Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Painted Floors Are In—Again!

Painted Floors Are In—Again!

Designers agree: Don’t underestimate the power of looking down

When we first laid eyes on the pictures of Kate Rheinstein Brodsky’s colorful Hamptons home, we were floored—by the floors! For her family’s newly renovated 1901 beach house, the proprietor of Manhattan’s Upper East Side homewares emporium KRB tapped decorative painters Chris Pearson and Bob Christian to revamp the residence’s unsightly orange-y boards with fresh paint rather than replacing them. A number of eye-popping floor jobs ensued: They covered the living room in grassy green, coated the kitchen in a New England–style speckled cherry red, traced the bedroom in a subtly hued hexagonal pattern, and decked out the sunroom in an unforgettable pink-and-white checkerboard. Nearly all of the walls in the house are painted white, yet each room pulses with color and pattern.

“One of the many things my mother taught me was never be afraid to paint wood,” explains Rheinstein Brodsky, daughter of Suzanne Rheinstein, the legendary decorator who ran the cult-favorite L.A. shop Hollyhock.

Stampede from C2 Paint adds a jolt of color to a guest bath floor in Kate Rheinstein Brodsky’s colorful Hamptons home.

In Australian model Jessica Hart’s L.A. abode, designed by Carlos Mota, the floors of the living and dining rooms are punched up with a painted-on diamond pattern executed by Javier Sánchez.

A painted floor might seem old-fashioned, but designers are revisiting the throwback decorating move, which is both economical (just paint over what’s already there) and totally transformative to a space. In a London flat for two 20-somethings, AD100 interior designer Beata Heuman brightened things up by coating dark wood floors in an electrifying raspberry hue, which, as her senior designer Caroline Barker explained, “sounds like a really bold choice but actually ties everything together and feels quite calming.”

Meanwhile, Will Cooper of the AD100 firm ASH NYC is fond of covering floors with white epoxy paint, as he did in a family home in Tribeca and his own petite Manhattan pad. And who can forget the emerald green and sunflower yellow floors in Brock Forsblom’s minimalist color-blocked New York apartment, which ran in New York magazine? AD100 designers Rodman Primack and Rudy Weissenberg used a similar jewel-toned green on the floors of their Mexico City home.
A deep emerald green graces the floor of Rodman Primack and Rudy Weissenberg’s Mexico City pad.


Of course, decorators have been painting floors for decades. Centuries even. Bunny Mellon, the legendary gardener and philanthropist, famously commissioned interior decorator and painter Paul Leonard to create imitation inlaid marble floors in her New York City town house. They were modeled after the Swedish imitation of the Italian vogue: “Marble was too expensive and too cold underfoot, so the practical Swedes did a painted checkerboard in imitation of marble,” Leonard once told AD. Meanwhile, the great decorator Mario Buatta conjured a veritable pattern book of floors over the course of his career. Nearly all of them were executed, for the past quarter century, by decorative painter Haleh Atabeigi, who swears that a painted floor “somehow always makes your room bigger.”

Years of experience have armed her with a wealth of do’s and do nots. Rule number one? “Once you’ve decided on the design, you can’t start worrying about the furniture,” she advises. Still, there are a few rules of thumb: “Some spaces lend themselves better to a central design,” she explains. “Spaces that don’t have any furniture—entryways and such. For a room that has a lot of stuff, an overall design and definitely a border makes sense.”

With the help of decorative painter Haleh Atabeigi, interior designer Mario Buatta conjured an octagonal pattern based on Victorian tilework for the entryway of Patricia Altschul’s South Carolina mansion.


Atabeigi exclusively paints wood floors, which, she advises, must be sanded and treated, so that whatever sort of paint is being applied will adhere. (“Otherwise, this beautiful painting will peel right off,” she adds.) It is possible, though difficult, ​​to paint linoleum, concrete, tile, or plastic flooring, according to Pearson, so long as it is sanded down, vacuumed, and swept thoroughly before it gets a layer of primer, ideally applied with a brush. Regardless of the base material, the paint—you’ll usually need two or three coats—gets sandwiched between that primer coat and a top coat of varnish (Atabeigi recommends a brand called Bona).

“Have patience!” Rheinstein Brodsky advises. “Painted floors need to cure between each coat of primer, paint, and sealer.” But once you’ve completed the job, upkeep isn’t too complicated. Atabeigi recommends a gentle mop—nothing abrasive—on painted floors or using a spot treatment for individual scuffs, which will inevitably appear.

In this 18th-century house on Martha’s Vineyard, interior designer Victoria Hagan restored the painted blue-and-white checkerboard floors in the kitchen.


Despite their timeless appeal, today’s painted floors feel different from those of yesteryear. In our opinion, modern iterations feature all-over bold color in a not-so-shiny finish, or something bold and geometric like a larger-scale checkerboard. But, heeding the words of Rheinstein Brodsky, who grew up with loads of color underfoot, don’t be daunted by the concept, as they can be tailored to your style: “They can be low-key or super glam.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×