The Teak takes the floor

The life of an interior designer means occasionally taking on projects at home as well as with clients.  The difference between the two are the projects with clients get done much more quickly than at home.  After sitting idly for almost a year, work on our upstairs bathroom got off to a new start.  Shower and vanity tile were laid first and then came the labor intensive installation of the teak wood "boat deck" parquet over the existing pine parquet.

Our inspiration for the flooring hails from boat  decks similar to this one. We call it luxury yacht meets suburban attic. (photo courtesy of charterworld.com)


We wanted to create a unique separation of space between the bathroom and the rest of the attic without constructing hard walls that would close off the vaulted ceilings.  This floor helps distinctly define the bathroom space. 


The intent was not to create a nautical style bathroom, but a cozy zen atmosphere that touches all the senses and reminds us of our fun sailing experiences.  Besides, teak wood is exceptionally waterproof (provided you keep it oiled up) and is warm and smooth underfoot.  

Here's how we did it.  We chose to glue the parquet directly onto the existing pine flooring to form a mosaic pattern varying the length of the lat and the wood tones.  The parquet we purchased had pre-routered joints which we filled in manually with black epoxy, however teak wood parquet is also available with integrated joints for a quick install or when laying surface area larger than our 9m2.

 The next step was to tape either side of the horizontal joints so the black epoxy could be filled in without making too much of a mess on the wood.  A very time consuming and knee aching task, not to mention the obscene amount of blue tape we used.  




The epoxy was applied using a caulk gun then with the help of our little blue spatula was spread evenly to fill the groove.

Special thanks to Dean Wilson for his expertise on boat decks and joint filling techniques.

After the epoxy formed a "skin" the tape was removed to reveal a parquet with joints in tact.  

The joints were left overnight to dry thoroughly before attacking the trimming and smoothing.

The final step was to trim (with the help of a razor) the joints with excess epoxy.  The floor was then sanded using a Scotchbrite floor-sanding disc instead of an abrasive.  The last tedious job was to scrape the wood surface on other side of the joints where the epoxy had expanded leaving a precise, smooth to the touch, finish.  2 coats of oil were applied with a brush and a third will be added after a quick pass with our floor sander. 
 

This is the finished look.  If you have any questions about the process or the materials we used, please feel free to contact me. 


Now onto the plumbing...  


Stay tuned to future articles that follow the advancement of this project.


As always, if you need help pulling together your at-home DIY projects or are seeking the advise of a decorating professional, here's how to reach me: angela@relookinteriors.com