Bespoke and beautiful

Meet Warren, owner of Cornish company Tre Concepts and an authority on bespoke hardwood flooring.

As I begin to talk hardwood flooring with Cornishman, Warren Bennett, owner of Tre Concepts, I have a lot of questions, but he’s happy to answer. He explains that over the last 15 years he’s seen the needs of customers change. Customers want to express their own style. From innovative new builds to renovations of beautiful Cornish buildings – they want modern, but sympathetic design. “You just can’t get that bespoke service from the big companies.”

He tells me of one customer with a beautiful old floor. “Every plank was a different width with its own character. It was done the old way, where each plank was taken from the same tree, hence the different widths. She wanted to keep the character of the floor, but tackle the cold drafts coming up through the gaps.

“We did only a light sand as we wanted to keep that history of marks. Then, to tackle the drafts, we were happy to fit these innovative new gap fillers. But some of the gaps were too wide for the fillers, so we added these thin fillets of wood. The wood we added was colour matched. You wouldn’t know they were there – only these beautiful ancient planks. Handsome.”

I can tell that part of why Warren loves the business is that he loves the challenge – he describes every job as a new puzzle to solve. I’m not surprised to learn that this talented Cornishman has a degree in design! He understands the puzzles that designers face and the high standards they need to achieve. He knows to offer versatility.

“The idea of our business is to give architects and interior designers complete freedom. It’s all about opening up the possibilities.”

He reminds me that Tre Concepts can do supply if you already have a fitter in mind. This particular service includes a detailed fitting plan to ensure the work moves along smoothly.

Warren certainly knows his stuff. You can find him at the Cornwall Home & Lifestyle Show this coming May, where he’ll be running a seminar in his friendly, Cornish way, informing showgoers all about designing wood flooring.