Artisan Reclaimed Timber Floors from Antique Floors

History Underfoot AVENUE Magazine
By Ari Steinwedel

Old timbers find new life in the hands of
a European artisan, and give heart to a new home.

No matter how hard you try, people just don't want to be the same. Even the strictest uniform standards can't stop children from adding an individual touch to their look with a toy hanging from their bag, or an eye-catching hairstyle. Expressing our personalities in what we do and how we live is an intrinsic part of the human spirit.

When I was at school we had compulsory music lessons, which consisted of learning various songs. One of those that stuck in my mind was "Little Boxes", made famous by Pete Seeger some years before, that went (if memory serves): "Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky, little boxes on the hillside, and they all look just the same". The horror of mass-produced, poor quality housing, a kind of helpless conformity being forced on the unwary - I guess in the 70s they were not afraid of politicising their primary school students.

That song came back to me recently when I was admiring my new home, a lovely four bedroom house in Clifton Gardens that admittedly needed some work. But the essentials were there: good position, lots of natural light, workable floor plan. Best of all, I had an opportunity to imprint the house with my personal style, to create a home that was not just perfect, but perfect for me.

The first thing that had to go was the old flooring, which had suffered from years of damp and neglect and was beyond anything except a decent burial. Some months ago I had spent a week with Antonio, a friend in Lausanne, Switzerland who was living in a restored villa, complete with the most beautiful wooden floor I had ever seen. The original flooring had been in very poor condition, so he had replaced it with antique timbers sourced from an old villa in Siena to maintain the character of the home, relying on the skill of Italian experts I Vassalletti.

The beauty of an antique floor is threefold. Firstly you are reusing timber from another building, so it is the ultimate recycled product. Second, the age of the timber and the skill of the artisan mean that each floor is truly unique. And last but not least, it brings with it a sense of history, an echo of all the footsteps that have already passed over this artwork that is both timeless and for everyday.

So of course this is what I wanted for my home. But I was far from the European craftsmen and their seemingly endless supply of timber from old villas and palazzos. And I had no patience for the time and effort it would take to organise the job long-distance.

I was almost at the point of giving up and simply getting new pine flooring when I mentioned the problem to friends over dinner. My host smiled and rapped his knuckles on the table we were sitting around. "What do you think of this table?" he asked. It was surely a rhetorical question; I had already complimented him on it the first time I'd seen it. "Made with reclaimed timber, and they do floors too." Now the question made sense, and it seemed I had found a solution for my flooring problem.

Floors and furniture created with reclaimed antique timbers; John Fredriksson at the Antique Floors' Balmain showroom.

The table had been custom-made by John Fredriksson at Antique Floors in Balmain, and they did indeed do floors as well; I had managed to stumble across a European artisan in the heart of Sydney. Walking into the showroom it seemed that rooms had been pulled from dozens of stately homes and melded together to give glimpses of dozens of possibilities, from antique floorboards to parquetry patterns topped with architectural elements including custom-made tables, libraries, wine cellars and antique furniture. Too many tempting options, so I kept my eyes on the floors.

Originally from Sweden, John was the newest generation of a family of woodworkers, who shared my desire to breathe new life into salvaged timber. He was not put off by my need for a quality result that would rival what I had seen in Lausanne; nothing inspires more than a craftsman who is confident in his skill, and I felt no hesitation in entrusting the new floors for my home to his care.

While there was century old French oak available, John told me he also sources Australian hardwood from old heritage buildings and woolsheds. I went with Tallowwood that had been reclaimed from a Coogee monastery; somehow it seemed more fitting for my new home to have a piece of local history inside.

John designed the floor for my home the way a bespoke tailor fits a jacket; measuring carefully, making sure the design worked with the other architectural features of each room, creating the truly individual design and timeless charm that I had been searching for. Instead of choosing between grey pinstripes or blue worsted I was given a selection of classic designs from Marie Antoinette to Esragon to parquetry patterns only limited by my imagination; a chance to express my own creativity in making the right choice for my floor.

It was a wonderful sight to see, the floor gradually being fitted together from timbers that had been cut to size, sanded by hand and restored with natural oils to create a unique design for my home. And unlike most works of art, this one was created to be used, and to grow in beauty the more it was walked on, as my own family added its own touches to these antique timbers.

My sentiments were perfectly described by John when the job was finished and he remarked, "With these floors you are not just walking through history, you are walking on history."