Painting Floors.

Manufacturer and Builder ?, 1890

Now that the fashion is more and more prevalent of using carpets that do not completely cover the area of the floor, and which thus escape distortion by being cut so as to coincide with every angle, recess or curve, with the walls, floor painting should certainly be more generally adopted. Painted borders are all well enough, but the whole area of the floor may advantageously be laid out in color. This painting necessarily involves priming, which ill itself, as applied to floors, is hygienic, in having the effect of closing the pores in which dust lodges; the dust, with its darken ing and forbidding effect, never failing to find lodgment, unless, indeed, the boards should be of costly hard wood, which is the exception, not the rule. It may be said that a fluor painted all over will not be seen; but without replying that a painted border where the whole area is not colored is a deception, we may remark that the entire treatment of a floor or cover affords a security against unsightliness should any portion of the central carpet accidentally be raised, and that in the event of its removal for the purposes of cleaning, the painted floor suffices, more especially if enriched with a few rugs or tinted or patterned mats. In the summer time, a floor artistically painted will often be found preferable to carpet, as aiding in the movement of the air, not harboring dust, and proving on the whole cooler. Paint may be so compounded and laid on the floors as to suffer but little injury, even when exposed, in a long course of time. Should the colors become dull, a slight varnishing will suffice to renew much of their pristine freshness. There are many rooms in a house which would be all the better for not being fully carpeted. Such especially are bed-rooms. When we speak of painting a floor, we do not refer to giving it a uniform hue. The handsome designs carried out in encaustic tiles may be repeated in colors. Geometrical figures centered with small leaf patterns are peculiarly appropriate; so, too, a host of fresco patterns, these being varied in successive tiers. Longitudinal lines representing the chromatic scale of colors might be repeated at certain intervals, Diagonal lines in different hues, lying athwart each other, in basket work style, would have a good effect. The borders, as a matter of course, should be differently treated.