European laminate flooring manufacturers are kicking off the new laminate flooring season with a wealth of creative decoration ideas. Light and medium earth tones like "greige" are now the order of the day for flooring, while larger and wider sizes are bang on trend. Modern yet rustic boards appeal to the senses with their distinctly tactile textured surfaces, installed using innovative synchronisation technology.

"Rusticity" remains the key theme in current laminate flooring ranges. Oak continues to dominate wood decors with its almost inexhaustible decorative potential. Yet floors with the appearance of delicately-grained ash or elm, or rich softwoods such as spruce and larch, are also rapidly gaining in popularity. In general, demand for decor that resembles elegant wood varieties is on the rise. Meanwhile, dark colours have seen a slight decline, with the collections of European manufacturers instead presenting a varied spectrum of natural grey and beige tones – a trend that originated in the field of interior decor and which is now taking international flooring markets by storm.

All types of surfaces, from A to Z

A considerable amount of wood decor in the laminate sector no longer appears in its "natural" version, but rather with a discreet white or grey haze. The rustic "used look" appears in several varieties of commercial products, from construction timber styles with imitation cement traces, to laminate flooring that feels brushed, planed or freshly sanded. Modern synchro-pore printing enables the authentic transfer of a wide variety of surface structures, from fine veins and pores to deep, distinctive knots. This rustic nature particularly comes into its own in the new rural-style wooden floorboard collections, which are increasingly being offered in longer and wider floorboard sizes.

Several European manufacturers and suppliers, grouped together under the association EPLF (European Producers of Laminate Flooring), will take advantage of Domotex 2014 and the second Wood Flooring Summit in Hanover to showcase their latest products. Here, visitors can explore a whole host of creative design possibilities and discover the newest technological innovations in European laminate floor production.