Of Crumbs, Floors and Paint
How to fill a giant space when a rug won't do.
Linguists! What is the multi-syllabic compounded German word-phrase for Classic New England Thing You Thought Everyone Just Knew About But It Turns Out It Was A Result Of Your Just-So Childhood And Personal Attraction To Historical Things?
I forget the phrase, exactly, but let me tell you how I’m living it. Auf geht’s!
There’s a great expanse of floor in my house that needs something on top of it. The problem is that this “floor topper” would need to go under a dining table to make sense and not awkwardly bifurcate the space. Previously, I had a gargantuan version of this (delightful, am a big fan) seagrass rug, which, you can imagine, was not great under a table. (I was going to say “where children eat,” but to be honest, because of this rug, I found out that everyone spews crumbs at mealtime! We are one!)
The rug is gone and the floor’s been bare cement since. Then, recently, I remembered—floorcloths! A big floorcloth would solve my problem.
Excitedly, I started telling pals about my plan, only to find that hardly anyone knew what I was referring to, what I was talking about.
So. Floorcloths are canvas floor coverings that are gesso’ed, painted with oil paint, usually decoratively, and then covered with many layers of a protective clear coat, varnish or marine paint. There are many variations and differences, but by whatever process, the result is a fairly stiff mat that somewhat resembles leather. Extremely durable, washable, waterproof—a useful thing!
From what I’m gathering, their origin is somewhat hazy—maybe Renaissance-era France?—but we do know that their use and popularity absolutely exploded in England (where they are called oilcloths because of all that paint) and the United States from the colonial era up through the mid-nineteenth century. What’s fun about floorcloths is that they were used in all kinds of households. There were extra fancy floorcloths at Mount Vernon and Monticello; there were also floorcloths in early colonial homes to cover stone or even dirt floors. Mariners’ wives made them from old sails. And remember our 18th century itinerant stencilers from this post (the most popular so far, you all are fun)? They stenciled up floor cloths throughout New England, as well.
While I will, predictably, just use a single color for this project, the tradition is more patterned—a lot of the same stencil motifs, as well as checkerboards, flowers, finials, and the like. And, while there are a handful of cottage companies and Etsy sellers who do this, it’s still largely a Done Yourself kind of thing. Not something that’s so ~readily available~
That said! There are some readily available floor cloths absolutely worth bringing attention to before we close out here. The “steppable paintings” of our May zine cover artist, Louise Sheldon. Louise, about whom the multi-syllabic German word we can’t quite remember also applies, has been making these for years and recently did several to pair with a show of her paintings. They are more fun that what I’m going to do, decidedly!
Friends: Firstly, do you already know, already love, floorcloths? Follow-up question: Do you think this will solve all my problems? 🙃
Listings
Everyday, on the way to camp drop-off, I pass a house with two perfect white wire metal chairs, of a variety that seem (to me) beach house iconic. I desperately want them or ones like them. I can’t seem to find some near me (yet), but here are some available in New Hamster. (LINK)
Kalon re-released their stumps in a wackier variety and I think they are the better for it! (LINK)
My heart! How Frog and Toad became queer, anti-capitalist, cottagecore icons. (LINK)
Speaking of toads, I might offer a $100 reward to whoever can tell me what’s going on here. (LINK)
Note
So many new faces! Hello! Who are you/where have you all come from? I’m not good enough at the internet anymore to know how to find this information, but I am glad you’re here. You can hit reply at any time, I quite like it. Oh, and, welcome. 🤝
Gah! Just saw this on the list of suggested posts at the bottom of your Piet piece and YES! Maybe you already know this about me, but my entire living/dining/family room is covered in a WALL TO WALL painted canvas floor cloth to cover up the existing wall-to-wall linoleum/vinyl! It's the best thing I've ever done. Zero regrets! It's about three years old at this point and could use some retouching/a fresh coat of paint, but it's still excellent in every way!