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border, diamond, diy, family crest, floor inspiration, floor patterns, hardwood, harlequin, how to stain a pattern onto your floors, inlaid, inlaid wood floors, medallion, patterns, Stained Concrete, stained floor, stained floor patterns, wood floor
I think I have a DIY ADD (Do-It-Yourself Attention & Daylight Deficient). There are only so many hours in the week month that I can work on house projects, but my mind is running constantly – and there are SO many projects and rooms that I want to do … with the list growing 😉 (Plus, I’m not one to pull the trigger unless I’ve thoroughly researched the possibilities.)
You may remember the stained harlequin floor from the post I did profiling a designer’s apartment… I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. (The interior shutters from that post went on “THE List” too, but I haven’t been able to shop fabrics.) I thought the stained diamond pattern on the hardwood floors would look wonderful in my kitchen or foyer.
Heck, while I’m researching, why not see if there are other stain patterns for wood floors that would be nice too because the first and second floors of our house (minus the orangerie) are hardwood. What was out there was a mixed bag of nuts:
A horizontally laid hardwood floor stained in an ornate pattern.
Do try and avoid going “stencil crazy”, i.e. if you’re stenciling the floor, maybe you should skip the walls!
Such a beautifully laid floor! Although the center (along with a some other floors) may be inlaid wood, it can also be stained in that manner.
Tile work, but a hardwood floor could be stained in this pattern.
Three dimensional looking.
I’m not painting my floors, but it is an option if you’re looking for a change. You can also use a colored stain.
Looks like a rug.
The medallions above and below are inlaid, but could be emulated with a stencil, although some of these backgrounds into which they are laid would be very difficult – if not impossible – to be replicated convincingly.
I really like borders. In the first one, you can see how multiple colors were used, which I adored!!!!
Measure very, very carefully as you don’t want the last row to compensate for any inaccuracies.
Although on the wall, a rug was the inspiration, which can be the case with your floors.
A border, which is actually stained onto concrete!
Since I started this post a few days ago, I pulled out one of my old books to see if I could catch a glimmer of some patterns there. I got halfway though when I started noticing how pretty some of the walls were. Hmmm… panel molding. I always have many ideas just simmering in my mind, what’s one more 🙂
If you are on the east coast, please stay safe!
A Detailed House 
I looove wooden floors, and those patterns look so wonderful. Thanks for sharing!
Stay safe!
Love these!
I love these floors the patterns are gorgeous.
Wow, this is great. What beautiful examples, and they got me thinking. Though I love how a rug looks under a dining room table, I find them to be very impractical. It never occurred to me to do something with the hardwood floors, and these examples are absolutely beautiful.
We just finished a project to switch our living and dining room spaces. We love to have people over for dinner, so we’re always using our formal dining room, and yet the larger living room was something we rarely used (we have a nice family room we use much more), so I switched the spaces so that we have a big, spacious dining room (with fireplace — yay!), and I use the old formal dining room space as our “sitting room” as I call it. Now that it’s completed, the new dining room seems a little stark, I’m guessing because I’m not used to seeing the big room without upholstered furniture. I’m using two wing chairs for the table end chairs to bring some fabric back into the room, and I have drapes, but something is missing….. and now I know what I can do — stain the hardwood floors to look like a rug under the table! INGENIOUS! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful work and how-to photos.
As I was looking at the pictures all I could think of was the house they used in the movie “Clue” with it’s floors.
HA! I would be the one in the “did not measure correctly” category. So, assuming you do mess up, the only option to correct it would be to sand it off, right?
Most of these patterns and applications are too detailed and fussy for my taste. They tend to compete for attention in each room, thus eliminating the focal points. However, one designer got it right. The ornate floor works perfectly in photo 17–the photo of the pale yellow passageway. The patterned floor works perfectly here because it IS the focal point. There is no fussy furniture in the room, no competing patterns, and the pale yellow walls complement the gold tones in the floor but fade gracefully into the background, allowing the beautiful floor and graceful architectural details to steal the show. The only other element in the hall is the paintings. The use of the detailed flooring is limited to just this passageway; plain flooring is used in adjacent rooms. I call this “the art of restraint.” This is a design trick that always yields good results. Choosing the pattern is important, but choosing how and where to use it is more important. Can’t wait to see photos of the completed project.
Speechless in the face of such beauty!
I love patterned wooden floors! Thank you for sharing. I look forward to seeing more of your posts. 🙂
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More ideas for me to dream about. When you first posted these designs, they “spoke” to me. This post just reinforces that I want to try it somewhere.
My husband was looking over my shoulder and actually liked this idea, which surprised me (happily). Of course he adds “It would be a lot of work” but he usually says that 🙂
Fabulous ideas! I’ve nearl much finished painting all the floors in my house, white – they were all a dark, dark red, much too dark for Maine winters. And all your research gives me great ideas for the future – I need to move away from the floors for now and onto other projects. I too have DIY ADD (:
I love the idea of the wood floors but some of those patterns would make me dizzy, especially the 3-D look. Funny you should mention the concrete floors though since that was a project idea of mine many years ago for our basement floors. It’s amazing what you can do. Alas, my ambition petered out with health problems (after I’d scrubbed & prepped the floors – maybe some day).
Boston got lucky with the storm – how about you?
I agree! I couldn’t believe how LONG it took me to find these, which is why I said it was a mixed bag of nuts 😦 I’m going to have to resort to my books. I’m going to test out a border first (once I find a stencil) on the top attic landing, where no one will see if I mess up 😉
Quite a few are too busy and my 9 yo saw the 3-d one and said, “Cool” to which I said, “Not in a million years!” BUT, I have learned that things I don’t like, others do like, so I try to include a broad range even if it’s not my style (although I try to subtly and tactfully at times suggest things if I just can’t take it!)
All that work on your concrete floors! That is a project! I’m so sorry about your health…I hope you are better or at least feeling better. When your mind wants to do things but your body doesn’t want to, that’s a hard pill to swallow…
I’m SO glad you’re OK after the storm! There’s a lot of flooding in the area and downed trees, but we never lost power and made the most of the situation by letting the girls roast marshmallows in the fireplace (until it got put out by rain coming down the chimney), put on plays, make up songs on the piano, make a mess and general nonsense 😉
I can picture the disappointed faces when the marshmallow roast got washed out but you are lucky to have kept your power. Still good to hear that you were safe & had fun.
It’s great how you show a good range & I have to tell you I’m still obsessing over that foyer with the black painted stair treads! Oh would that be perfect w/my marble. But I have to keep smacking myself in the head saying “ok, love it & it would last maybe 3 days w/Lola”. But I can still pretend.
How about a hopscotch board for the kids? Yes you read that right. I started one quite a few years ago. Never got around to staining it. The tape is still on the floor and my grandson still plays with it. I was going to use paint but now I might do stain. Well you know whenever I get around to it.
Good luck with your own floor, some of these are fantastic, I think I’ll settle for a four coat clear myself. The possibilities for messing it are too big for me.
We are working on some old parquet in my son’s house in Bath, very badly damaged but looks nice. He wants to stain but I think it will come up good with just a tinted varnish, we shall be testing in the kitchen next week.
Jim
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I absolutely love the idea of painted floors in my home. Would not try to do myself. It would be worth the cost to pay someone to do it for me.
Check my pinterest page on painted floors. There is a great stained floor with acorns and oak leaves. I know the home owner–he did it himself!
xo, Lissy parker
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Great ideas… I love the different styles and stained wood or painted wood “rugs” on these wood floors.