We are looking for wood flooring for certain areas of our 1906 Arts & Crafts (-ish) house - namely, the foyer, downstairs hallway, kitchen and family room (which is an addition). We are in the NYC area - would heart pine be a valid choice in this area? I seem to keep seeing it mentioned as a purely southern product, and wasn't sure if it would be out of place here. Also, I've seen some beautiful random width reclaimed floors - but again, would random width look out of place in a 1906 house? I usually think of them as being in the much older homes. We aren't looking for absolute authenticity (the addition of a family room would ruin that right away) but if something would look completely out of place I'd like to avoid it. The remaining floors (that we'll be keeping & refinishing) are standard width fir I believe (or so I've been told). Opinions appreciated - thanks!

Sounds like a great plan (only downfall is that reclaimed wood costs a pretty penny--we only bought 19 replacement boards and it was not cheap!!).
:)
Sarah

It's been colonial-ized inside and it's a bit of a mix, thus my half-hearted attempt at a description. I've been looking at Carlisle & Pioneer Millworks and will add Mountain Lumber to the list to check out. Casey, I was looking at different types of random widths - some only varied by an inch or so (2.5-3.5 inches), others were more dramatic (4-8 inches). I'm afraid especially the more dramtic ones may just be too different from the existing floors (standard width douglas fir I think) - in particular where the new areas of the house will butt up exactly to the old areas.

We have a 1912 colonial revival with oak in the public rooms and heart pine upstairs. The pine is "random widths" but the range is pretty small at 3-4.5". I love the look, but it is less formal and symmetric than the fixed width.

Personally, I think the heart pine is more attractive than Oak. It has incredible color variation and a real warmth about it. If it is in your budget, I'm not sure you could find a prettier floor. I agree though, you would want to keep the board width relatively consistent with the rest of the home.

Just as a matter of geography, southern pines are definitely southern. That doesn't mean that it wasn't used in other regions, but it would have been much less common. The whole point was that they were using the "cheap" wood for the private rooms and splurging on the expensive wood in the most public areas. If you start transporting the "cheap" wood large distances, suddenly it isn't as cheap anymore. Of course, since reclaimed heart pine certainly doesn't count as "cheap" wood anymore, it would be in keeping with the spirit of the times to display it proudly in a prominent area.