Director of the office of EBONY and CO in Amsterdam, talks about rare parquet

Passing the gallery

Interview prepared: Julia Sakharova

Magazine: N6 (95) 2005

In 1904, the entire population of North American chestnut died. Since then, there are no trees of this breed left on the ground. And yet today there is an opportunity to lay out the floor in the house of the rarest chestnut flooring. It is made of antique boards over one hundred years old. SALON-interior magazine tells about this and another rare parquet Бастиаан СмитсDirector of the company office EBONY and CO in AmsterdamSALON: Russians love classics and things with history. It so happened that antique furniture, paintings and all sorts of pleasant things like statuettes and candelabra (and their copies) fully satisfy our need for an old one. If someone bought an apartment in the house of the XIX century, and there was no preserved native parquet - little trouble. And you offer a similar buy. What for? Is it overkill? - In my opinion, a modern interior is an eclectic interior. That is, combining different shapes, colors, styles. Chairs in the style of Louis XV do not necessarily have to stand on the composable floor. Today, many want the floor in an apartment or a country house (or in a boutique, for example) to be made of wide and long boards. For example, from a board with a length of 5 m and a width of 50 cm. But this is not available now! And before that they were - in old factories, in mansions and private houses. There we find these very boards and then process them. (Note: imitation of aging does not look like that at all.)S: How does an antique board behave? - It behaves approximately, because the structure of such wood has been settled due to the fact that the tree has absorbed moisture for decades, and then dried out ... That is, it went through many similar cycles and as a result turned into an ideal material. Such a floor does not crack.S: What woods are in your collection? - Mostly American pine and oak boards, because these are common breeds in the United States. In addition to the antique parquet itself, we also have a parquet of specially selected trees, which is similar in characteristics to an antique one. This is a nut, cherry, maple, hickory, mahogany, teak, cypress, ash, wenge ... S: What does "close to antique" mean? - We select only those instances that have grown in special conditions: in an open sunny place. Then the selected wood dries in the open air for two years. And only when she completely “calms down”, she is manually polished, profiled. From a 25-centimeter plank you can make parquet for laying a Christmas tree, checkered. For example, a dark wenge checker and light maple in style is very suitable to the classic interior in the English spirit ... You can take a cherry, a nut, a teak - boards 30-40 centimeters wide. This will be a great background for Louis style armchairs.S: Is it true that in the house of Roman Abramovich the floor is from your parquet? - True, in his home in England.S: I wonder in whose houses you can still see the parquet from EBONY and CO? - In the homes of Donna Karan, Bill Clinton, the Rockefeller family ...