On Fantasy Libraries and Herringbone Floors

I'll be done with the library theme pretty soon, but I just ran across this "fantasy" library on Journal 703. It's lovely. He has the most romantic flooring discussion:

The floor I'd choose would be a floor I fell in love with as a fifteen year old boy in one of my friend's house. His parents had a beautiful federal style two story Colonial Revival home. Later, they added a traditional den/library to the back of the house. I've never forgotten the floor. It was brick; very smooth brick from an old street that was dug up and replaced in town. These bricks were reddish brown and very smooth. It had a sealed appearance that was very smooth. I later found out how they managed it. The brick was set, and sealed and coated with gloss polyurethane. On top of that were many coats of oxblood wax.

I'm a big fan of herringbone floors -- it's a unique way to use a standard rectangular shape, which means you can create a particularly unique floor pattern using off the shelf components. I'm building an addition to my house, and for the new upstairs bathroom, I'm going to use standard stock American Olean 3"x6" Subway tile ($.22/piece) laid in a herringbone pattern with a dark grout. I'm hoping it ends up looking like this:

image from Greenwood Marble and Tile.

Tile or brick not appealling? Wood floors are the most traditional herringbone flooring.


The herringbone floor pattern dates back to Roman times, which is long enough ago that I think it qualifies as "timeless."