Dark Grand Oak Onyx flooring in an open-plan living space opening to the Hauraki Gulf at Beachlands

Vienna Woods · Project story

Grand Oak Onyx at a Beachlands Waterfront Home

Beachlands, Auckland · a coastal home renovation

Vienna Woods supplied Grand Oak Onyx through the living and circulation areas of this Beachlands home, a coastal renovation by Donnell&Day Architecture. Extra-wide oak boards run in one deep, dark tone across the open plan, out towards the Hauraki Gulf. A dark floor, set against a lot of light and a big view.

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The brief · Beachlands

Dark by design

The house sits on the Beachlands coast, open to the Hauraki Gulf. Donnell&Day Architecture designed it as a modern beach house with a rustic edge: vaulted white ceilings, white joinery, and bifolds that fold right back to the water. A pale, busy floor would have fought all that. The floor leans dark by design, run straight through, so the eye travels to the sea and not to your feet.

Grand Oak Onyx flooring sweeping to the sea under a vaulted ceiling, Beachlands

The floor

Deep, warm, wide

Grand Oak Onyx is engineered oak at the dark end of the range, a deep, warm brown with plenty of grain and character. It is laid here in extra-wide 250mm boards in long lengths, which add scale to a big open room and keep the floor calm rather than busy. Dark and warm at once, it holds its own next to all the glass, and gives the pale ceilings and white joinery something to sit against.

Grand Oak Onyx grain and dark tone in the foreground with kitchen behind

The result

The floor as the stage

Laid through the living areas and up the stair treads, the floor ties the spaces together and carries the scale of the room. Warm underfoot, big water out the front, and nothing on the floor competing with the view.

Extra-wide Grand Oak Onyx boards running across the open plan from the bifold threshold

The detail

One tone, all the way through

The same oak carries up the stair treads, so the timber follows you from the entry through to the living. One tone, wide boards, no thresholds breaking the run. You notice the floor once, then the view takes over.