a long TRADITION

Usually American associated and rural with houses, early paintdecorated floors date from about the mid-1700s and well into the 19th century. Not all fall into the folk-art category; urban painted floors, done with refined scale and color sense, reflected Federal style.

Many geometric effects are sophisticated enough for a 20th-century

Colonial Revival entry hall.

Painted floors were most common in New England, but originals have shown up in the

Midwest and Texas. Plain painted floors were common in farmhouse kitchens. In fine Federal-era and

Greek Revival homes, decorative painting and faux-finishing techniques were used to suggest expensive floors of inlaid wood or marble tiles.

Checkerboard designs, spatterpainting, pinstriped borders, stencil decoration, compass designs, geometric medallions, and trompe l’oeil “rugs” are historical conventions—painted directly on the floorboards, or alternatively on canvas floorcloths laid over the floor. Alternating between natural (or stained) wood and painted wood is a more recent innovation.

Imitating other materials—that is, faux painting—may have begun for reasons of practicality or budget, but then wood-graining and veined marbleizing evolved into an art form. Compass-rose designs in imitation of handcrafted wood inlays grew artistic and elaborate.

Inspiration for stenciled and freehand motifs could come from anywhere: decorator’s pattern books, a fabric, even a natural botanical specimen.

thanks to Maine artist Susan Amons, to Fancy Painters Inc., and to Hurlbutt Designs, Kennebunk, Maine.

A compass rose reproduces the look of inlaid wood species, but all done in paint or stain.