Parisian Apartment

Frédéric Chane was the architect for this modern Parisian apartment and a major feature is the single herringbone flooring from The Classics Collection. The collection boasts uncompromised quality wood flooring: a harmonious set of wood finishes, selected both for their aesthetic and technical aspects. The flooring celebrates the Japanese burning technique "shou-sugi-ban" revealing a hardened and textured oak using techniques that go beyond just staining are used, such as bleaching and core smoking. Grey UV oils seal the surface and contribute to the high resistance. The Classics are specifically adapted for residential, hospitality and retail projects using materials to withstand the test of time.

Alongside the engineered flooring, the studio's partners contributed bespoke furniture and joinery to the scheme, pieces selected and produced to complement the restrained material palette of the apartment and the clean geometry of the architect's vision. The project is a strong example of the studio's ability to work across cultural contexts, supplying London-made furniture to international residential commissions without compromise to craft or lead time.

Frederic Chane was the architect for this modern Parisian apartment, and a major feature is the single-herringbone flooring from The Classics Collection. The collection offers uncompromised quality wood flooring: a harmonious set of wood finishes, selected both for their aesthetic and technical aspects. The flooring celebrates the Japanese burning technique shou-sugi-ban, revealing a hardened and textured oak using methods that go beyond staining alone — bleaching and core-smoking among them. Grey UV oils seal the surface and contribute to the high resistance. The Classics range is specifically adapted for residential, hospitality and retail projects, using materials chosen to withstand the test of time.

Shou sugi ban — literally burnt cedar board — was originally a Japanese exterior-cladding technique for charring softwood to make it resistant to rot and fire. Translated into an interior oak floor, the principle remains the same: the timber is burned hard enough to char the surface and force a structural change in the upper grain, then brushed, sealed and oiled so the resulting texture is durable enough for residential traffic. The grey UV oils selected for this apartment hold the charred tone without darkening the room further than the architect intended.

Laid in a single-herringbone pattern, the boards run consistently across the apartment’s open plan to keep one continuous geometric reading underfoot regardless of room boundary. Each board was sorted at workshop for char depth and tone before delivery; the herringbone pattern was set out from a single starting point per floor plate to keep the diagonals true across changes in room width.