Meet the Preservation Collection: Inspired by our best-selling floors with an 8-week lead time.
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Vintage French Oak flooring is highly popular today. With its rich, honey hues and lived-on appearance, a vintage French Oak floor can add an immediate sense of warmth, history and authenticity to a room.
But sourcing vintage solid French Oak flooring can be needlessly difficult and expensive – especially when White Oak floorboards can be treated to look very similar and achieve the same design objectives. There are some subtle differences in American White Oak vs. French Oak. But most homeowners find that a textured White Oak floor handcrafted from American timbers can provide a stunning Old-World look that rivals any vintage French Oak surface.
At Carlisle Wide Plank Floors, our wide plank specialists can help you explore all the alternatives to vintage French Oak flooring – including options for color, grade and texturing techniques that can give new unfinished Oak floors a vintage appearance. From exploring the benefits of White Oak stair treads and the pros and cons of Oak vs. Maple or Birch vs. Oak, your Carlisle design consultant will help you define and realize your vision for a wide plank floor that will delight and amaze you for years to come.
Explore and select from our gallery of our most popular finishes, specially categorized by the personalities and traits of the floor designs.
ExploreVintage French Oak flooring is made with French Oak floorboards that are salvaged from older homes and farms in Europe.
French Oak floors are made with boards cut from Oak trees grown in France. European Oak refers to the wider variety of Oak trees found in Europe and includes French Oak.
French Oak and American White Oak are very similar hardwoods. French Oak will tend to be a little darker and the grain will be a little more prominent than in a White Oak plank.
On the scale of flooring options, vintage French Oak is at the more expensive end. This is due in part to the cost of sourcing the floorboards from old homes and farmhouses in France, and because of the expense of shipping the floor from Europe to America.
American White Oak is very similar in appearance, color and density to French Oak. When looking for vintage French Oak flooring, homeowners may choose White Oak floors that are cut, stained, and textured to resemble vintage French Oak.
Yes. Carlisle engineered hardwood floors can be textured just as solid hardwood planks are treated to create the appearance of boards which have been lived on for decades or centuries.
To recreate the look of vintage French Oak flooring, our White Oak timbers can be textured to give the floor an antique and lived-on appearance. By adding saw marks and rough spots to boards, we can make them look like planks that were cut and milled at early sawmills. Our craftsmen also use wire brushes to wear away the softer grain in new boards, reproducing the worn look of planks that have been lived on and walked on for generations. And we can hand-scrape each plank to create the appearance of vintage French Oak flooring that was once prepared for installation by hand.
In addition to White Oak, we offer a wide range of hardwood planks that can be textured to add character and visual interest to the floor.
Carlisle produces the finest wide plank floors in North America. Backed by 50 years of experience, we fashion vintage-looking floors with time-honored methods and innovative texturing techniques. Our craftsmen are experts at creating floors that perfectly reflect the sense of style of each homeowner. We know that every detail matters – from hand-selecting every plank to hand-scraping new planks to create an antique appearance. Every Carlisle floor is a unique masterpiece that’s crafted with passion, pride and purpose. It’s a surface that will become a defining feature of your home.
At Carlisle, our commitment to customer service is as remarkable as the quality of our wide plank floors. Our knowledgeable specialists will work with you to understand your vision for your home and help you find the perfect alternative to vintage French Oak flooring. From your first phone call or visit to a showroom through the design and installation of your floor, our customer service team will be right by your side to answer every question and offer expert guidance.
