Hardwood Flooring > Atelier Collection
Our Artisans
Great artisans don’t try to impress their own influence on nature… they embrace it.
They allow nature to speak through their work. And DUCHATEAU is at the intersection where artisans and great design meet.
Introducing our Atelier Collection. This isn’t an off-the-shelf product. It is a living thing, hand-finished in the European tradition, and perfected with modern technology. A look of ancient wood, with a natural matte and luster that comes from within. Wood that breathes and ages like wine, evolving over time. A blend of the old world with contemporary excellence.
Every floor is made to order, with a one-of-a-kind terroir unique to the crop of trees it was harvested from, and the time and conditions under which it was finished.
As nature and technology are forever changing, so too is the artisan method, giving DUCHATEAU a signature aesthetic, and point of view that continues to be refined.
Our new color offerings are about revisiting Atelier favorites, with a new, fuller breath of expression. Artisanal hand-finishing with a refined methodology shows improved color stability and richness as it interacts with light, both day and night.
Traditionally manufactured European oak; hand-finished by North American artisans.
Atelier by DUCHATEAU.
Coast Fog
A white reminiscent of the low-lying dense summer fog that hugs the California coast, a fog that is the outcome of the cold ocean contrasted against a warm air. We look for that perfect shade of white that avoids going pink or yellow. Light wire-brushing brings out the grain.
iceblink
Inspired by a natural occurrence of an Iceblink, the reflection of light on an icefield appearing on the horizon, reflected on low clouds. The white is more transparent than Coast Fog, allowing more grain to shine through.
The appearance of an iceblink was used by the Inuit in navigating and was instrumental in finding the artic northwest passage.
Salt Air
A color that is enriched by the white embedded in the grain, like the tang of salt in the ocean’s spray. The color of the wood is reminiscent of buoyant driftwood, sunbaked and smoothed by the rolling of waves, the abrasion of sand, and the salt in the pores.
Sun Glint
This color has a radiance that shines from within. We are inspired by optical phenomena in the natural world and this color reminds us of when sunlight dances upon the surface of water. The warm golden tones cast a mellow patina that is a perfect neutral.
Alpenglow
A clear natural color that reflects the surrounding colors beautifully, like the way sunlight is cast on a mountain at sunrise and sunset. The color doesn’t cast olive or yellow, but retains a nuanced balance of tones as though the floor had aged in place.
Solstice
Solstice, longest daylight of the year and highest position of the sun in the sky, embodies a feeling that the best days are yet on the horizon—days radiant with sunshine and celebration, cultivation and festivity. This color, inspired by that feeling, is a raw natural that gleams at the true center of our Atelier spectrum, with neither light nor dark in its undertones.
Aether
The ancient Greeks saw the realm above the clouds as Aether, a place of bright and pure air. We developed this floor color in search of a beige unclouded and free of surface haze, blending a flow of tones into a subtler, softer shade. The composition we seek is without grey, pink, or yellow, but finds an almost indescribable balance that gives it its buoyant and ethereal quality. A quiet embodiment of the brilliant upper sky.
Sea Brume
Mysterious and evocative, the color is a layering of the deep ocean darks, the swell of currents, and a layer of hazy mist on the surface. It is a color of grand gestures, of seafaring adventures.
Golden Hour
A warm brown evocative of that final glimpse of the setting sun. A color that has a richness to give it vibrancy and depth, blending darks to avoid going too orange.
Eventide
A rich brown informed by darkness in the grain. The color speaks to that special moment after a sunset when the sky begins to fade towards dusk. The blending of lights and darks is what makes this floor so unique.
Dusk
A full grey color in twilight as it merges into the dark of night. A deep color that is neither blue nor purple, but a long shadow. The grey tones remind us of ash and driftwood beach fires.
Nocturne
A deep black suggestive of a moonless night. Like Chopin’s musical compositions inspired by nighttime, this color is emotional and atmospheric.
