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Hand-made Versailles parquet panels in the hallway of a South London house

Versailles Flooring

Versailles flooring works at the scale of the room. Each framed square brings diagonal and smaller pieces of oak into a measured pattern that repeats across the floor. Antique timber lends the geometry softened edges, worn grain and the colour variations of age, while hand-made French oak gives it a cleaner expression. At Re:claimed, we craft Versailles parquet flooring in both, with bespoke panel proportions, textures and finishes developed around the architecture.

Why Versailles became a panel floor

Versailles parquet takes its name from the French palace, where large square oak panels were introduced in 1684 to replace marble floors. The change was partly practical: the marble needed constant washing, and the water tended to rot the timber joists beneath. By 1693, the Swedish architect Daniel Cronström was noting parquets en losange, diamond-patterned parquet, at Versailles and the Grand Trianon. In French joinery, a section of parquet is a feuille, literally a leaf or sheet. Writing in 1770, André-Jacob Roubo noted that panels were almost always made three to three and a half French feet across, roughly 97 to 114 cm. In rooms of importance, he argued, the leaf should be sized to the room itself, so that only whole or half panels met the frame running round its edge. Traditional construction was cabinetmaking underfoot. A framed panel held cross members, diagonal pieces and small oak infills, joined with mortises, tenons and timber pegs, with dozens of joints in a single square. There has never been one fixed Versailles size. The proportions were tied to the architecture from the beginning, and that principle still matters when these floors are specified today.

From marble to oak

How the Versailles panel took shape.
1

1684

Square oak panels begin replacing the marble floors at Versailles.

2

1693

Daniel Cronström records parquets en losange at Versailles and the Grand Trianon.

3

1770

Roubo describes the leaf at three to three and a half French feet, sized to the room.

4

Today

Panels are still drawn to the room, in reclaimed, new or fully bespoke oak.

Let the timber decide how formal the floor feels

The Versailles grid gives a room structure. Timber age, surface movement, colour and edge treatment decide whether that structure feels inherited, restrained or expressly made for the project.
Antique European oak Versailles parquet panel

18th Century Antique European Oak Panel Designs

Engineered antique European oak, circa 200 years old, in Versailles, Mansion Weave or fully bespoke panel designs.

Antique oak within the grid

In antique Versailles parquet, the geometry contains timber that has already lived for centuries. Our 18th Century Antique European Oak Panel Designs are cut from beams around 200 years old, sourced mainly from French barns, manorial buildings and agricultural structures, with other European material selected where appropriate. Weathered patina, deep grain, old marks and irregular surface character move from component to component. The frame of each panel gives those differences order. Seen across the room, the square remains clear; closer up, no two sections carry quite the same colour or history. This works especially well where a project needs genuine age rather than a newly made imitation of it. The panel may be formal, but the timber does not become uniform simply because it has been cut into one.
Hand Made French Oak Versailles parquet panel, unfinished

Hand Made French Oak, Unfinished Bespoke Versailles Panel

Naturally felled, old-growth French oak, shaped by hand in France and supplied unfinished for project-specific finishing.

New French oak with a cleaner field

The modern route begins with new material and more control over the starting surface. Our Hand Made French Oak Versailles Panel uses naturally felled, old-growth oak, shaped by hand in France and supplied unfinished so the final colour can respond to the project. The panel still has subtle undulation and tonal variation, but less historic interruption than reclaimed timber. That lets the internal lattice read more clearly, and makes the floor easier to place beside cleaner plasterwork, contemporary furniture or restrained joinery. Unfinished oak also leaves room for the final treatment to respond to daylight, stone, fabrics and other timber already specified for the interior.
Manoir Oak reclaimed parquet panel design, unfinished

Manoir Oak Panel Designs, Unfinished

Reclaimed oak, 200 years old, with each panel made for its intended project.

Panels made around the project

With bespoke Versailles parquet, the panel itself becomes part of the design brief. Its overall size decides how many full squares the room can hold, and the internal arrangement, timber, patina, border, edges and finish can all be developed around the architecture. Our Manoir Oak Panel Designs give this route a strong material character. The timber comes from 200-year-old buildings across the Mediterranean and Aegean, each panel is made for its intended project, and original markings, worn grain and surface variation stay visible in the finished composition. A standard panel is the quicker, simpler route because its format is already resolved. Bespoke work needs drawings, sampling, more decisions, a longer lead time and greater investment, but it gives much finer control over where the panel starts, ends and meets everything around it.

Half a square metre, drawn to a tenth of a millimetre

A Versailles floor is mathematics before it is joinery. This working drawing sets out an interlaced panel 707 mm square, a size that covers almost exactly half a square metre, because 0.707 × 0.707 m is 0.4998 m². Every strip runs at 45 degrees, so the cut list fills with multiples of the square root of two: from strips 100 mm wide come triangles of 282.8 × 141.4 mm and 141.4 × 70.7 mm, and a parallelogram 424.2 mm long. Roubo worked with the same ratio in the 18th century, putting the side of a square against its diagonal at "roughly 7 to 10". Every shape on the sheet is numbered and counted before cutting begins, so each square closes exactly and the grid holds true across the room. Simpler squares follow the same discipline: a 570 mm panel covers 0.325 m², a 660 mm panel 0.436 m², each with every piece listed before the first cut.
Working drawing of a 570 x 570 mm square parquet panel, 0.325 square metres
Working drawing of a 660 x 660 mm square parquet panel, 0.436 square metres

Building one square, then an entire floor

A Versailles floor asks for accuracy at two scales. First, each individual panel has to remain square, with its frame, diagonals, infill pieces and perimeter working as one composition. Then the completed panels have to meet one another across the room without the grid beginning to wander. Antique timber makes that work more exacting. Our Manoir Oak is kiln-dried, cut, sanded and graded by hand before a panel is assembled. From there, visual judgement matters as much as the cut. A panel made from old oak should keep its worn grain, small changes in level, deeper colour and the marks that belong to the timber. The geometry gives those qualities discipline without making every component look newly machined.

The precision of a Versailles floor begins with the joinery of each panel.

Aged, hand-made Versailles parquet panels in the hallway of a South London house

Versailles in our projects

A South London hallway and a 17th-century château in Bordeaux: two very different houses, both built around square oak panels.
Hand-made Versailles parquet panels below the staircase of a South London house
Close-up of aged, hand-made Versailles parquet panels

Clapham Mansion, for Banda Property

A feature hallway commissioned to suit the traditional character and aged, painted wall panelling of a South London house. Our aged, hand-made engineered Versailles panels became the centrepiece, pairing the authority of an antique pattern with a contemporary tonal sensibility.
Versailles parquet hallway with aged painted panelling in a South London house
Grey-patinated oak panel parquet beneath a tufted ottoman at Château Calon-Ségur, Bordeaux
Dining room laid with oak panel parquet in a bespoke grey patina at Château Calon-Ségur, Bordeaux

Explore the projects

Versailles parquet today

The pattern has travelled far beyond the palace. In a Manhattan hotel-residence built in 1930, Atelier AM combined two apartments and laid new oak Versailles parquet throughout to unify the rooms (Architectural Digest). In Paris, interior architect Rémy Grenier reintroduced Versailles parquet to an 18th-century apartment on the Rue de Turbigo, alongside antique window fastenings and refined mouldings. And in Tokyo, Dior's Bamboo Pavilion, opened in 2026, pairs Versailles-style parquet with washi paper walls and ceilings.

More parquet patterns

Versailles Flooring FAQs

What is Versailles flooring?

Versailles flooring is a form of parquet made as repeating square panels. Within each panel, diagonal and straight oak elements form a framed geometric arrangement. The completed panels are then laid across the room as a larger grid. The design takes its name from the Palace of Versailles, where this form of joinery parquet was introduced in the late 17th century.

Is Versailles parquet the same as ordinary parquet flooring?

Versailles parquet is one form of parquet. Parquet is the wider term for wood assembled into geometric layouts and includes herringbone, chevron, Chantilly and other panel designs. Versailles differs because the pattern is composed as a square panel before that panel repeats across the floor.

Are Versailles panels always 1 metre square?

No. Panel size has always varied. Roubo, writing in 1770, says panels were usually three to three and a half French feet across, roughly 97 to 114 cm, and recommended sizing them to each room so that only whole or half panels met the edges. Modern Versailles flooring can likewise be scaled to suit the architecture rather than tied to one historical dimension.

Can Versailles parquet flooring work in a contemporary interior?

Yes. Timber and finish change its character considerably. Cleaner new oak gives the geometry a sharper reading, while antique oak softens it with patina, worn grain and variation. Contemporary projects in London, Manhattan and Tokyo use Versailles parquet alongside modern art, restrained joinery, plaster, stone and Japanese craft.

Does Versailles parquet need a border?

A border is not automatically required, but the perimeter needs to be resolved as part of the set-out. Panel dimensions, wall geometry, fireplaces, doorways and transitions all affect whether a border gives the floor a cleaner finish or whether the panels can meet the room in another way.

Plan your Versailles flooring

Panel size, timber age, construction, surface, border and finish all affect the final room. Tell us what you are working with, and we can help determine whether an existing Versailles panel or a fully bespoke specification is the better route.

By Appointment Only

23,24 Berkeley Square, W1J 6HE

[email protected]

By Appointment Only

Elena Padovan, Vice President

[email protected]

By Appointment Only

Unit 6b Battersea Road, Heaton Mersey
Cheshire, SK4 3EA

[email protected]