Wood floors grow in popularity as options expand

Last fall, when Dennis and Misty Glorioso renovated the Sykesville home they bought from Misty's father, one of their immediate priorities was to add hardwood floors.

The house, which was built in the early 1980s, was chopped up into several small rooms in the main living area, with floors covered in old carpet and linoleum. The Gloriosos knew they wanted a more streamlined, open-floor plan and updated floors.

When they began working with Roger Evans, the owner of Monkton-based Evans Contracting, on the renovation, the Gloriosos discovered that within the hardwood flooring category, they had a lot of choices.

Hardwood floors are classic, they learned, but that doesn't mean they're static. From vintage boards to high-tech finishes, current trends in hardwood flooring are anything but boring.

For the Gloriosos' home, Evans recommended reclaimed wood floors produced by The Woods Company, a Chambersburg, Pa.-based company specializing in vintage wood. The wood chosen, called "Antique Oak Remilled," looks natural and full of personality next to the Gloriosos' modern kitchen and eclectic mix of midcentury and modern furniture.

"I like the character," says Dennis Glorioso. "It's not perfect and doesn't have a blemish-free surface. I like the finishing a natural wood look, not a crazy shiny veneer. It looks like wood sitting on the ground, but it's sealed."

Though reclaimed and antique wood has been available for decades, use of imperfect wood floors in modern spaces is a relatively new phenomenon, says Barry Stup, who founded The Woods Company in the mid-1980s.

"In the early days, I was responding to restoration demands," he says. "People were doing old home restoration and needed the correct materials. Then time passed and people started doing new construction in a vintage style."

Stup points to popular home inspiration websites, where interest in vintage materials for everything from flooring to furnishings is flourishing.

"In the past three years, the term 'repurposed' has come into vogue you can see it on Houzz or Pinterest," he says. "There's a renewed interest in preserving and reusing materials."

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Wood floors grow in popularity as options expand