Living Luxe: You’re both so passionate about what you do, and we know sustainability plays a big role at Noeud Atelier du Parquet. What does the company stand for?
Dana Marei and Wissam Qassim: Now, more than ever, we have to be consciously mindful about the choices we make. There is a growing body of locally and internationally renowned architects and design community members advocating for the usage of sustainable and renewable building materials.
Wood is a renewable source and a clean form of building material. A tree while growing to maturity always absorbs and traps carbon dioxide from the environment and releases the oxygen we breathe. Once at maturity, it stops absorbing carbon dioxide. In Toronto, we see midrise building structures currently under construction utilizing cross-laminated timber technology (CLT) — not the traditional steel rebars and concrete. Now imagine having the very same technology that is structurally sound and strong to be utilized as a building structure; that is fire retardant and moisture resistant. Imagine that clean and environmentally friendly product — your engineered hardwood floors — as the primary covering in your beautiful custom home.
At Noeud, we are advocates for natural hardwood flooring. Relative to other covering surfaces such as vinyl, porcelain or tiles, wood will always be the cleanest renewable material. Noeud engineered hardwood floors are harvested from mature trees as a canvas for their curation. (on average more than 145 years old), and we consistently conduct rigorous due diligence to ensure our planet’s health is at the core of our operations.
Living Luxe: How would you describe a client’s journey at Noeud Atelier du Parquet?
Dana Marei and Wissam Qassim: We often describe the dynamic of design planning and later building a custom home as creating “the Swiss Watch.” We see ourselves as design-enablers in this journey. Typically, we tend to get involved in the early stages of the project, often prior to breaking ground. As Noeud offers more than 60 different treatments and tones that can be customized in different board widths, grades and patterns to better meet the design intent, the design team typically visits our showroom with the homeowners to discuss the vision of the project and explore options.
When curating their interior vision and sourcing material, most members of the architecture and design community start with flooring. It’s also perhaps the most challenging for homeowners, understandably so — hardwood flooring is akin to your biggest piece of furniture. It flows and covers 70 to 80 percent of your home (on average) and most homeowners want to get it right. Interior designers treat hardwood flooring as a canvas for their curation.
In our initial meetings with homeowners and designers, we are always touched by the positivity of the process. So much excitement and personable stories are exchanged, and this is when we bond with our clients and better understand the intrinsic objectives of their project. We get to review floor plans, inspiration photos and play with different tones and materials (stone, fabric, tiles) that designers bring to showroom appointments.
To better understand the homeowner’s intrinsic needs and the designer’s vision, we ask many questions. For example, will you have radiant heated floors in your project? Prior to dwelling into tone selection, we like to understand the technical requirements of the project that will provide better direction as to which of our collections is the right fit for the client. For example, radiant heated floors exert a lot of stress on engineered hardwood floors, as wood is a hygroscopic substance that expands and contracts in different temperatures and humidity. Not all engineered floors are built alike, and so we start with the fundamentals. For homeowners, this is an opportunity to learn more and understand the technical characteristics of their floors.
As turnkey service providers, we also offer peace of mind to our homeowners and their build team by extending our certified installation services. We take it from A to Z with one point of contact.
Living Luxe: They say design keeps pushing the boundaries of details. Can you explain some of those design details Noeud offers?
Dana Marei and Wissam Qassim: We were recently involved in a project where the interior designer had a floorplan detail of having chevron- patterned floors surrounded by a picture-frame perimeter border in the matching tone. All the hardwood flooring area is then layered with a solid brass metal inlay at the perimeter, and adjacent to this area will be the natural stone floor border. This multi-layered floor detail creates further installation complexities while yielding a truly luxurious and customized design for the homeowners. Details such as this help us transcend and truly give us the opportunity of showcasing noeud floors and the art of heritage craftsmanship. Our Instagram page (@noeudflooring) will give clients a feel for the projects that we tend to get involved in.
Living Luxe: Is it true that your design showroom only serves one client at a time?
Dana Marei and Wissam Qassim: Yes! We are extremely exclusive and boutique. Our floors are not available anywhere else but at Noeud Atelier du Parquet. Our showroom is very immersive and experiential. People describe it as an art gallery showcasing the crème de la crème of hardwood floors. While everyone is welcome to stop by at any time, we highly recommend making an appointment, as it allows us to better engage with our clients and ensure they have the ultimate experience. Depending on the time of day, we may have a croissant and macchiato or rosé. It will always be individualized.