Walk into any newly renovated home in Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, or the Hollywood Hills right now and you will notice something underfoot: the planks are wide. Not just wider than they used to be — dramatically, intentionally wide. Wide plank hardwood floors have become the defining flooring statement of high-end Los Angeles interiors in 2026, and for good reason. When your designer chooses a 7-inch or 9-inch plank over the…

The species question comes up in almost every hardwood consultation at Barry Carpet. A client walks in with a Pinterest board full of white oak wide-planks, or they have their heart set on walnut because a designer friend mentioned it once at a dinner party. The truth is, species selection is one of the most consequential decisions in a flooring project, and it touches everything from Janka hardness ratings to…

In any given week at a high-end showroom, the same misconceptions surface repeatedly. A homeowner comes in with a beautiful mood board, a clear sense of what they want, and a handful of assumptions that, left uncorrected, would steer them toward the wrong floor entirely. After decades of working with Los Angeles designers and their clients, we have heard them all. Here are six hardwood flooring misconceptions worth setting straight…

Walk into almost any high-end remodel in Brentwood or Pacific Palisades right now and you will find hardwood floors. What you may not realize is that the stunning wide-plank oak running through the living room is almost certainly engineered, not solid. There is a reason designers in Los Angeles specify engineered hardwood at a rate that would surprise most homeowners, and it has nothing to do with cutting corners. It…

There was a time when "pre-finished" carried a certain stigma in high-end design circles. The assumption was that anything finished at a factory had to be a compromise. That assumption is now thoroughly outdated. The factory finishes coming off production lines from brands like Provenza, Anderson Tuftex, and Shaw today are so technically advanced and visually refined that they have become the preferred choice for discerning Los Angeles homeowners, interior…