San Diego – Master craftsman behind DuChateau Floors’ hardwood flooring styles, Anthonius Goddijn, will relocate from Holland to the United States to train and spearhead the company’s manufacturing facility at its new international headquarters located ihere. With plans to open its doors by mid-summer 2013, the new facility will host the company’s grand showroom for its luxury hardwood flooring, its administrative offices, and a manufacturing and design workshop where Goddijn will spearhead the design and production of new flooring styles.
DuChateauFloors evolved from the techniques and flooring designs of Goddijn who has been working in the wood flooring industry in Europe for more than 23 years creating and installing floors. His many works include the Dutch Queen’s Residence, the Tweede Kamer (Dutch Parliament), Michael van Praag’s house (CEO of Amsterdam’s football team), and numerous hotels and restaurants from the hottest restaurant in Amsterdam, “Restaurant Red,” to the Van der Valk Hotels of Holland. Goddijn also designs and manufactures DuChateau’s most luxurious wood floor, The Atelier Series, and he continues to develop new styles to keep innovation foremost for DuChateau Floors. Every DuChateau style originates from Goddijn’s unique expertise.
As a believer in the hard-wax oil movement in hardwood flooring, Goddijn has been instrumental in introducing oiled floors to the United States market through DuChateauFloors. A pioneer of this movement, DuChateau is one of the first manufacturers to make these floors accessible to those residing outside of Europe – largely thanks to Goddijn. According to Goddijn, there are two main beneficial aspects that are equally important in choosing a hard-wax oiled floor over a lacquered floor: the natural look and the durability.
“In Europe, every floor installed in public spaces, such as city halls and museums, are oiled floors and are well-maintained floors that were installed thirty to fifty years ago,” said Goddijn. “A lacquered floor will never last this long. A well maintained oiled floor looks better and better with time while a lacquered floor can only decline with age – it starts out looking nice when it’s first installed, but then it wanes.”
In developing new flooring styles, Goddijn experiments with traditional processing methods that challenge and manipulate the structure inside the wood to achieve a natural reaction unlike modern methods that use stains and colored lacquers to create a certain look. Goddijn prefers the traditional methods to achieve natural variation that highlight the wood grain.
Goddijn is looking forward to moving his craft to the new DuChateau facility and working closely within the company as it continues to be an important force in the flooring industry and pioneer in oiled floors.
“I think the United States consumer is ready for oiled wood floors and DuChateau can lead the way,” he concluded.