You don't have to do what is trending at the moment ... you can pick a floor that works with the architecture and/or your designs style.

I built in 2021 when the light white oak trend was everywhere, but not the look I wanted for my house style (Spanish inspired) and my design style (transitional w/color).

I used a medium stained engineered wood floor to get the look I wanted and didn't care what was trending.

Beautiful! yes, i hated the white floors and the gray floors and the espresso floors that have all come and gone! i keep getting assured that the French wire brushed floors are of the ages and will never fade. Not worried re being trendy, just dont understand why these don't grab me for my space.

"Anything will be better as you can see"...........

We see a bit of flooring, and nothing else of the Manhattan apartment

You could begin by SHOWING the entire space, and what you are doing? What is your style? You're modern, traditional, in between? Add pictures, jpegs , and the full extents of the space, from all angles

If the parquet is actual old parquet that is worth refinishing but no matter what we need to see the space . I would never have wirebrushed flooring it sounds like a nightmare to get clean for no purpose . A simple white oak 5" wide is a good choice usually. But we need to see your space to get any real help here

This is the space we are expanding this room a few feet to the right, but it is still not vast lol there is an open kitchen. I love old parwuet but this definitely isn’t it; although it was refinished just a few years ago, it‘s going. our furniture is MCM. @Patricia Colwell Consulting it’s the 5” that feels right to me too, but I keep getting told that 7.5” looks better in a smaller soace, creates a sense if spaciousness etc. The 5” feels in proportion to me but it worries me that these days I seem to be going against the grain, pun intended.

"The 5” feels in proportion to me but it worries me that these days I seem to be going against the grain, pun intended."

I can't see 7.5" looking good in there, IMO the 5" is better. It doesn't matter what is trending, it matters what you like and what looks good in YOUR space.

I'll be honest-- I don't like any of your samples. They look so blah. Look how your old parquet warms up the space, keeps it from looking cold and sterile. If you want to retain the warmth, don't go with a cold, lifeless floor. (doesn't have to be yellowish, just warmer). Of the 3, the 5" has the most warmth as showing on my monitor, but even then not a lot.

A better pic of the 5" Looks pretty warm to me

"A better pic of the 5" Looks pretty warm to me"

^^ That pic looks completely different than the original pics you posted. Yes, much warmer. Which just goes to show the importance of testing samples on site. :0)

Do you like the color? Does it work with your fixed elements and furnishings?

Seems to me it does. The open litchen is a match for BM Atmospheric, very simple lines Here is part of the living dining area, which is about to get more spacious. It seems like the idea of the French oak is to look totally neutral and as though you just moved into a winery? i do see it festured in Manhattan apt listings. But this seems fitting. 🤷‍♀️

Don't worry about what everybody else is doing -- go with what you like and what looks good in your space. You are the one who has to live with it, not everyone else in Manhatten.

Yes understood Am getting this advice from people in many locations. As a boomer I am used to floors with planks under 3” so these are all a brave new world for me!

Mine are 7.5" in the photo I showed above and I have a large one story house. Wider seemed forced and trendy, so I think the 5" will work great in your space.

Place you samples under all your furniture to see how you like the look.

Narrow your choices down to two and then order a box of each to lay down in your space. It also shows you what current dye lots look like ... which can be different from samples that might have been sitting around the showroom for a long time.

When they order the sample boxes they should hold enough inventory to do your project. Once you decide, release the lot you aren't buying and pay for the one you are buying. This guarantees that your final order will match the sample box. They will usually hold the lot quantities for a few days while you make the decision.

Your samples look very similar in color to the parquet. Is that what you want?

Look at Monarch Plank and Hakwood. Rustic is flat cut with knots because oak trees harvested in France reserve the first ten feet for wine barrels by law. Prime is cut more like rift cut with smooth grain structure. You can go up to 11" or more in width. Clear water based finish does not tint yellow like oil finishes from the past. French oak has closed grain and less natural yellow. This with the clear matte water based finish can give a pale brown tone unavailable in the past. Popular for that reason and because many sources throughout Asia are using European Oak to product engineered flooring. Hakwood manufacturers in Denmark. Make sure the product you're looking at has hardwood ply core like birch or eucalyptus with the top layer 4 or 6mm thick.

Thanks yes everything is 4mm. In oerson this wood isnt the same color as my parquet haha, it's browner rather than orange.

I'm waiting for another French oak sample from Hurst but my question is really about width. Again and again I see the advice that you may think that wide widths look bad in a smaller space but in reality they create a feeling of spaciousness because fewer seams. Can anybody comment?

Choose what makes you happy. Ours is 9.5” wide according to our spec book and I love it. I love that there are fewer seams and it all flows. But we also have an open concept main floor and it isn’t just one singular room. In our old home we had 3” cherry and it was brutal to keep clean.

I'd love to see a real mid century home or apartment that had WIDE flooring ?

There is no way I'd install wider than five in this scenario. Is the plan to have no rugs? Honestly, all of these threads and the hand wring on floors gets me a little nuts.

"Spacious" results from appropriately scaled/sized rugs and furnishings, and a lack of crowding on the latter. If you asked me the board width on the last home I entered, one I did not remodel or design? I probably would need my very big thinking cap : )

Of course there are rugs In nyc we cover 80% of the floor for the sake of our downstairs neighbors. Nonetheless I do notice floors and this is the decision I need to make right now as I seek to upgrade the finishings in an 80s bldg.. Not hand wringing.

Also altho I’d like to live forever I don't think I can match the flooring to my particular decor. Sounds as tho you agree that wide flooring would be anachronistic or unsuitable in any case. That’s my sense too. I’m interested in the claims of a kind of optical illusion caused by wide flooring..

When I look at flat cut planks wider shows more of the grain patterns of the wood and any tone variation. Cathedrals is a description. Rift and quarter sawn shows parallel grain lines with less tone variation. The first benefits from width more than the second. The second, imo, still looks better with width. You get to decide what works with the rest of your design choices and how pale or dark you tone the wood and how much sheen for the finish.

I think the 5” is classic

Another thing you can do is buy a box of each and lay them put and see what works for you. Also see the colours in your space and the variations in a box. Obviously not a cheap venture but one that is available

It's the rug proportion that makes a room feel spacious or not. Most people? WAY too small is what they get: ) Yes, go 5" and be happy.

I just read this post today - my initial opinion was 5.5" - and that didn't change by the time I finished reading all of the comments.

An addition aesthetics factor to consider is plank gaps beyond the edge treatment of micro or enhanced bevels. You see gaps of an 1/8" an more in solid strip flooring, a part of the classic look. Engineered lessens or eliminates that feature. You also can choose unfinished engineered and a product like Ciranova Ecofix in matte with hardener for your finish.