Herringbone and chevron floors have moved from period restoration into ordinary homes, and Karndean’s plank ranges make the look achievable without the cost or the upkeep of a real parquet floor. They are not, however, a like-for-like swap for a straight plank lay. They cost more to fit, they suit some rooms much better than others, and the decisions you make before fitting are hard to undo afterwards.
Herringbone or chevron?
The two get used interchangeably and they are different. Herringbone uses rectangular planks laid at right angles, so the ends meet the sides in a staggered, interlocking zigzag. Chevron uses planks cut at an angle so the ends meet point to point, forming continuous unbroken V shapes.
Herringbone is more forgiving and reads as more traditional. Chevron is cleaner and more formal, but the mitred cuts leave less room for error and typically cost more to fit. Neither is better. They just want different rooms.
Which rooms it suits
The pattern draws the eye along its direction, which is the single most useful thing to know when planning it. Run herringbone down the length of a narrow hallway and the hallway reads longer. Run it across and it reads wider but shorter.
Open-plan kitchen and dining spaces are where it works best, because there is enough uninterrupted floor for the pattern to be seen. In a small, busy room broken up by units and appliances, most of the pattern disappears under furniture and you pay the extra fitting cost for something nobody sees. That is the most common way people are disappointed with it.
What it does to the cost
Two things go up. Fitting takes considerably longer because every plank is individually positioned and there is far more cutting at the perimeter. And waste increases, because angled cuts at the edges of the room produce offcuts that cannot be used elsewhere.
Design strips and borders, which suit these patterns particularly well, are priced separately again. None of this makes it bad value, but it does mean a herringbone floor and a straight-lay floor in the same product are not comparable quotes.
Setting out matters more than the product
With a straight lay, a slightly off starting line is recoverable. With herringbone it is not. The centre line has to be set out correctly from the start, and it needs to relate to the room’s sightlines rather than simply to one wall, because most rooms are not truly square.
Get that wrong and the pattern runs visibly askew against a wall, and the only fix is lifting it. This is the part of the job where using fitters who have done it before genuinely matters, and it is why our own employed teams handle it rather than subcontractors.
Seeing it before you commit
A herringbone floor is very difficult to judge from a sample board, because the whole effect comes from repetition and scale. Photographs flatter it and small samples undersell it.
You can see Karndean and the rest of our LVT ranges laid at proper scale at our showrooms in Netherfield, Wollaton, Duffield and Ashby-de-la-Zouch. We will also bring samples out and measure at the same visit.
Worth reading alongside this: what affects the cost of a Karndean floor, and whether Karndean suits kitchens and bathrooms.