Star of the Show – 2026 WFOY – Member’s Choice + Best in Circles/Curves/Bent Wood

 Floor Master Company | Crystal Lake, Illinois

CATEGORY DETAILS: Entry into the Members’ Choice category is automatic. All floors entered into the contest are eligible, which includes all types of floors in all categories. Entries into the Circles/Curves/Bent Wood category include any hand-cut circular shape within a flooring system, such as circles, ovals, curves, or bent material.

Floor Master Company in Crystal Lake, Illinois, has earned both the 2026 NWFA WFOY Best in Circles/Curves/Bent Wood award and the Members’ Choice award for a floor its creator calls the Star Field Parquet, installed in his home office. The design began taking shape more than two years before installation, starting with sketches on paper that grew in complexity over time. As Matthew Szyszka, owner of Floor Master Company describes it, “The chevron symbolizes movement and the continuous expansion of space, the universe. We have the stars, we have the universe, and then on the border, the end grain heart pine symbolizes galaxies. It’s a star field.” The room measured 11’ x 12’, requiring the pattern to be adjusted from its original square layout, and because of that, every one of the nearly 5,000 elements was installed on site individually rather than assembled as panels, giving the installer more control over the lines.

The floor is built around 18 interlocking circles that create 17 stars and 36 leaves, each leaf featuring a chevron pattern in zebrawood and wengé. All 25 center points were drawn onto the plywood with trammel points, and a router jig set to a 20” radius was used to shape each circle. The stars were assembled from plainsawn and quartersawn white oak and American black walnut, then free-hand cut on a band saw before being set in place. A 1/8” purpleheart strip was routed into every outline, running more than 40 linear feet through the floor. As Szyszka notes, “It’s a very small detail, but it makes a huge difference. It just guides your eye through the floor.”

The border is made from end-grain heart pine sourced from 6’ x 6’ beams, each piece shaped individually to follow the surrounding geometry and assembled in 12 panels for installation. The floor was sanded with a Bona Power Drive planetary sander, with Woodwise black filler used on the border and walnut and oak filler on the main field. Rubio Monocoat Pure hardwax oil then was applied, bringing the full range of species and colors to life. Reflecting on the project, Szyszka said, “I just wanted to step out of my comfort zone and raise the bar. I made a ton of mistakes and learned a ton of new things. I had to think about each step and figure out how to transfer my vision from my head to the floor.”

INSTALLATION METHOD: Glue Down
FLOORING FINISH: Rubio Monocoat Pure
FINISH SHEEN: Matte
SPECIES: Quartersawn and Plainsawn, White Oak, American Black Walnut, Purpleheart, Zebrawood, Wengé, Heart Pine
SQUARE FEET: 132

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