Bridging Modern and Traditional Design with Carlisle

How Wide Plank Floors Helped a High-End Builder Create a Stunning New Home in a Historic Neighborhood.

“Like something straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting.”

That’s how some describe the charming village of Zionsville, Indiana, a leafy green suburb of Indianapolis. It’s a place where newly built homes must correlate with the old-fashioned feel of the neighborhood. So, when asked to design and build a contemporary post-and-beam home infused with modern design, Loren Wood of Loren Wood Builders (LWB) knew it would be a challenge.

“The village of Zionsville definitely has a deep history and tons of historic charm,” says Wood. “The community pays great attention to the overall aesthetic of each home and how it relates to the neighborhood.”

The new home’s silhouette needed to match its neighbors to maintain the consistent rhythm of gabled roofs and covered porches. Yet, to serve the homeowner’s design sensibility, the exterior detail and interior design needed clean lines, open spaces, and modern materials. Loren knew that hardwood elements—particularly hardwood floors—would play a major role in marrying the old and the new.

Traditional Silhouettes with Contemporary Design Elements

Based in Bloomington, Indiana, Loren Wood Builders is a design-build firm focusing on high-quality projects emphasizing efficient design, sustainability, creativity, and craftsmanship. LWB is deeply committed to integrating its design and construction capabilities: The build team is closely involved during the design phase, and the designers are heavily invested in the build. The result is stunningly realized designs, streamlined timelines, and seamless execution.

The Zionsville project fully reveals LWB’s design and build prowess, fulfilling the neighborhood’s demands for tradition and the homeowner’s desire for something contemporary.

“Our Architecture team worked to preserve the gabled roof forms and massing of the other homes in the neighborhood,” says Loren. “The project has a very contemporary bent, but it also references the more traditional forms of the local vernacular in a way that helped to marry the old and the new.”

While the home’s exterior references the neighborhood’s traditions, the interior is full of glass and steel, with wood detailing providing a welcome contrast. “Contemporary construction can feel very commercial and stark, but our design warms up the space and creates a human, organic feel that’s inviting and grounding. I’m proud of how we incorporated this fairly contemporary design in the home.”Every room is intentionally designed around its occupants. Bold pops of wallpaper, tile, and well-designed lighting fixtures create unique and personalized spaces. Long sightlines and a repeating pattern of timber trusses create order and familiarity. The entire space is tied together with a White Oak floor from Carlisle Wide Plank Floors.

Endless Inspiration for the Floor of Your Dreams

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A Home Literally Designed from the Floor Up

Hardwood flooring is a central part of nearly every LWB design. “Designing with natural wood elements is a signature for us,” says Loren. “It’s a rare project that we’re not incorporating hardwood floors and woodworking elements with natural finishes.”

Having worked with Carlisle before, the LWB team was pleased when their Zionsville client insisted on Carlisle floors. “The clients had selected a Carlisle White Oak floor before the project began, so flooring was a foundational element and the driving force of the design. Rather than choosing a floor to match the design, we designed the house around the hardwood selection.”

An Engineered Floor from Carlisle’s Elegant Collection

The Zionsville home featured Carlisle’s Sincerity flooring from the Elegant Collection – an engineered, prefinished Rift and Quartersawn White Oak floor.

Carlisle’s Collections represent popular looks created for and with our clients. They can be customized by texture, color, and other features.

Carlisle’s engineered floors are among the best in the industry, with the highest quality wood wear layer, extremely stable backing, and a unique production process that delivers floors of exceptional durability.

The prefinishing process allows Carlisle to apply stronger sealants to protect the wood and enables Carlisle craftsmen to ensure the highest-quality finish of every plank.

“Carlisle is top shelf when it comes to those details,” says Loren. “We always sort through the planks for irregularities, and the reality was that every piece was high-quality grain with long runs. The consistency and quality across the batches were excellent.”

An Expert Partner Committed to Outstanding Service

While the LWB team found the quality of Carlisle floors extraordinary, working with Carlisle’s Wide Plank Specialists was equally exceptional.

“We’ve worked on hundreds of hardwood floors over the years, and we’ve worked with Carlisle on quite a few of those projects,” says Loren. “They offer top-of-the-line materials and go the extra mile to ensure every project is perfect.”

“At one point, we had to order additional treads for a stairway that wasn’t part of the original scope. In that situation, there’s a danger the color of the second order won’t match the original. Carlisle’s rep was incredibly helpful and wanted to ensure the perfect color match. They took some pieces from the initial deliveries and sent us multiple iterations of the stair treads for our approval. That wasn’t something we asked for. But when the new planks arrived, the floors and color matched perfectly.”

Regarding flooring, Loren is happy to have a partner as committed to excellence as his firm. “We bring a big team of skilled individuals to every job. What we appreciate about Carlisle is that they do the same. We’re only as good as our subcontractors and suppliers, so we’re very grateful to have that level of partnership. It elevates our team and our work.”

Photography Credit:  Sarah Shields Photography