And How Shall We Treat the Floor?

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1043, 6 August 1930, Page 6

And How Shall We Treat the Floor?

■VOT the least of the problems confronting those about to furnish their homes is the treatment of the floors of the house, and not the least in importance is the contribution that successful floor treatment makes to the general decorative effect of the room. And yet for long this did not seem to be realised. The floor was handled in the same unimaginative way with monotonous regularity. From the English Victorian designers we borrowed the ideal of close-carpeting—-that is, of covering the whole floor area up to the skirting boards with a thick wool pile, and for many years we were content with this arrangement, which may be all very well for the cold English climate, but hardly the most suited to Auckland’s. A writer in the Australian "Home" discusses carpets and floors on these lines: “The only change from this general treatment was the use, in the smaller houses at least, of linoleum, and the carpet square, which finished before reaching the skirting, and therefore exposed a margin of the flooring around the room that was stafned to a dark tone with a varnish usually of the consistency of treacle ” he says. “In the larger houses, sometimes the entrance hall was tiled, or had a floor of marble, but this was not often the case. “I am not suggesting that there was no variety in the pattern of these carpels or these linoleums. There was —the designs were legion. They ranged from those with grounds of simple colour upon which were worked wreaths and festoons of gay and bright flowers to the more complex geometric patterns copied from the hand-woven rugs and carpets of the East. Every field of design and colour combinations was explored, every sentiment of prevailing taste —good, indifferent, anid bad, mostly the last—was catered fo:\ There was no lack of variety or restraint in these designs to complain of; it was rather the choice and appli cation of all this effort that was so unfortunate and so out of place. “Until recently it was the general rule to use pine of deal boards for flooring—a cheap and uninteresting class of timber which offered little or no attraction from the figuring of its grain, and did not polish well. It is perhaps for this reason that close carpeting was popular for so long. But latterly more consideration has been given to the finishing of the domestic floor, and suitable materials are now used for this purpose, as well as timber, not so much here, perhaps, as in other countries. In America many of the homes have the floors of the various reception-rooms in tiles, bricks, or even stone flags, and these are usually laid irregularly and with wide jointing for effect Upon these, rugs and mats are used very effectively. “The latest type of concrete house has concrete floors finished off either in cement with dark margins around or with patent compositions laid out to required patterns. “I know of many houses in France where the floors, both to the livingrooms downstairs and even to the bedrooms upstairs, are laid with that large red quarry tile which the French are so fond of, and use so extensively ” “The English people generally, like ourselves, still show a preference for the wooden floor with its covering of heavy carpet or rugs, which appeals to their sense of homely comfort With us the fashion for close-carpet ing has, for the time being at least, lost popularity, and the polished floor is mostly favoured. For this reason the timber used for flooring boards is now more carefully selected for the figuring of its grain, its shade and its polishing propensity. We are fortu nate in having in this country many natural hardwoods, which possess all these peculiarities, and they are today being extensively and effectively used for the purpose. “It would appear then that the polished hardwood floor is the most appropriate one for general domestic use here, both from this practical point of view and its suitability to our own peculiar and climatic conditions. For now, with the aid of simple electric machines, this type of floor is easily prepared and kept well polished without much effort, and it is cool and cleanly.

“It only remains to consider in what way we would arrange the boards in "he floor, and what coverings, if any, we would use upon them “Personally, I like the boards about foUT inches wide, laid in straight lengths throughout the room without any attempt to form margins or pat terns with them, and all boards of the same class of timber Narrower boards than these, even down to two inches wide, are more generally used to eliminate shrinkage as far as pos sible; but if the timber is well sea soned beforehand, four-inch boards should give no trouble, and I always

feel that these are in belter scale with other features in the room. “To my mind the floor in the home should be unobtrusive and of pleasing, quiet tone, so as not to quarrel with the furniture of the room, and to form a suitable ground upon which to display the pattern and colours In the coverings used. “And of these coverings, which class shall we use? If we don’t like our well-prepared floor, we may still close-carpet it with an uxminster or a wilton pile, or, if we don’t like too much of it, we may use the carpet square, leaving only a margin (but please let the margin be a decently polished one). “And if we would expose more of our nice floor, rugs and mats are the things to have, and no treatment is, I think, so successful, especially with old mahogany or good reproduction furniture, as pleasing Persian rugs placed with taste and care. “Again, if we elect to furnish ou? rooms in the modern manner, let the pattern of the square or mats used -be of the same manner and express the same feeling of design that is shown in the other furnishings of the room, whether we use the wool pile, a simple patterned combination of different toned felts, or the kelim. a light type of Persian rug with an angular design which often fits so happily in with this mode. “But, whatever we do. let the treatment of the floor have some relationship with the decorative scheme aimed at in the furniture and upon the walls of the room.”