If you’re new around here, thanks for stopping by and welcome! I am Lauren Caron, an interior designer and the founder of Studio Laloc, an interior design firm based in Seattle, Washington. On the side my husband and I are remodeling our home that I’ve given its own hashtag #ourseattlecraftsman. We’ve renovated our kitchen, scullery, powder room, and in the last One Room Challenge, we refreshed our dining room. I’m excited to be participating as a guest again and hope you’ll follow along as we remodel the next space.

I’m afraid to admit that we’ve been a little slow to start the one room challenge. This past week I finalized some orders and it seems as though we should have everything ready for the install date… I think. My workroom that is making my curtains, pillows and my bedspread may not make the deadline, but I do hope they will. They, like everyone is very busy.

Since I don’t have much to share in the form of progress I want to go in to a little more detail about the floor of the closet. I haven’t yet finalized the design, but I have the groundwork and the color palette figured out.

The Inspiration

Sprinkled with a little bit of history

Floor cloth inspiration - from New England Home

In terms of inspiration, I’m drawing my concept from the traditional floorcloths, that were often seen in colonial period homes. Instead of painting directly on floors, canvases were painted with graphic designs like checkered patterns, diamond patterns and sometime elaborated floral inspired patterns. These painted canvases were appropriately called floorcloths, oil cloths (oyle cloths), floor canvases, grease cloths, crumbcloths, or druggets. Now they’re more commonly considered floorcloths.

the earliest floorcloths were imported from England. And according to Gracewood Design, the Factory of Smith and Baber of South Kensington, London, produced painted floor canvases prior to 1754. Nathan Smith, the founder of the above Smith and Baber, first produced block printed cloths in 1754. His early cloths most likely consisted of only one color, but by the 19th century as many as five colors were not unusual. Historians believe they were adapted from the 14th century French wall and table coverings which were made in a similar manner.”

Early cloths were made by a method of stenciling, but as they became more popular house painters, sign painters and artists started designing and selling floorcloths. Often the designs were geometric with diamonds and checks, but as time went on they became more elaborate and decorative.

The purpose of floorcloths was to be used as a protective material over floors, or as insulation under carpets during winter months. In the summers floor cloths would replace the wood carpets. They became less popular in the 1850s and were then only typically seen in kitchens or hallways that were considered high traffic areas. As time went on, linoleum was invented (in England in 1863) and became the floor covering of choice. There is advertisement in a Sear Roebuck catalog that says “like oil cloth, but heavier, more durable and softer to walk on.”

I am still deciding on whether to paint my pattern directly on the floor, or to paint it on a floorcloth to take with me if/when we move. I do love the idea of a floorcloth, but I also know that there are several extra steps involved (preparing the canvas for paint) that I’m lazy enough to not want to take on.

For the pattern, I’ve decided I want to create what will be a combination of designs gathered from the Gucci x Antoinette Poisson floor in the SOHO, NYC Wooster street store, and the Schumacher Giove snake pattern. I love the overall pattern of the woven ribbon in the Gucci x Antionette Poisson floor, as well as the red color palette from the Schumacher Giove pattern. I also love the idea of including snakes - my one phobia.

The Process

Our painted scullery floor - designed and painted by Lauren L Caron / Studio Laloc

My scullery floor has sparked a lot interest in terms of the process . So to break it down into approachable steps, this is what I did:

Drew up the floorplan of the room to scale. In the case for the scullery I drew it at a 1” = 1’ scale.
Figured out a design by sketching it out on tracing paper first and layed it over the floor plan to make sure my design fit the entire space and that the composition worked.
To start the painting process I begin with a base color. In the case of my scullery it was the medium olive color. As for the type of paint to use, I used Benjamin Moore sample pints. They come in an eggshell finish which doesn’t matter because you’ll add a layer of polyurethane to the top. I’m sure someone who is pickier may prefer to use floor paints, but for my art project I don’t think it really matters. Also, the top coat, again will be the most important detail in terms of durability. This is the topcoat I used [here]. And this one comes highly recommended available at Home Depot [here].
Next I used chalk to mark out the floor. For every 12”, I marked a hatch line. Another options would be to draw a grid on the entire floor.
Drew the patten by referencing the scaled drawing. Each box that was 1’ by 1’ would pertain to each square that was 1” x 1” on paper.
Then I added each layer of color on making sure to paint within the chalk lines I drew up. Thin art brushes are great for the edges. Once I mapped out the pattern enough to be able to follow along, I washed the chalk off and touched up the line work.
I found that each color needed at least two coat of paint, sometimes three.
For the final top coat I used a flat (no sheen) acrylic polyurethane. An important note: the top coat I used is not supposed to be put on floors in high traffic areas. I put it in my scullery and have only seen a few tiny marks where the paint has chipped and most often it’s from something being dropped on the floor.
Step back, and marvel at your work!

I will say that it’s the kind of project that you have to spread out over several hours (at the very least)/ days. It took me over a week to paint my floor. I’d paint one coat, let it full dry then start the next layer.

The Palette

Back to design. For my pattern I really want to incorporate some shades of pink and red into the floor. The rusty reads to a poppy tomato red should be a really fun opportunity to play with color. I ordered a sample of the Giove wallpaper to use to pull paint colors from. I’m starting out with large sheets from Material Bank (unfortunately not all colors come in these sheets so I’ll have to use the fan deck for those) to test them all together in the room. Last week I received all the swatches so this week I will plan on reviewing the colors in the space and ordering the sample pots of the colors I plan to use. Also this week I hope to at least start the primer based coat on the floor.