Getting fancy with hardwood flooring borders and inlays

Hardwood borders and inlays for your Westchester home

oak hardwood with walnut border - oil based poly light hardwoods There’s nothing like a border to give your hardwood floors some instant pizzazz. They can be the perfect finishing touch for a special room in the house, whether it’s a grand entryway or living room, dining room, master bedroom or several areas. Usually, borders are made with a different species of wood. Most often the borders are darker (e.g. walnut or mahogany) but occasionally, they are lighter (e.g. maple) or a combination of hardwood species. Because of this, the wood will be a different color and stand out against the base wood on the floor.

Often, the wood inside the border may be laid in a different direction. The one above has the hardwood set in diagonal lay and below, the interior is a herringbone pattern.

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Usually, when you sand & refinish hardwood that has borders, you will still see the borders BECAUSE they are a different species. So, the wood starts our a different color and absorbs the stain differently. Generally, the lighter you go with the stain color, the more of a contrast you will see and the darker you go, the less of a contrast.

Installing hardwood borders (or inlays) certainly adds to the cost. There is additional wood to buy, but usually the bulk of the expense comes from the added labor. It is no easy feat to install borders. This takes precise measuring and centering and then the all of the pieces in the inner portion need to be perfectly cut so that they line up properly with the border. Take a look at some of the pictures and think about the craftsmanship (or craftwomanship) that goes into these.

When you have border strips (as you see in most of these photos), they are custom done and crafted on site. Occasionally, you will see some super fancy borders. Some of these were crafted in homes over 100 years ago. Nowadays, there are some manufacturers such as Oshkosh designs where they will produce pre-made medallions and/or custom borders which can be installed. Either way, they can cost a pretty penny. To the right, you’ll see a pre-made medallion with oak, walnut and maple.