Hardwood Floors April/May 2026

Wood Stock

A New Take on

When Alex Hamilton of Grain Design Flooring met with a homeowner about a new construction project in Newport, Kentucky, the discussion quickly centered on balance. The client was open to custom work, but she was clear about the limitations. The home was modern in both layout and feel, and while she appreciated classic parquet patterns, she felt those designs leaned too heavily toward the past. Instead what she wanted was something that could bridge traditional craftsmanship with a more contemporary sensibility. The custom flooring would span more than 600 square feet across several areas of the home, including a foyer, the great room on the main level, and even the floor inside the elevator. Each space needed to feel connected, but the design also had to respect the clean lines and modern architecture of the house. “She had pulled up several classic parquet patterns,” says Hamilton. “She liked them, but she felt they were too dated for a modern house. The goal became figuring out how to bridge that gap between traditional and modern, which is not an easy thing to do.” Hamilton began sketching shapes that could give him more flexibility than traditional parquet forms. He landed on a trapezoid as the base shape, seeing it as more versatile than a square or a 45-degree triangle. By Burt Bollinger Tradition

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GRAIN DESIGN FLOORING

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