Flooring: Cork to FSC-Hickory

We found a beautiful metallic-painted cork by Cork Concepts while shopping at Green Fusion in San Rafael. David bent over backwards trying to get the goods from New Zealand. I know, I know.... not too green to ship from so far away but I LOVED this stuff. Turns out that even with several months lead time, Cork Concepts couldn't get their act together to ship it to us. So we had to look elsewhere.

We needed flooring that we could get fast, and found our way to Ecohome in Berkeley. We developed a major crush on Taja, the owner, as well as EcoTimber's line of FSC-certified wood. Turns out EcoTimber has the largest inventory of FSC-wood in the world, and they're right here in Richmond. Doors locked, we drove out to Richmond to meet Lewis Buchner, CEO. What a mensch! He gave us a tour of his gorgeous new warehouse and installed floors.

With Lewis' guidance that FSC-hickory is actually more green than the bamboo we were considering, David and I quickly came to the same conclusion: hickory. Totally FSC-certified with proper chain-of-command, etc., and IN STOCK, ready to roll. Thank you, Lewis!

Here is the hickory - natural finish with lots of color variation. I could just lick it. It blends beautifully with all our new reclaimed fir doors.


We went to our favorite restaurant in our hood, Wood Tavern, and chatted up owner Rebecca Wood about her gorgeous floors. They were, of course, HICKORY. We considered this a sign from the universe of our apt choice! We think this is Rebecca at the hostess station below.


Here's hand-scraped hickory in the spice finish.

We also considered woven bamboo since it is so much more durable than the horizontal grain. Here it is from EcoTimber in Honey.



Here's the hickory in the mocha stain.