do is sacred or set in stone however. Our expert craftsmen love nothing more than to give vent to their abilities by venturing into the inspiring world of bespoke commissions. They know the potential, starting with ‘normal’ high quality solid or engineered oak flooring, some truly stunning floors have left their hands.
Most details of oak flooring can be altered. here bespoke panels are being produced in our workshops
Bespoke can mean anything from a completely unique specification, through to a simple tweak to a single element in one of our existing floors, like the distressing level, edge detail, the sheen or a bespoke colour match.
We produce every floor to order meaning that simple revisions to the details are very easily accommodated for you, often at no additional cost.
At the other end of the scale, a completely clean sheet or Carte blanche for your wooden flooring could be daunting, but there is no need to worry. We know what works and what doesn’t, we’ve seen most things there is to see with oak and flooring! We will guide you through and ensure that any bespoke changes will work together, are tasteful, and combine to achieve your objectives, a spectacular unique oak floor for your home or client.
Oak floors especially for you, made special by you.
We like to see our bespoke service as a bit like that of a high-quality tailor, creating you a beautiful suit of clothes, made to fit and suit you perfectly.
He will accommodate your special, personal, even slightly daring requests. He will execute them with enthusiasm and outstanding flair, but all the while he will offer great advice, let you know if you veer away from quality practices, good taste or what is appropriate for your requirements.
When he has finished, you will take ownership of a completely unique but practical, great looking and instantly recognisable, yet inspired suit, produced to exacting traditional standards.
We likewise skillfully produce magnificent, unique clotheing that is the most suitable for your home.
Charles Lowe and Sons have many years of experience in the workshop and can offer invaluable advice on bespoke flooring. Versailles panels production.
If you are looking for something specific in an oak floor, please do take a thorough look over our different ranges of oak flooring, the chances are high that you will find what you are looking for or one that makes a great starting point for your concept.
The sets of colours, textures and products you find on our website are inspired. But we would say, view them as great starting points, a solid foundation that you know are dependable, to be built upon, re-imagined and reformed to our client’s taste, or their property’s unique requirements. All our floors are made to order anyhow, so take the elements that you like and talk to us about the ones where you’d like to try something different. We’ll help you all the way.
At Charles Lowe and Sons, we spend time and effort carefully working on each floorboard. This workshop approach means we can easily adjust small details.
Bespoke Floor Sampling
We are always willing to produce samples of bespoke flooring requests.
Samples are important, we really believe in samples. The samples we send on request from the website forms for our standard range flooring are as big as we can practically make them for the mail, and letterboxes etc. When it comes to bespoke work this is all the more important, we throw caution to the wind.
When you are exploring bespoke options on your floor we are always happy to produce samples, long, wide, generous ones that we often we have to send via courier, how else are you going to develop an intimate impression of your new floor?
This is our service to you, with our compliments, it’s absolutely free of charge and zero obligation is implied. We know this sampling is incredibly valuable to you, and the fact is, it’s no less valuable to ourselves. We only ever want our experience and knowledge bank to grow and be fully up to date, this way we are always physically trying and producing every idea out there. We continually have the very best and latest advice on oak flooring, what works, what doesn’t, and why, this is the understanding and insight you know you can trust.
We cut a piece off the end of the sample piece of wood, label both carefully with a unique bespoke sample reference, along with the processes and formulas we used to produce it (it reads like a foreign language), you get the large end and we file away our piece here. Into the future whenever you contact us regarding that sample, we will be holding the other end of the same piece of oak as we speak to you!
Bespoke samples take a few days to get ready, there is always a careful build-up of textures, stains and oils and colours, each of these have to dry naturally, one at a time, often overnight. We love this work, it among some of the most satisfying we do.
Finishing a Versailles panel, Details mean everything in the final touches.
Floor patterns and flooring panels
Any herringbone, chevron, Versailles, plank, panel, block and patterned formats, in practically all widths and sizes are possible. Whether it be a classical design, a copy of a magnificent floor that has caught the client’s eye, or matching up to an existing floor, these are all often done.
To help a client visualise the results of a patterned floor in there room, we have what we believe is a unique service. We measure round and sketch up the room on the computer to create a series of previews of the flooring options in situ, before a single board has been laid down. It really helps to judge what it will look like and understand how a pattern will be set out. It also makes the many options for borders easier to explore.
Flooring finishes
We use a range of processes for all different kinds of finish.
Colour is often the most important adjustment we can make to your flooring. Completely bespoke colours are often produced, and can make all the difference in a room. Either as a unique foundation for your entire interior design scheme, or to match, even tie together, existing joinery.
Adjustments to the colour of one of our otherwise standard range floors does not normally incur an uplift on the standard pricing.
The finishing touches to a floorboard from polish to colour will change the feel of a room.
In the past we have even mixed two completely different colours into floor. We picked out the heart wood down the centre of each board with a different colour to the quarter sawn areas of grain in every board in the floor, blending them together and successfully producing a very natural tying together of two existing elements in the client’s property. These where an orange pine staircase, and the rest of her décor, which was a newer more contemporary grey theme!
We use various different types of hand plane and can set them up in many different ways to adjust the texture, effect and subtlety of the cut of the hand plane.
The way we wear the flooring, distressing types, marks and levels can all be amended to customer request and taste. We have quite a list of options on the type and method of edging the boards, from very subtle clean fine spoke shaving, all the way up to a much more dramatic broken edge, with many permutations in-between.
Extra special
If you have the urge to do something really different please just ask! We’ve done many things over the years.
The rice pudding floor
Here we inlayed coloured glass into pearlescent white boards to imitate the look of demerara sugar on rice pudding, for the floor in a gourmet rice pudding restaurant!
The Coca-Cola floor
Here we produced a floor the customers specification, it had to be Coca-Cola coloured, not as easy as it sounds, it had to be black when looking across it but if you looked down at the finish still be able to see the warm tones of the wood beneath! this is the result, exactly what the client asked for.
Charles Lowe & Sons Rich Footworn flooring..
here is an extra special finish we’ve produced a lot of times, weve given it its own name.
Our ‘Flootworn’ floor in rich colour, on very wide solid planks of English oak.
Here is our foot worn again, this time on enginnered boards and in the Ivy restaurant west end London.
The Ivy restaurant in London, with a bespoke floor by Charles Lowe and Sons.
the Unique appeal of oak
Commissioning bespoke oak flooring means you can truly design your house from the floor up, making the oak flooring a signature feature of the architectural design or to effortlessly match key furniture choices, or house features.
Bespoke flooring projects are usually the reserve of very grand, prestigious designs and homes, but for making your home uniquely yours, we bring them with range, ensuring you achieve the level of detail in the design to make your home truly special and unique.