For The Love Of Port

Fontenay Creates Wine Barrel Flooring



There are certainly better ways to show off your oenophile passions and good design sense than a wine cork board, namely, Fontenay's flooring made from vintage wine barrels.

Selling itself as the "the only provider of reclaimed wine barrel flooring and countertops in the world," Fontenay offers three types of wood choices in its Vintage Barrel Collection. The Cooperage line takes its wood from the barrel heads, leaving intact the cooper stamps, various marking and an aged patina. For the Wine Infusion line, material from the barrel's inside is used. Naturally stained due to contact with the wine, the effect is a mosaic of juice-soaked colors. Finally, the Stave collection consist of the barrel's exterior wood strips, straightened to form boards, and then engineered to create flooring. These floors display the grains, age marks and a rustic distressing. Since no two planks are the same, in any of the lines, installation creates a unique finish best suited for wine cellars, tasting/dining rooms or kitchens. Fontenay also offers furniture, including wine racks, created from barrels.

With reclaimed wood being the au courant, green-minded design material of choice these days it's nice to see a product that has such a recognizable provenance being used in such an innovative way.

http://www.luxist.com/2010/09/06/fonten ... -flooring/

Cool stuff. I haven't been able to figure out if it is solid or engineered. I have solid wood in my home now, but need engineered for the basement.

Eric Menchen wrote:Cool stuff. I haven't been able to figure out if it is solid or engineered. I have solid wood in my home now, but need engineered for the basement.

My understanding is it's solid wood, They simply disassemble a wood barrel and cut it up to make flooring. Since most barrels are either American or French oak (or some Hungarian oak) I suspect these are your wood choices. I also assume most of these are from American based wineries as importing a used pipe from Europe is very expensive.

I also love the bar stools made from old barrels...wonder how much they are?

Oh and there is a company in Laguna Niguel called Grotto Wine Cellars that was selling this type of flooring. I learned today they are having financial issues and no longer fulfilling orders even though you can place them online still....just FYI.

From Kate at Fontenay:

The reclaimed wine barrel flooring is engineered, 5/8" thick with an FSC approved baltic birch backing and tongue and groove.

Back in the early part of the decade, when I did some work in So. Africa, one of the coolest things I saw over there was a wide variety of wine racks made from oak barrel staves. They were relatively inexpensive and looked great in long arcs. I considered partnering with the manufacturer because I thought these would really sell well in the USA, however the hassle of shipping and the quickly changing ZAR at the time, made it impossible. On my next trip over, I did manage to carry quite a few of 'em home with me.

I love the look of the flooring above. Very cool.

I love this flooring as well, and I seem to recall seeing it elsewhere but can't rememeber where now. I'd love to have it in my kitchen when we remodel our house, but I don't think my husband is as keen on it as I am.