Special
Style panels
TIME HAS SWUNG A FULL CIRCLE THE LASTING CHARM OF VERSAILLES PANELS ET AL STILL ATTRACTS Stefaan Luykx (Habo - B) Habo from Genk (Belgium) has been a reference point in traditional parquet floors for decades. That’s true not only in Belgium via wholesaler Holz Bois, but also in the Netherlands after the takeover in 2008 of Albers in Weert. The Limburg company is ideally placed to talk about some items which have come noticeably to prominence in recent years: style panels and special designs like herringbone and chevron. Managing director Stefaan Luykx told us: ‘What I should say at once is that you mustn’t overestimate the impact of style panels. They’re still on the periphery, unlike herringbone or chevron. There’s also a big difference between Belgium and the Netherlands. In Belgium a lot of jobs are repairs in old houses and renovation, whilst in the Netherlands large rooms of 100m² and more are no exception. All in all, demand for style panels is low, but you can’t say that about herringbone and chevron.’ ‘To sum up, you can say that people hardly ever choose style panels as a new floor, but they do choose herringbone and chevron, which are often also on show in interior magazines. What is noticeable is how herringbone and chevron have penetrated the market much more strongly in the Netherlands than in Belgium. In the Netherlands they’re almost standard floors, certainly in bigger cities with companies which specialise in fitting them.’ ‘What you also notice is a strong advance in multilayer products with tongue and groove, which make fitting easier. At the same time, there’s also a noticeable growing demand for traditional herringbone and chevron in 6 and 9mm, which Habo itself produces. On the other hand sales of traditional strip parquet are decreasing. Obviously, we respond by adapting our stock of raw material accordingly. For the rest we can only welcome the shift towards herringbone and chevron which will help to continue to honour the parquet fitting trade. What’s certainly also noticeable is that with herringbone and chevron you have on the one hand the traditional fitting with sanding and finishing on site, but on the other hand pre-finished distressed floors are appearing more and more.’ ‘Imitations? They’re certainly competition, although that’s less the case for a company like ours which supplies mainly traditional parquet fitters, who don’t usually display LVT tiles in their showrooms. Finally, I’d like to say one more thing about the Netherlands. Do you know what we’re seeing there regularly recently? As an alternative to a Versailles panel, they’re fitting uncut basket weave, which run to the end of the room. You could call them endless Versailles floors.’
Old fitting patterns, including style panels, are back in fashion. We think here of designs such as herringbone and Hungarian point, call them nephews or nieces if you wish. Obviously, there’s also an explicit link with marquetry, which we have covered in a previous issue.
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The pattern which undoubtedly fires the imagination the most is the Versailles panel. As you might suppose, this ‘king of the style panels’ refers to the similarly named palace in Versailles and takes us back to Louis XIV and his glory days in the 17th century.
Let us define style panels briefly as sorts of tiles with an outer edge frame for wooden floorboards in a certain fitting pattern. The panels are glued to each other sideways. It almost goes without saying that these are solid wooden panels, although we have noticed that solid wood is making way for multilayer where the style panel pattern is created on a subfloor (usually multiplex).
To prevent any misunderstanding, let’s make it clear that there isn’t just one single Versailles panel. No, there are several variants, which can all be traced back to the world famous Hall of Mirrors in the palace. Versailles Palace was built originally in 1624 as a hunting lodge for Louis XIII almost 20km south of Paris. His successor, the Sun King, converted the rather modest predecessor into a domain of 800 hectares with an accompanying fairytale palace.
Uniqueness
Versailles and Chantilly
The use of wood makes each panel unique, even if that doesn’t necessarily apply to the patterns. In that case the design (and possibly the finish) gives rise to the general image. Obviously, there are scores of fitting patterns within that framework.
The floors in the Hall of Mirrors consist of panels (1x1 metre). These perfectly square panels comprise diagonal wickerwork, which is framed by a square edge of parquet strips. Below we further clarify the Versailles panel and one of its variants, the Chantilly pattern:
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