Flooring Case Study / Ingleby Gallery

The Ingleby Gallery, brainchild of Richard and Florence Ingleby, celebrated its tenth birthday this year, and the couple marked the occasion with a move to an impressive new premises. The gallery is now housed at 15 Calton Road, The Venue club as was.

The building has been transformed by architect Helen Lucas from a sticky-floored dingy nightclub into an expansive airy, bright space. This makes a superb setting for the exhibits on display, and is complemented perfectly by the floor, supplied by Russwood.

The floor chosen by Helen Lucas and the Inglebys is a Character grade Chateau board, pre-finished with a natural shade of Osmo hardwax oil. This finish provides a sturdy surface layer which will stand up well to the passage of thousands of pairs of art-loving feet.

The boards are 150mm wide and 20mm thick, laid on the joists, with underfloor heating providing a comfortable temperature. The boards are of random lengths, with at least 70% of them between 1.7m and 2.8m long. The long lengths were surely a comfort to the person who laid 525m2, it has to be said, to stunning effect.

Architect Helen Lucas remarked “the floor is beautiful; we are very pleased indeed with the quality.”

One of the Ingleby’s first installations at the new gallery is by artist Susan Collis. Playing on the fact that the gallery is newly-finished, Collis' exhibition may appear at first glance to be nothing more than the neglected aftermath of a previous show. Only closer scrutiny reveals that the white paint spilt on the wooden floorboards is actually inlaid mother of pearl. The Inglebys comment “The age-old trick of trompe l'oeil is not usually employed for such humble things, and the witty poetry in Collis' work lies in the intense labour expended over many months to craft these precious and beautiful, but ultimately useless objects.”

Happily, Russwood benefits from the close scrutiny invited by this installation, since the mother-of-pearl “paint splatters” are on some of our very beautiful oak flooring, which you can see here.

The latest addition to grace the floor is a forest of black ebony walnut .trees