To return to the stained floor-border which is to frame these creations, it will generally be found that a width of twenty inches for the exposed part of the staining is the most satisfactory, whether the room is large or small. With a narrower border than this, chairs standing against the wall are liable to have their front feet on the rug, tilting them back unpleasantly, while, with a wider border, the rug which covers the middle portion of the floor is apt, even in a large room, to have a shrunken appearance, which is disagreeable. Bay-windows and similar recesses may, however, with advantage have their whole floor stained, the border being carried straight across them; and the borders at the ends of the rooms may without objection be wider than those at the sides. In any case, the border should be painted three or four inches wider than it is intended to show, so that a slight displacement of the rug may not disclose the bare wood.

Floor-borders.

Where a stain cannot be found or made which harmonizes with the rugs or furniture, or where the floor has already been stained, and allowed to become irretrievably shabby, it is often best to use paint, which can, of course, be made in any color. The paint should be mixed thick, with plenty of japan drier, or boiled oil, so that it may harden quickly, and may be put on in two, three, or more coats, according to circumstances; and it is desirable to varnish it afterward, for protection against scratches. With dark madder brown, or "antique blue" paint, or other deep, rich colors, harmonizing with the rest of the room, beautiful effects can be obtained. Our ancestors were in the habit of painting the floors of their rooms white, and decorating them with bluish veins, suggesting, although not usually with deceptive accuracy, a marble pavement; or, for variety, they imitated granite slabs with slate-colored paint, sprinkled with little drops of white; and it may be reserved for some clever householder of the present day to invent painted and varnished floor-borders, decorated with pink and white pond-lilies, for example, floating with their green leaves on a dark blue ground, with brown reflections here and there, suggesting the mud beneath; or, perhaps, clusters of daisies, on a ground of green, in the William Morris manner, which would be charming.

Much more satisfactory, where it can be afforded, than a floor of spruce or pine, however well stained or painted, is one of hard wood. The cheapest flooring wood which has any pretensions to be called hard is North Carolina pine, which, unless specially selected, costs little more than spruce. The boards, if of ordinary stock, show a large proportion of sap-wood, which injures their appearance, and they are hard enough to turn the points of tacks, so that they do not receive carpeting well; but, as a compensation for this, they can be kept at a tolerable polish with wax; and, in a new house, it is possible to select the boards, so that those in the best rooms will show no streaks of white sap. Georgia pine ranks next above North Carolina pine, both in hardness and cost. It takes a good polish with wax; but, for flooring, it is necessary to use "rift" boards, the surface of which is cut nearly normal to the annual rings of the log; and these rings, being cut across, show a grain of fine parallel lines, which is rather monotonous. A much handsomer grain is found in the "slashed" boards, which are cut nearly tangent to the annual rings, and show broad mottlings; but these mottlings are composed mainly of brittle rosin, which soon crushes under wear, setting free great slivers of wood, and ruining the appearance of the floor. Similar mottlings are seen in boards of North Carolina pine, but the annual rings are much more adherent in this timber than in Georgia pine, so that it is little disposed to splinter.

Painted floors.

Hard-wood floor.

Georgia pine.

Above Georgia pine, both in expense and hardness, come maple, ash, birch, and oak; and, beyond these, cherry, mahogany, black walnut, and other so-called "fancy " woods. Of the ordinary hard deciduous timbers, maple is the cheapest, and makes a very tough, durable floor, admirable for hard wear; but the boards, in seasoning, acquire a bluish tinge at the ends, which injures the appearance of a floor laid with them; so that maple is not often used for entire floors in private houses, except for small rooms, where selected pieces, especially if they can be chosen with a "bird's-eye" or curly grain, give a very pretty effect. With maple, as with all other deciduous woods, the boards must be narrow to give a good effect, as they shrink much more than coniferous timber. Two and one-half inches is a common width for maple flooring, and two inches is still better. For parquetry, or inlaid floors, maple is much used, on account of its whiteness, which serves to mark the pattern of the inlay.

Ash is little more costly than ordinary maple, but it is unsuited to the severe wear of a floor in a room which is much used, as the annual rings do not adhere together strongly, and the floor soon begins to "sliver up" in the places where the most wear comes. Except for this, ash would be a hard and handsome flooring material, and it may still be used successfully, in place of the more expensive oak, for stairs and floors not exposed to much traffic. Birch is a very hard material, containing a large proportion of white sap-wood, enclosing heart-wood of a beautiful pinkish brown. It has only a limited market, but hardly any floor can be handsomer than one of birch heart-wood, in two-inch strips, well polished.

Maple.

Ash.

The best of all ordinary flooring woods is, however, oak, which is hard, of a varied and agreeable grain, and so tough that it is not disposed to sliver, even when "slashed," or cut tangent to the annual rings. It is, however, liable to knots, and streaks of white sap, so that a considerable percentage of the stock must be wasted in laying a good floor.