Published: May 14, 2008 in design » interior by Thomas Baekdal
The "art" of applying stickers to walls and windows is quite common, but it is rare to see somebody apply the same effect to a floor. Especially when you do it the way Transparent House has done - by making a permanent pattern in the concrete itself.
It is a very cool effect.
(via Design Milk)
That's really awesome-looking! I wonder if there's a way I could re-create the effect with some some of transparent vinyl and sharpies or something. I don't think my landlord would appreciate my cutting up of his floors.
That's beautiful! I wonder if it is actually grooved into the concrete.
@Subrashankar: I would love to see pictures of what your wife does, too.
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subrashankar, that sounds interesting!
Steelfrog, I would guess that you could do the same with regular stickers (the same as people use to apply to walls)
Yes, it looks good, but really I wouldn't ever want to live in a flat with raw concrete floors. Some things 'modern' are just too cold and clean for me to find agreeable - like that first photo up there: Who would ever want to live in a place as chilling as that? Now, if you put those designs on wooden floor tiles, then we'd be talking ... :)
It would work very well for office entrances or hair salons but as Zyb says its a bit cold for the living room. Maybe in the bathroom?
In a living room, I'd pair it with a nice area rug in the central part of the room and plenty of warm, comfy places to sit, as opposed to the couch in the photo with it's look-don't-touch furniture feel.
I agree with you Mark, I think it's way too cold for an rooms that are used frequently in a house, but great for places such as the hairdresser's, tattooist. Maybe even at Gyms. I like it, very artistic.
I would love to see such an detailed design on a hard wood floor, maybe burned into the wood instead of pasted on or cut away.The burn would allow a natural wear to happen yet is more permanent than a sticker solution.It would also be more warm and inviting to guests since the concrete floor is cold and monotone. Just two more things, it would be a interesting idea to connect the walls into this design,unifying the home and giving it a more naturalistic quality. The second is a transference of material, since all the room's floors are just one material(concrete) it would be a challenge to design the pattern to move from concrete floor onto a rug and up a set of steps (as an example).
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Zup, Rodney... like this? :)
umm not to sound doubt you thomas but those look a bit photoshopped... :\ (especially the one where the woman has a spiral coming out of the bottom of her shirt).
Of course I do understand that you may have been just pitching the look to him, by throwing something together to simulate the effect. But that is not how I took your message
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They are Photoshopped, I was merely trying to visualize how the effect would look on wood.
I agree with the spiral coming out of her shirt, at the same time you could use a vinyl cutter and cut the shape of the patterns you want, then apply them to the floor, then use a waterbase polyurethane that has color pigment added.
When it is applied through out the floor and dried, take off the stickers of the patterns and you should have a similar affect, I believe the same would go with adding a varnish coat to hard wood.
Thomas: Yes, those are well done, thanks! The floor on the second has too stark a contrast for my liking, but in principle that's it. :)
These designs made me think of a house I once worked on
I was hired to acid stain a concrete floor in a new house. After the concrete had been poured and smoothed, the wind blew a bunch of maple leaves onto the wet concrete. The contractor ran his concrete float over the leaves to press them in and then picked them out leaving these beautifully detailed impressions of maple leaves randomly scattered all over the floor. The best part was that the acid stain pooled in the impressions and made them darker and even more visible. The home owners loved it and the general contractor said from that point on, he was going to throw leaves on all of his concrete floors .
What subrashankar was talking about is called "kolam" in South India or "Rangoli" in the North.
http://www.ikolam.com/
http://www.ikolam.com/skill/advanced
Some simple design are like the ones in the link....
Cheers,
Manas
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Hi Manas, Thansk for the info - looks interesting
that's really cool, i never would've thought that it was possible.
hmmm..thats suspicious, in the pic where the girl is laying down its on her too.
photoshop much?....
It's not photoshopped , it's Gimped
Okay so I know I'm supposed to say something really clever and intelligent about the design and materials...but excuse me while I drool a bit = awesomeness!
What Transparent House does is 3-d mock ups of things. The floors are not in an actual house but in one modeled. You can see more of their work on their site. I especially like the model of the apartment in one of Trump's buildings.
Hi
Very nice work. I do venetian plaster. Do you think Plaster with designs would go with your work?
I would never have even imagined this possible. Pretty cool idea and I like how they didn't over do it with the vinyl stickers. Wouldn't it peel off though if you walked on it or over it?
I like it. But some of those photos look like they are photoshopped. Or has the internet made me overly cynical :)
I would think concrete etching and/or paint would have a nice effect also. Rather than cut up vinyl or the like.
The first pictures are to most impressive I think, the pattern look embedded, although it would not be possible to set the concrete like this. I take it that the concrete was routered out to some degree after 2-4 weeks. Nice job, ill give you a thumbs up on the stumble my man
I think that this would work wonders in very warm or desert areas. Places where cold concrete is used for a reason. I just saw not too long ago a mansion in the desert that had a concrete floor with 30 ft tall ceilings and floor to ceiling glass walls. This would have been ideal in that house!
Just luv the idea of the wooden floors. I have to agree with utah,the idea of the desert mansion & the concrete floors, mmmm
oh wow, these are really cool. love the first set of pictures! gorgeous!
Thats amazing.... i wonder how they managed to do that....i mean the finish of it with those inlays.....Superb work...
Can anyone of you tell me how they would have managed to do this...?
Those designs are great. I would loved it to be on my house flooring.
AUUUUGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Concrete floors aren't cold. They aren't hot.
They are the temperature you make them. If there are windows nearby, the floors mass absorbs and slowly releases the sun's energy. If you have a radiant system, little pipes and tubes run warm fluid throughout the floor and the heat rises to warm the entire room. That fluid can be heated in rooftop solar panels, woodburning or petro stoves, or otherwise.
Looks very cool. A danish textile designer, Line Kramhøft, has made something similar to this also in concrete. In the project "Aestetic concrete surfaces" she has worked with many different impressions of the concrete surfaces.. Check it out..
http://www.spaencom.dk/Æstetiske overflader.6111.aspx
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Hi Signe, Interesting! :)
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May 15
2008
subrashankar
In my home in Southern India my wife does floral,geometric and other designs on the concrete floor outside the door and at the center of the passage using ground chalk powder. The advantage is the designs change every day and on festive days it gets more elaborate using a paste of finely powdered rice. This is called "Kolam" and is supposed to welcome the Goddess of prosperity into the home.During a festive month the Kolam is entirely made of fresh flowers and petals with imaginative and artistic designs