I've been reading through old discussions, and was particularly interested by a passing reference to 1920's patterned linoleum.

As I'm in the process of trying to buy a little 1925 house, I've been thinking about how to re-create the delightful lino floors that I'm seeing in period pictures.

I'm a theatrical scenic artist, and decorative painter, so of course, I think "How could I do this myself?" I've done several projects where we hand stenciled 12" "cafeteria" style tiles to look like something else.

Here are some in-progress photos of tiles we made for a play set in a mosque, that had a huge pool of water in the middle of the stage.





And here's a link to a blog post about another stenciled floor, that we did for a show that played off-Broadway, and had hundreds of gallons of water dumped on it every night. (I mention all that water, because it shows that these floors can stand up to abuse.)

Finally, here's some really awesome cut-linoleum flooring that John Wehrle designed for a public library. As I said, none of this is Arts & Crafts, but the images are inspiring (I think) in terms of what is possible.

Actually, the level of craftsmanship meets the threshold of A&C ... at least in my universe. ;-)

Your projects and the library floor are spectacular. I have some old scrap linoleum and was going to stencil a small "rug" similar to the 1920s linoleum rugs (which were actually felt saturated with asphalt, etc.) that I could put in front of the kitchen sink, so I found yours to be very inspirational.

Thanks!

Oh thanks!

When you think of it, the 1920s were a period that embraced a *lot* of architectural styles, so that Islamic pattern wouldn't be out of place in a 1920s movie theater. There are a lot of Moorish-influenced apartment buildings in San Francisco from the 20s.

Wait until I show you the period wallpaper that we've re-created! (I can't figure out which area of this forum to share that on...)