Oak Flooring in a Parnell Renovation
A modern Parnell renovation with dark timber joinery, a curved stair and a view back across the harbour. Vienna Woods supplied Foundation Empire, a pale wheat-blond European oak with an extra-matt finish, run right through the ground floor.
Light floor, dark joinery
This Parnell renovation runs a lot of dark, full-height timber joinery through the ground floor, plus a black kitchen and a stone fireplace surround. Handsome, but heavy.
The floor was the counterweight. The owners wanted something pale and calm that would lift the whole level and keep the interior feeling expansive, without going so white that it fought the timber it was sitting next to.
Foundation Empire, pale and extra-matt
Empire Oak is part of our Foundation Collection: engineered European oak in a wide plank, with full-length boards rather than a mix of shorts.
The colour is a pale wheat-blond with a natural honey undertone, open flowing grain and dark filled character knots. The finish is a super-matt lacquer, so there is no surface shine to distract from the grain and no glare bouncing back off a floor that gets a lot of afternoon sun.
The full-length format is what makes it work at this scale. Run from the entry through to the living room in one uninterrupted rhythm, the floor gives the ground level a calm, architectural base.
The ground floor, lifted
Against near-black joinery and a dark kitchen, the pale floor is what keeps the level feeling open rather than closed in. It runs continuously from the entry, past the stair and the wine cellar, through the kitchen and out to the media room, so the eye never stops at a threshold.
Location: Parnell, Auckland. Project: home renovation. Flooring: Vienna Woods Foundation Collection.
Order an Empire sample
A pale, extra-matt oak changes a lot next to dark joinery. See it against your own finishes.
See the Foundation collection
European oak made in Europe, in stock, in wide full-length boards.
Planning an install
What a renovation floor needs from your subfloor, and what to sort before it lands.
Renovating in Auckland?
Tell us what joinery you are working with. We will get samples to you and help you find a floor that balances it.
