High on Cliff Road in Saint Heliers, this home looks out over the water. The owners wanted the inside to feel as calm as the view, a light-filled space to retreat to, and they wanted a floor that would still look right years from now, not just at the start. They chose Sazerac, our European-made oak, in the 220mm wide plank, installed by Finesse Floors.
Why Sazerac
Sazerac comes from our Distilled Collection, made in Europe from slow-grown Lithuanian oak. The cold Baltic climate slows the tree’s growth, which makes for a hard, dense and stable timber. In a home that is lived in every day, that stability is what helps the floor hold its shape and character over the long life of the home. This home is finished in Light Feature grade, close to Prime, where the natural character stays light.
The tone is what made it land here. Sazerac is subtle and warm, with creamy natural oak notes and a gentle luminosity. In a house this full of light, the floor catches the light and softens it rather than bouncing it back, so it sits back and lets the interiors and the outlook lead.
The 220mm width gives each room a generous, contemporary scale, and the long planks keep the lines clean across the open living areas. It reads as one continuous, calm surface from the living room through to the dining.
A floor that carries upstairs
The same oak carries up the floating staircase, its timber treads set against a fine black steel balustrade. It is a quiet, architectural moment, and a reminder that a floor is not only underfoot.
The result
The result is the sanctuary the owners were after. A light, hard-wearing oak floor that reads as calm, and that they feel underfoot every day, not just see.
There is a story in the name, too. Sazerac is named after the world’s first recorded cocktail, the anchor of our Distilled Collection. Like its namesake, it is made to age well.
The team
This one came together with people who are good at what they do.
Flooring installation: Finesse Floors
Kitchen design: Nicola Manning Design
Photography: Mark Scowen
More of this home, including the Nicola Manning Design kitchen, to come.
Blackbutt is one of Australia’s best-known flooring hardwoods, and it has quietly become one of the warmest, most liveable timber looks you can put in a New Zealand home. This is a plain guide to what Blackbutt is, where it comes from, how an engineered Blackbutt board is made, and what it is actually like to live with.
What is Blackbutt?
Blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis) is a tall hardwood eucalypt native to the eastern seaboard of Australia, from the New South Wales coast up into southern Queensland. The name comes from the tree itself: after a bushfire the base of the trunk is often left charred and black while the timber above stays sound — a “black butt”. As a flooring timber it is prized for two things: a warm, even colour and genuine hardness underfoot.
What Blackbutt flooring looks like
Blackbutt sits in the pale-to-golden range — honey and light straw tones, sometimes with a soft pinkish cast, over a fairly straight, even grain. It is a lighter, brighter floor than most European oaks, which keeps a room feeling open and warm rather than grey.
Our Blackbutt is a feature grade timber, so expect visible knots, gum veins and colour variation from board to board. That character is the point — it is what stops a timber floor looking like a printed laminate. As a natural product, some variation in colour, tone and grain between boards (and against samples or on-screen images) is normal and to be expected.
Solid vs engineered Blackbutt — and why we build ours engineered
You can buy Blackbutt as a solid board or as an engineered board. Solid Blackbutt is a single piece of hardwood all the way through. An engineered board is a genuine Blackbutt hardwood wear layer bonded over a cross-layered plywood core.
We build ours engineered on purpose. The cross-layered core makes the board more dimensionally stable than solid timber, so it copes better with the temperature and humidity swings that make solid boards cup, gap and shrink — and New Zealand homes see plenty of those, from a still summer to a heat-pumped winter living room. Engineered boards can often be laid over a concrete subfloor and with underfloor heating, subject to the manufacturer’s installation requirements, so talk to us about your subfloor and heating before you specify.
How an engineered Blackbutt board is made
Three layers do the work:
The wear layer — a genuine 3mm layer of Blackbutt hardwood on top. This is the surface you see, walk on and maintain over the life of the floor.
The core — a multi-ply base of thin wood layers glued at right angles to each other. Cross-laying is what gives the board its stability.
The finish — ours is a matte natural UV-cured lacquer, cured hard in the factory, that protects the timber while keeping the look soft and natural rather than plastic.
Our boards are engineered overseas to Vienna Woods’ specification, with a 14mm total thickness carrying a 3mm Blackbutt wear layer, in widths of 138mm and 190mm. Most of the pack runs a fixed 1900mm length, with around 17% nested (mixed, shorter) lengths.
The benefits of engineered Blackbutt
Hard-wearing. On the Janka scale — the standard test for how well a timber resists denting — Blackbutt sits at roughly 9.1 kN, among the harder Australian flooring hardwoods. Because our board carries a real Blackbutt wear layer, that hardness is the timber’s own and not a surface coating — a big part of why it is a favourite in busy family homes and hallways.
Warm, bright, liveable colour that works with almost any palette and does not date the way a strong stain can.
Stability from the engineered construction, as above.
A real timber surface you can look after and maintain, not a printed picture of wood.
Long, mostly fixed-length boards. Most of the pack runs a full 1900mm, which gives a cleaner, more predictable install with fewer end joints across a room.
Is Blackbutt right for your floor?
If you want a lighter, warm-toned floor with real hardwood character and the hardness to take family life, Blackbutt is worth a serious look. Because it is an indent line for us, it is made to order — the best next step is to order a sample so you can see the colour and character in your own light, and talk to us about lead times and quantities for your job.
A Wide-Plank Floor That Lets the View Do the Talking — Westwood Oak at 221 Garnett Rd, Westmere
Quick answer: A new-build Westmere home by MacFie Architecture, with interiors by Spatial Studios, specified Westwood wide-plank engineered European oak from ourIcons Collection across three levels — open-plan kitchen and living, master suite, lower-level lounge, and the floating-stair landings. The brief was a calm, light-natural floor that wouldn’t compete with a marble kitchen, an infinity pool and a panoramic Waitemata Harbour view. Westwood delivered: long, wide boards in a quiet grain, finished to read as one continuous surface from the entry through to the deck.
The brief — a quiet wide-plank for a layered modern home
This is a multi-level home on the harbour side of Garnett Road, Westmere. The architectural intent (MacFie) is restrained: a dark cantilevered upper volume floating over a lighter base, big sliders to the deck and pool, a floating timber stair carving through the volumes. Interiors (Spatial Studios) lean on tonal calm — marble splashback, dark cabinetry, leather, plaster — and the floor had to sit underneath all of it without arguing.
Three things the design team locked in early:
Wide planks, long boards. In an open-plan home this size, narrow boards visually break the floor into stripes and fight the layout. Wide-plank reads as a single surface.
Light-to-mid natural tone. Dark floors close down space and compete with the marble and the harbour view. A bleached or grey-washed look would have felt cold.
A finish that handles real life. Family home, indoor-outdoor flow to a pool deck, a kitchen that gets used. The finish had to take it without going precious.
That brief narrows the field fast — and it pointed at Westwood from our Icons Collection.
Why Westwood from the Icons Collection delivered
Westwood is a wide-plank engineered European oak in our Icons range. A few specific reasons it was the right call here:
Plank format that holds an open plan together. The boards are long and wide enough that a 100 m²+ open living/dining/kitchen run reads as one floor, not a panel layout. From the kitchen island you can look across to the harbour through the sliders and the floor doesn’t break up the sightline.
A grain that reads natural, not styled. Westwood sits in the light-natural tone family — pale enough to keep the room bright, with enough warmth and grain character that it doesn’t feel clinical. Against the marble splashback and the dark cabinetry, the floor recedes; the materials do the talking.
Engineered construction suited to NZ conditions. Engineered oak is a multi-ply construction with a real European oak wear layer. It moves about a third as much as solid timber as humidity swings — and Auckland’s humidity does swing, especially in a home with big sliders open to the sea air half the year. Engineered also tolerates underfloor heating cleanly; solid oak typically doesn’t.
Finish that’s commercial-spec hardwearing. The Icons range is finished to handle high-traffic family use. Spills wipe, scratches stay shallow, and the lacquered surface doesn’t need the routine re-oiling that an oiled floor wants.
Pricing context for anyone shortlisting: wide-plank engineered European oak in our Icons tier sits in the upper mid-range — typically$220–$320/m² supplied. For a home of this calibre, the cost-to-impact ratio is hard to beat — the floor runs through every room and gets seen every day.
The install — continuity across levels, and the floating-stair detail
Two install decisions — made by the project team and executed by the installing contractor — defined how this floor reads.
Glue-down across the whole footprint. Glue-down is the method we recommend for wide-plank installs over a screed substrate. It eliminates any hollow underfoot, keeps acoustic transmission down, and gives the floor a solid, anchored feel that matches the architectural weight of the build. Floating systems can save a bit on labour but they don’t feel right under a wide board.
Stair treads and risers in matching Westwood. The floating stair is a major architectural feature — exposed treads, no risers in places, suspended off the wall. The treads were specified in matching Westwood so the stair reads as a continuation of the floor, not a separate element. From the upstairs landing you look down and the timber runs uninterrupted from your feet to the kitchen floor below.
A note on wastage: wide-plank straight-lay needs about 10% wastage allowance. We always recommend ordering a small surplus on top of that for future repairs — boards from the same batch will always match the finished floor better than a later top-up order.
The result — a floor that disappears in the best way
The mark of a successful floor on a project like this is that it doesn’t draw attention to itself. Westwood does what it’s meant to do here: it sets the temperature of every room (warm, calm, grounded), runs continuously across kitchen, dining, living, hallway, bedrooms, and the lower lounge, and lets the marble, the harbour view, the floating stair and the pool be the things you remember.
If you came in not knowing it was a wide-plank European oak, you’d just register “this house feels right.” That’s what we’re aiming for.
Flooring product: Westwood, Icons Collection — wide-plank engineered European oak
Flooring supply: Vienna Woods (supply only — installation by the project’s flooring contractor)
Location: Westmere, Auckland
Project gallery — Westwood at 221 Garnett Rd, Westmere
All images shot at the completed install. Architecture: MacFie Architecture. Interior design: Spatial Studios.
Open-plan kitchen and dining over Westwood from the Icons Collection.
Marble-clad island over Westwood engineered oak.
Kitchen banquette over Westwood oak.
Kitchen and dining wide view over Westwood oak.
Pendant-lit dining over Westwood oak.
Dining with harbour view over Westwood oak.
Dining area framing the harbour, over Westwood oak.
Open plan with floating stairs over Westwood oak.
Floating stair over Westwood oak.
Living, stairs and harbour view over Westwood oak.
Lounge framed by floating stairs over Westwood oak.
Curtained living over Westwood oak.
Living and hallway over Westwood oak.
Sofa lounge over Westwood oak.
Living opens to harbour over Westwood oak.
Sliders open to harbour deck over Westwood oak.
Media room with feature wall over Westwood oak.
Master bedroom with harbour view over Westwood oak.
Master bedroom suite over Westwood oak.
Master bathroom with freestanding tub over Westwood oak.
Bathroom vanity over Westwood oak.
Scullery / butler’s pantry over Westwood oak.
Lower-level media lounge over Westwood oak.
Lower lounge with kitchenette over Westwood oak.
Entry hallway flowing to view over Westwood oak.
Outdoor terrace with harbour view; Westwood oak extends inside.
Deck terrace beside Westwood oak interior.
Infinity pool overlooking the Waitemata.
Pool deck with Auckland skyline.
Infinity-edge pool to harbour.
Front exterior — MacFie Architecture.
Exterior at dusk.
Aerial — Westmere out to harbour and city.
Aerial of the property — pool and roofline.
Aerial of property in neighbourhood context.
FAQ — wide-plank engineered oak for premium NZ homes
What is Westwood from the Icons Collection?
Westwood is a wide-plank engineered European oak floor in our Icons Collection. It’s a light-natural tone with a quiet grain pattern, designed for use as a continuous surface across large open-plan spaces. The construction is engineered (multi-ply core with a real European oak wear layer), and the finish is lacquered for high-traffic family and commercial use.
Why wide-plank for an open-plan home?
Wide planks read as a single continuous surface across large floor areas. Narrower boards visually divide a room into stripes, which works against open-plan architecture. In a home like this Westmere project — with sightlines from the kitchen across to the deck and harbour — a wide-plank floor lets the eye travel without interruption.
Is engineered oak suitable for Auckland coastal homes?
Yes — engineered oak is generally a better fit for Auckland coastal conditions than solid timber. Auckland humidity swings substantially between winter heating and summer open-windows, and a multi-ply engineered construction moves about a third as much as solid timber. That matters in homes with big sliding doors that stay open to sea air for months at a time.
How do you match stair treads to a wide-plank floor?
For projects where the stair is meant to read as a continuation of the floor — like the floating stair in this Westmere home — we supply matching Westwood for treads and risers (or risers omitted, depending on the design). The treads come from the same batch as the floor boards so the grain, colour and finish all match.
What’s the difference between lacquered and oiled wide-plank floors?
Lacquered is a UV-cured surface finish — harder against scratches, easier to clean, no routine maintenance beyond regular cleaning. Oiled is a penetrating finish — more spot-repairable, slightly warmer underfoot, but wants periodic re-oiling. For a high-traffic family home with kids and pool access, lacquered is the safer call — which is what was specified here.
What’s the typical cost per m² for Icons Collection wide-plank in NZ?
Wide-plank engineered European oak in our Icons tier sits in the upper mid-range — typically $220–$320/m² supplied, depending on board format and finish. Installed cost (with glue-down installation and acoustic underlay where required) typically lands between $355 and $480/m². Final pricing depends on project size, subfloor condition and any stair or transition detailing.
Can wide-plank engineered oak go over underfloor heating?
Yes — engineered oak is the right construction for underfloor heating, where most solid timber boards are not recommended. The build-up (engineered board, suitable underlay or glue, and a UFH-compatible substrate) and the surface temperature limits (usually 27°C maximum) need to be specified upfront with us so we can confirm board suitability and install method.
How long will an engineered oak floor like this last?
The wear layer on a quality engineered oak board (3mm+ on Icons-tier product) can be sanded and refinished at least once, sometimes twice, over the life of the floor. With normal residential use, that puts realistic floor life well over 30 years — comparable to solid timber, with better stability in NZ conditions along the way.
Considering Westwood — or wide-plank Icons oak — for your project?
If you’re an architect or designer specifying for a similar build (large open plan, indoor-outdoor flow, multi-level, premium spec), we keep large-format samples in the Newmarket showroom and can produce FSC documentation and a MasterSpec-compatible spec sheet for tender. CPD presentations are available for studios.
If you’re a homeowner, the fastest way to commit is to see Westwood at scale rather than as a small swatch — book a showroom visit or request larger boards.
A Bordeaux Herringbone Floor for a Client Who Knows Timber
When the homeowner first got in touch about a herringbone floor for his Westmere project, he came to the conversation with something most clients don’t: a working knowledge of timber. He spends his days in the industry, which means he’s the kind of buyer who reads a board the way the rest of us read a room — knot by knot, grain run by grain run. He’d been hunting for prime grade herringbone for months. Most of what he saw in New Zealand fell short. He wanted clean timber herringbone flooring with no compromises, and he wasn’t willing to settle for a board that looked the part in the brochure but disappointed in the box.
The starting point was straightforward in theory and demanding in practice. He wanted a herringbone floor that read as quiet and continuous across a large open plan — minimal knots, no splits, no character flecks pulling the eye sideways every third board. A prime grade oak flooring in the truest sense: tight, calm, consistent. The pattern had to behave like a single surface rather than a procession of individual pieces, and the colour had to sit warm enough to feel domestic without tipping into anything orange or yellow.
He’d looked widely. Other suppliers either couldn’t deliver the grading he wanted, or they could on paper but not in the pack. That gap between specification and delivery is where most floors lose people who actually know timber.
Why Bordeaux Herringbone delivered
There are a few reasons the Bordeaux Herringbone held up to that scrutiny. The boards are European oak, engineered at 15mm with a 4mm wear layer — substantial enough to sand and refinish later, and stable enough to behave well across the temperature swings a New Zealand home throws at a floor. The surface is finished with a seven-layer German UV lacquer, which is part of why the boards arrive on site looking the way they look in the showroom.
Grading-wise, this is where the Petit Chateau collection earns its keep. It sits in the value-conscious end of the range on price, but the prime selection is genuinely prime — boards are chosen for cleanliness, not just labelled that way. For a client looking for knot-free herringbone (or as close to it as a natural product honestly gets), that mattered. The rhythm of the chevrons does the talking and the timber doesn’t keep interrupting.
The Bordeaux tone itself is the other quiet hero. A mid-warm European oak — neither bleached nor heavily smoked — it reads beautifully under both natural light and warm interior lighting. For a home built around a vaulted, light-filled living space, that neutrality was exactly what the room needed.
The install: a floor that reads as one surface
Laid through the entry, kitchen, dining and main living areas, the herringbone flows uninterrupted across the ground floor. Because the grading is so consistent, the eye doesn’t get caught on individual boards — it follows the pattern instead, the long diagonal pull of the chevrons across the open plan, the rhythm tightening into the kitchen and softening again as it meets the joinery.
The floor sits well against the home’s other materials: the pale stone of the kitchen island, the dark steel of the fireplace surround, the leather of the living room sofa. A clean prime grade lets the timber become a backdrop with depth rather than a feature wall on the floor — exactly what a home built on a few well-judged architectural moves needs underfoot.
A note on standards and supply
There’s a particular pressure that comes with selling timber to someone who works in timber. They know the difference between a hand-picked sample and a board pulled at random out of a pack on install day. They notice when a “prime” floor still has knot clusters tucked into shadow lines. That scrutiny is welcome — it’s the same standard the Petit Chateau range was built around, offering European oak herringbone that delivers the cleanliness most specifiers expect from products costing considerably more.
Looking at herringbone for your own project?
If you’ve been searching for prime grade herringbone flooring in Auckland or further afield and finding the same gap this client did, the Bordeaux is worth a look in person. We’re happy to send samples so you can put a board on the floor of the room it’s destined for and see how it sits with your light, your joinery and your existing materials.
If you’d prefer the same European oak in a plank format rather than herringbone, the Oak Bordeaux planks share the colour and grading approach in a long-board layout. And for readers comparing herringbone options across our range, it’s worth also considering the Westwood Herringbone and the Coco Herringbone from our Icons Collection — each with its own tonal character.
When you’re ready to see the boards in person or talk through specification, get in touch with the Vienna Woods team. The right herringbone is one you can stop second-guessing the moment it goes down.
Bordeaux Herringbone Engineered Oak Flooring Close-Up – Westmere Project
Bordeaux Oak in a classic herringbone lay, photographed up close in our Westmere case study home.
This coastal residential project by Sojo Design demonstrates how carefully specified timber flooring can become the foundation for an entire interior concept.
Designed as a refined coastal residence, the home balances warmth, natural texture and timeless design. From the earliest stages of the project, the design team selected Vienna Woods European oak flooring to anchor the palette and guide the material language used throughout the space.
The result is an interior that feels layered, relaxed and quietly luxurious — a home designed to feel welcoming, enduring and deeply connected to its beachfront surroundings.
Vienna Woods European oak flooring anchors the interior palette of this refined coastal residence designed by Sojo Design — bringing warmth, texture and natural material continuity throughout the home.
The brief
The client’s vision was to create a true “home away from home.” The space needed to feel elevated and beautiful, while still remaining relaxed and comfortable for everyday living.
Key design objectives included:
A warm and welcoming atmosphere
Timeless design that would age gracefully
Comfort and practicality for guests of all ages
A refined coastal aesthetic without feeling over-designed
Achieving this balance required careful material selection, beginning with the floor that would run consistently throughout the home.
Why Sojo Design chose Vienna Woods
For the Sojo Design team, flooring is never an afterthought. Their process begins from the ground up — selecting materials that establish the tone for the entire interior.
Vienna Woods was chosen for several key reasons:
Extensive selection of refined European oak flooring
Generous plank dimensions that enhance spatial flow
Warm natural tones suited to coastal interiors
Authentic timber texture that adds depth to minimalist palettes
Once the flooring was selected, the rest of the interior palette evolved naturally around it.
“It all started with Vienna Woods.”
Design approach
The interior concept focused on creating a layered and sensory experience — a home that feels calm, welcoming and connected to its surroundings from the moment visitors arrive.
To achieve this, the design team introduced:
Contrasting fabrics and furniture against the warmth of the timber flooring
A mix of textures and natural materials for visual depth
A restrained palette that avoids visual clutter
Carefully balanced detailing that supports the relaxed coastal aesthetic
The flooring plays a central role in this composition, quietly anchoring the space while allowing the architecture and interior elements to remain the focus.
Standout moments
For the Sojo Design team, some of the most memorable moments occurred during the construction and completion phases of the project.
Visiting the site midway through the build
Returning for the final project photography
Experiencing the scent of timber combined with fresh ocean air
Seeing the full design vision realised in the finished space
Because interior designers are not always present at the final stages of a project, witnessing the completed home made this project particularly rewarding for the team.
Interior Designer Interview — Material Selection
In this short interview, the Sojo Design team discusses how material selection — particularly timber flooring — helped define the tone and atmosphere of the project.
“The flooring became the foundation for the entire interior palette. It introduced warmth and texture while still feeling calm and restrained.”
The outcome
The finished residence delivers exactly what the brief set out to achieve — a home that feels warm, welcoming and timeless.
Anchored by Vienna Woods flooring, the interior achieves a refined coastal aesthetic that feels both luxurious and deeply liveable.
The project demonstrates how carefully specified timber flooring can shape the entire character of an interior — supporting architecture, enriching material palettes and delivering enduring performance in everyday living environments.
Vienna Woods works with architects and interior designers across New Zealand to help specify timber flooring that meets both aesthetic and technical requirements.
Located in Point Chevalier, Auckland, this residential project brings together a restrained architectural approach with material choices focused on longevity, performance, and continuity across spaces.
The design leans into calmness and cohesion. Instead of relying on contrast or feature moments, the interior is built around consistency — allowing light, proportion, and detailing to carry the space.
Timber flooring plays a foundational role throughout the home, acting as a unifying surface that supports the architecture rather than competing with it.
Running continuously through the main living areas, Bordeaux European Oak establishes material consistency while allowing the architecture to remain the focal point. The controlled tone and refined surface finish support a calm interior palette without visual interruption.
The colour sits comfortably within the home’s palette, adding warmth without visual dominance. That restraint allows joinery, natural light, and spatial relationships to remain the focus while the floor quietly anchors the interior.
Installed consistently across living areas, kitchen, circulation spaces, and secondary rooms, the floor creates continuity throughout the residence — reducing visual breaks and supporting a cohesive architectural language.
Specification and compliance
Beyond aesthetics, the flooring specification needed to meet both performance expectations and straightforward compliance for residential interiors.
Bordeaux European Oak is E3 compliant, which helps keep specification simple and avoids unnecessary consent complexity.
The product is alsolisted on MasterSpec, giving architects a clear, reliable specification pathway from documentation through to construction. As a result, coordination on site is smoother and the intent is easier to protect through delivery.
From specification to installation
A key objective for this project was fidelity between what was documented and what arrived on site.
The installed floor reflects the original intent — consistent grading, predictable tone, and a finish that performs in daily use while ageing gracefully over time.
That alignment reduces uncertainty during construction and supports confidence for architects, builders, and clients alike.
This project demonstrates how European oak flooring can quietly support architectural intent — meeting compliance requirements while maintaining material integrity and visual restraint.
Bordeaux European Oakcontinues to suit residential projects where consistency, long-term performance, and confidence in specification matter. Its MasterSpec listing further supports a reliable pathway from design documentation to installation.
