While my finger is nowhere near the pulse when it comes to floor fashions, even I’ve noticed how much everyone’s been going on about parquet of late.

A look that was once associated with school halls and hospitals is currently all the rage, the more old school-looking the better.

My sister and brother-in-law are embracing this fully, and in the most complicated way possible. Since moving into their Edwardian fixer-upper last autumn – with a toddler in tow and baby increasingly imminent – they’ve been transforming their living room, ripping up the floor and individually laying 1,800 tiny pieces of parquet. Not surprisingly, this is taking quite a while.

They kicked things off by sourcing piles of reclaimed wood from a local children’s hospital, and have been painstakingly laying them ever since, one piece of parquet at a time.

Even that’s a bit of an over-simplification, though; they first had to stand them in acclimatisation columns to get them used to the room’s climate (seriously), then it took two weeks’ worth of evenings to individually clean and lay the blocks – and they’re not done yet.

They still need to create a sawdust and resin mix to fill in any gaps, sand the whole lot for a final time, then add a coat of varnish. Then, finally, all their parquet dreams will have (hopefully) come true. It’s an impressive effort. I can’t wait to stand on it.

My sister is recording her home’s transformation on Instagram (@its_onthelist) – check it out if you’re in need of some parquet inspiration, or if, like me, you need a reality check to remind you that instructing someone else to lay a carpet for you isn’t that big of a job.