How to Design a Floor Plan

A good floor plan:
1. gives living or work spaces flexibility
2. makes the building straightforward to navigate
3. points out main features

Full-height partitioning, placed in line with joists away from supports as in Image C, is the best way to minimise vibrations and improve your floor, while ducting running along and rubbing against joists and alterations to the depth, series or spacing of your joists will ruin your floor surface.

Patterned Tiles

Patterned tiles are the leading decoration element of any floor space, either as a main focus or as a complement to surrounding decor elements. The abundance of patterned tile designs is indisputable, from ornaments such as a geometric or bumper effect to polka dots, seashells, acanthus and other floral motifs. There is certainly a design that goes well with any taste and style.

The type of pattern you use will depend upon the method you want the flooring to fit harmoniously into the space in which it is to be installed – a grid type will suit a small room because it makes the flooring appear large, while also minimising flaws, such as an uneven floor surface.

Other shapes are good for larger bathrooms or kitchens, for which you can make eye-catching mosaic displays or statement pieces. If using patterns for impact, make sure they’re chosen for a heavy-traffic area, when samples should be opted for over well-worn store tiles because you can fool yourself into thinking they’re flatter than they really are. If the tiles have a pattern to them, a matte surface covers scratches better than gloss and wears over it.

Mixing Materials

With the right palette of materials, a beautiful room can be created solely with rough, textured stone, and another just as lovely with polished tile, both achieving the same goal of creating warmth and depth through simple contrasts. Combinations of texture can also be explored, with shades and tones of one hue in a palette bringing balance to a space, creating harmony within colours and textures.

Thinset cement also called as thinset is a material used to permanently fix tile to a paved surface (concrete slabs or cement board), with water retaining-barriers and polymers for added strength.

The pile of adhesive mix should be as evenly disperse as possible – lumps (a curse on those new to tile setting) are kept to a minimum by using a mixer paddle to disperse all of the dry particles properly. The adhesive should then be allowed to stand several minutes following stirring, in order to allow for plasticisers to develop and fully form, improving adhesive performance and helping prevent tile or grout cracking from polymer expansion as they dry.

Combining Colors

Design strips, borders and inserts from the Rubens range, in a generous selection of colours and finishes, can give you a uniquely personal floor, while at the same time marrying together dissimilar tiles in subtle but decisive ways – eg with parquet surrounded by the same coloured wood design strip to produce a rug look!

The best tiled designs combine colour and pattern purposefully — a kitchen might need tile that can stand up to a lot of foot traffic but is also easy to clean, while a spa-like bath might call for more subdued colours with more subtle patterns. Contrast is another design principle, as Emily Vallely-Pertzborn said when she made a dramatic statement with her Art Deco bath, using bolder patterns on a backsplash and more subdued ones on the floor; pairing two or more patterns can work too, as Jean Stoffer showed in his north porch that beautifully combines Subway Tile and Handpainted Sintra Tile!

Creating Balance

A great way to make your home both comfortable and visually appealing is to mix wood floors with other textures and materials – such as fabrics, textiles, textures, light, metal, concrete, etc – to create a decorative contrast and to make your home welcoming and eye-catching. Woven fabrics, such as rugs and pillows, add softness and warmth to the room, leather gives texture and warmth that contrasts with wood, metal adds shine, shiny surfaces enhance juxtaposition, and front-on surfaces rather than curve are printed with the same wood as the wall, etc.

Blue tones play nicely with the undertones of wood floors; they help to ‘mute’ warm tones such as yellow or orange, and green tones easily play well with true browns.

The commonality that needs to exist between multiple patterns is one of proportionality: if you are adding multiple patterns to a space, be careful not to overwhelm the room with pattern. This can be accomplished by matching the sizes of the tiles, as in this bathroom by Noble + Proper, or repeating elements in the pattern, in this case the diamonds, between the different patterns, to tie all the patterns together.

If you still have to do it by hand (as I did), make a dry layout, laying the tile on plywood laid out over sawhorses to test how the tile will flow before you install it. Designers are using software and templates to help with this process. Today’s designers are better at designing floors because it’s much more straightforward.