Concrete Art

subrashankar - May. 15, 2008

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

steelfrog - May. 15, 2008

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.

Hoppyhop - May. 15, 2008

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.

Zyb - May. 16, 2008

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 ... :)

Mark Rosenberg - May. 16, 2008

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?

Nicole - May. 16, 2008

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.

Rebecca - May. 16, 2008

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.

Rodney - May. 17, 2008

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).

vabela - May. 17, 2008

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

fitches - May. 18, 2008

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.

Zyb - May. 19, 2008

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. :)

andrew chase - May. 19, 2008

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 .

Manas - May. 22, 2008

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

sir jorge - May. 27, 2008

that's really cool, i never would've thought that it was possible.

Girl names - May. 30, 2008

awesome design. it must be expensive i guess

kel - May. 31, 2008

hmmm..thats suspicious, in the pic where the girl is laying down its on her too.

photoshop much?....

cribcat - Jun. 9, 2008

It's not photoshopped , it's Gimped

Website Design - Jun. 9, 2008

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!

Obvious - Jun. 13, 2008

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.

David Couch - Jun. 15, 2008

Hi

Very nice work. I do venetian plaster. Do you think Plaster with designs would go with your work?

Watch Olympics - Jun. 21, 2008

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?

J P - Jun. 27, 2008

I like it. But some of those photos look like they are photoshopped. Or has the internet made me overly cynical :)

mark - Jul. 7, 2008

excellent idea and what about putting it on the ceilings as well?

Sara - Jul. 16, 2008

I would think concrete etching and/or paint would have a nice effect also. Rather than cut up vinyl or the like.