When it comes to selecting hardwood floors for your home, there’s more to think about besides wood species and color. Because you want your floors to represent your family’s personality, and be beautiful for years to come, an important factor to consider is design. How wide will the planks be? How will they be arranged?

Hardwood Flooring Plank Trends

At San Jose Hardwood Floors we see two common plank trends:

• Wide Plank Hardwood Flooring
• Random Width Hardwood Flooring

No matter what type of species you're looking into, random width or wide plank hardwood flooring will likely be available; there doesn't seem to be a trend toward certain widths for certain species. Although design trends are showing a lot of white oak, walnut, hickory and European oak, what we've been seeing at San Jose Hardwood Floors is homeowners customizing their hardwood flooring to match their own personal styles and tastes. You can even mix up the different plank sizes like the Santa Clara kitchen above, with 13-, 14-, 15- and 16-inch hickory planks.

What is Wide Plank Hardwood Flooring?

Wide plank hardwood flooring boards are a uniform length throughout the floor. A continuing trend that’s becoming more and more popular, these hardwood floors are made from boards that are at least 6 inches wide, although they are usually much wider. New hardwood flooring with wide planks is hard to find, but there are a lot of fantastic options made from reclaimed wood, meaning that in addition to being eco-friendly, the boards are rich with character and history.

What is Random Width Hardwood Flooring?

Random width hardwood flooring is growing popularity, likely due to homeowners realizing that it's an available option. How is it different than wide plank flooring? Just like the name implies, these planks come in varying sizes throughout the floor, adding an element of personalized style to a home. We've seen clients mix the boards throughout the hardwood floors randomly or in a certain pattern. You can also choose to use extremely narrow planks, ultra-wide planks or a mixture of anything in between. Plus you aren’t limited by length of the boards – they can be as long or short as you’d like. As with other types of hardwood flooring, the possibilities are endless!

4 Random Width Wood Flooring Pattern Facts

Here are 4 facts to know about random width wood flooring patterns:

• Random width flooring has limitless design possibilities. From a pattern that uses 3-inch, 4-inch and 6-inch boards to a style with five different widths in no discerning pattern, you can use these hardwood flooring patterns to reflect your family’s preferences and personality without an extremely bold choice.
• Despite a random look and feel, these types of hardwood flooring patterns are planned out very carefully prior to installation. It’s definitely worth it to hire a professional to make sure the precise calculations are correct and the distribution of boards looks natural.
• These hardwood floors can give the illusion of a larger space, which is why they’re so popular for small areas.
• Random width flooring is a very natural option, so it’s definitely worth considering if you want a rustic home. Curious why? If you think about it, before we were able to cut planks to the exact same size, hardwood floors used were created with boards randomly sawn off of logs. This design uses modern techniques to create a style that harkens back to a different time.

Do you know if you want wide plank hardwood flooring or random width hardwood flooring? Boards can be ordered in just about any width, as little as an inch wide to a foot and more. Our certified experts can help you figure out the exact type of hardwood floors you're looking for in your home, so come visit our showroom or contact us today for your free in-home quote!