How to Create a Quilt Pattern Design in a Wood Floor

When I first moved to Billings, Montana, my wife and I had to get our driver's licenses changed. The Department of Motor Vehicles was located in a mall. You had to take a number and wait your turn. In order to pass the time while we were waiting I wandered around the mall. One of the stores in the mall was a quilting supply store.

As I browsed around the store I started looking at quilting pattern books. One of the images that caught my eye was the mystery wheel pattern. This is an interesting pattern of circles over squares. I purchased the pattern book and kept it with my ideas for future use. I am sharing this background information to show you how you can get ideas and translate them into images for designing inlays into your wood floors.

I made a sample of how this pattern would look using inexpensive six-inch by six-inch parquet tile. These tiles come in twelve-inch by twelve-inch squares with four squares to a tile. Having mastered the pattern, I then filed it away until the right opportunity presented itself.

Several years later I ran into a wood floor installation for a customer who made quilts. I recalled the sample I had made years earlier and showed it to her. She loved the idea.

My customer's daughter came to visit her as I was showing her the pattern. She saw the quilt pattern and asked if that was what I was going to do on her mother's floor. The customer said she wouldn't be able to afford adding such a beautiful design.

Sometimes the challenge of a new project factors into my decision to take on a job and set a price. It's one of the advantages of owning my own company. This was one of those instances where I made the decision to put creativity over price. I like the freedom to be able to do that. And in this instance, I told my customer that I was willing to add the pattern at no additional cost. I wanted to have a sample and learn how to perfect this unique idea and this project allowed me leeway to do just that.

This pattern takes a little bit of time but is relatively easy to create. Here's how I created this inlay design.

I first took a piece of half-inch plywood and fastened it to my shop floor. I then screwed in two lag bolts near the center of the plywood about a foot apart. Using steel cable, I first made a loop and then fastened this cable to my router. I used steel cable so it would not stretch and would hold position without breaking. I then looped this cable over the two lag bolts.

By pulling my router as far as the cable would allow I cut a perfect oval hole into the plywood. This made a template for the installation.

Taking the template to the job site, I then placed it in the middle of the floor centered in front of the fireplace where I wanted the pattern to be. Then I traced the oval onto the floor.

Once satisfied with the tracing, I then removed the template and installed two-and-a-quarter-inch oak flooring as I would normally do. When I got to the center of the room I just made sure the flooring overlapped the line I had traced for the oval.

After I had completed installation of all the two-and-a-quarter-inch flooring I screwed the template to the floor. I then called the customer in so she could watch as I installed the inlay. In about two minutes I had cut a perfect oval in the middle of the floor with my router bearing against the template with a guide on the bottom of the router. The customer seemed fascinated at how quickly the oval was cut.

I then removed all the small pieces of flooring that I had cut off with the router. I screwed the half- inch oval that had been cut out of the center of the template to the sub-floor. Using my scroll saw, I cut the six-by-six-inch parquet and glued it on top of the plywood. The thickness of the half-inch plywood and the quarter-inch parquet brought the inlay flush with the three-quarter-inch solid flooring.

Once I had the parquet completely inlaid into the oval I let it set a day so that the glue could dry. The next day I sanded the whole area to remove any height difference. I next covered the entire area with clear contact paper so I could see the wood in order to fashion the design pattern.

Then, using a ruler, I marked the opposing corners of each square. Where the two diagonal lines intersected would have to be the exact center of each square.

The next tool I pulled from the toolbox was a drywall compass. These are often used to cut the holes in the ceiling for recessed can lights. Using the compass, I filed off the rivet that secured the wheel and then I removed the wheel. I then clamped a razor blade where the wheel had been. I wanted to make a clean, sharp cut into the plastic and a razor blade would accomplish this better than the duller wheel.

I adjusted the radius of the compass to be the same as the width of one of the squares. Then I placed the center of the compass on the mark for the center of each square and cut a circle in the contact paper.

I stopped the cut anyplace it came to a spot where the oval met the two-and-a-quarter-inch flooring. Once I had cut all the circles, I carefully peeled off every other (non-adjacent) section of contact paper. This essentially created a stencil of the pattern so that design would emerge.

In the sample I spray-painted the flooring black where I had removed the contact paper. It's best to remove the contact paper while the black paint is still wet. Removing it after the paint dries could cause chipping of the painted areas. Each section where the contact paper stayed in place remained wood colored when I removed all of the clear covering. The customer requested that the pattern be more subtle, so I stained the wood. Since every other piece was stained, the pattern was created. I then finished the floor as usual with urethane.

You could paint the pattern using any color of spray paint or stain to pick up the color scheme of your room. This is a stunning design and you can modify it to suit your tastes. I always welcome pictures if you would like to share your handiwork.