Carlisle Wide Plank Floors - Preserving the Authentic Beauty of Nature
In a world where organic materials and a connection to nature are more important than ever before, artisan-crafted wide plank wood floors offer a unique way to bring the “art of wood” into interior spaces.
For more than 50 years, Carlisle Wide Plank Floors has handcrafted the finest wood floors in America – each one reflecting the natural beauty of the highest quality raw materials available. Carlisle takes great pride in its time-honored processes, from sourcing the soundest and most reliable timber grown in America’s forests to embracing a level of craftsmanship equally at home with traditional rustic themes or with fashion-forward style.
Carlisle believes that every detail of every floor matters. Whether it’s just the right shade of gray or the nuance of a hand-scraped edge, the company’s design team collaborates with each client to define a personalized, custom-made floor. And while that floor may be selected from Carlisle’s extensive, curated Collections or be uniquely designed to match a specific vision, it will be realized in the same way: one plank at a time.
Founded in 1966, Carlisle Wide Plank Floors originally sawed, cured and milled solid Eastern White Pine boards over 20 inches wide to be used in the restoration of Early American homes. Throughout the decades, the company has expanded its manufacturing capabilities and honed its unique finishing methods to encompass a wide spectrum of woods, textures and finishes to create distinctive masterpieces for the home.
Most of the timber Carlisle uses today can be found in forests throughout America. Carlisle works exclusively with a small, carefully selected group of sawyers who responsibly harvest wood from regions of the country where each species grows best. Boards are created from the center (or heart) of the tree, where the oldest growth wood can be found. These timbers feature more heartwood and dense vertical grain – characteristics important to the stability and beauty of a wide plank floor. Because Carlisle boards all originate from the same stand of timber, the resulting floors exhibit a richer, more consistent color than found in mass produced products, and a cohesiveness that emanates across the entire floor.
Approaching the creation of a wood floor as a labor of love, Carlisle’s skilled artisans carefully craft each floor – shaping and refining each plank while preserving the timber’s natural beauty. This custom, hand-crafted approach incorporates meticulously-practiced techniques to bring to light the inherent essence and character of each plank. As many as two dozen pairs of hands will touch each floor during its journey from rough timber to a work of art.
In addition to offering a timeless aesthetic and long-term durability, wide plank wood floors make spaces appear and feel larger. Depending on the wood species, Carlisle offers planks up to 20 inches wide with average lengths of 6-7 feet, which is uncommon in the wood flooring industry. Wider and longer planks will mean fewer butt joints and seams than traditional width hardwood floors, which helps to open spaces while highlighting the natural variation of the wood grain.
Wide plank hardwood floors have a classic, timeless appeal that infuses spaces with a sense of luxury. Available in a range of species, colors, finishes and textures, they complement a wide array of decor styles. Carlisle offers a broad continuum of flooring options, ranging from its standard Collections to fully customized floors. Customers can also make slight modifications – from simply adding a texture, changing the sheen or thinning the stain – to create a statement-making floor that will become the centerpiece of their home.
Hardwood flooring continues to be the gold standard for luxury and patterned floors. Also known as parquet, patterned flooring has become a popular way to add visual interest and upscale appeal to any room in a home. While rooted in history and tradition and showing up in interiors for centuries, Chevron and Herringbone patterns continue to be some of the most requested patterns for elegant homes all over the world. To give the patterns a modern feel, Carlisle offers many color choices – from natural to whitewash to deep ebony. Other available parquet options include Hexagon, Versailles and Basketweave along with custom-designed patterns.
Although wide plank flooring is often viewed as being more traditional in style, it also lends itself to transitional and contemporary design styles. Versatile and beautiful, Carlisle’s floors can be installed on radiant heat or a concrete slab, in waterfront or mountain homes, in big or small rooms – offering ultimate flexibility.
Whether an exclusive Carlisle Collection floor or a fully customized Carlisle floor, solid or engineered, unfinished or prefinished, Carlisle offers virtually unlimited possibilities to meet any design need and aesthetic preference.
