Two Eras, One Floor

Old villa, new extension

The owners lived in the original front of the villa for over a year before extending, so the brief was clear: connect the character of the old street-facing rooms to the clean lines of the new extension, and have the two halves read as one home. The original rooms had aged matāi floorboards, full of history and patina. The call was to hold that connection through tone, finish and material integrity, not by matching board size.

Matched by tone, not width

The floor came from the Vienna Woods Distilled Collection, an engineered oak range built for specification-led homes. The existing matāi was sanded back and carefully colour-matched to the Distilled oak laid through the extension, so the junction between old and new sits quietly resolved without repeating the narrow board format. The engineered, multi-layer construction is well suited to one floor running through connected spaces of different ages and light. Its lacquered finish and controlled oak palette make it straightforward to coordinate with heritage timber, joinery and cabinetry, so a renovation reads as continuous rather than patched.

The Distilled range is made by a mill holding current FSC certification, and Vienna Woods products are listed on MasterSpec. Detailed correctly, it also suits projects that need to meet the Building Code’s E3 internal-moisture requirements.

One continuous floor

Installed, the Distilled oak runs unbroken from the villa into the extension. The colour match holds across the join, so you read one continuous floor rather than an old part and a new part. The restrained oak lets the architecture and the light do the talking, which is exactly the point of an extension like this: the floor is the thing that makes the whole home feel like it was always meant to be this size.