Common Ground: A Brief History of Floorcloths
Despite being one of the most popular and stylish floor coverings for two centuries, little is known about the floorcloths that once decorated the family home. Yet, these decorative elements are integral to a history of home design, and artisan production in Canada - a status symbol and a true heritage craft. To renew our collective appreciation of this unique art form, we offered a two-part lecture and workshop last month, teaching participants the art of heritage oil paint mixing and how to apply it using stencils and a small canvas. Read on to learn how the workshop went, and for A Brief History of Floorcloths.
Furniture retailer advertisement. Tonson Garlick Co, 1910. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
A Functional Luxury for the Middle Class
Before the invention of linoleum took the title, the floorcloth enjoyed over two centuries as the trendiest floor covering to infatuate the middle class. In fact, the emergence of the middle class is what enabled its rise to fashionable popularity by the 1700s.
The new middle class had new expendable income. Yet, while they could indulge in little luxuries, those luxuries still needed to serve a purpose. The floorcloth could be both luxurious and utilitarian - functional, yet stylish. Pricey, yet useful enough that the middle class household could justify the cost.
Floor coverings were essential to any household. They helped to keep floors clean, and to retain warmth in the winter. Prior to the floorcloth, only the elite could afford to decorate their interior floors with exotic carpets or patterns of marble, ceramic, or parquet. The rest of the population resorted to the objectively plain and strictly functional straw rug or woven mat, which was much more susceptible to deterioration and insect infestation. The floorcloth changed all of this.
Coated in an oil-based varnish, the floorcloth, also known as an oilcloth, was an easy-to-clean floor covering that repelled water and insects, protected flooring from dirt and grime, and also worked as an insulator. Its linen material was also a canvas for a choice of patterns and colours, enabling middle class households to imitate the intricate patterns that covered the floors of the ultra-rich without having to pay the same price (1). The middle class could now showcase the latest interior fashion trends and show off household income and status.
However, the functionality of the floorcloth did have an unintended cost. Few examples have survived for historians, craftspeople, and heritage conservationists alike to tangibly study and learn from. Though durable enough to last a household a few decades of wear, a floorcloth would still eventually deteriorate overtime. And the very purpose it served meant that not many held sentimental attachment to this household object. The tatters of an old floorcloth wouldn’t be repaired and passed down as a keepsake the same way a quilt would, for example.
Instead, much of what we know about floorcloths comes from 18th and 19th century trade cards of artisanal craftspeople, retailer and manufacturer advertisements, and artwork - particularly family portraits set within the home. These sources not only tell us that the floorcloth was prolific into the latter half of the 1800s, but also allows us to trace the evolution of who made them and how.
“The Sargent Family”, 1800. Unknown Artist. National Gallery of Art.
The Art of the Floorcloth
The first oil-coated textiles appeared in the sixteenth century. A person named G. Fallopius is found in the English patent records in 1578 with a recipe for treating linen cloth with a mixture of gum Arabic, white led, water and tallow max (2). From here, the craft took off, and a number of English artisans and inventors continued to improve the process and expand the market. While the first floorcloths mostly featured black and white geometric prints, progressing technology eventually enabled makers to introduce pigments, and, by the 1750s, block printing to their process.
Trade card of London-based painter and decorator, Joseph Barnes, 1760s-1820. The British Museum.
Floorcloth makers were often skilled craftspeople who had related-businesses as painters, upholsters, or turners (3). These artisans would produce small quantities of different sizes and designs to sell in their workshops, and if they were really successful, export. Most of the floorcloths that decorated the homes of Loyalists during the early settlement of Upper Canada would have been styled and produced by makers in England. A small domestic industry also existed alongside, where women would craft homemade floorcloths for “family-use” - meaning for private rooms of the home (4). Their quality and style may not have met the same standard as professionally-made floorcloths, but they still did the job.
Through the first half of the 1700s, floorcloth makers would stencil and hand-paint in patterns imitating marble or parquet onto their linen canvas (5). The emergence of the block printer in the 1750s enabled craftspeople to diversify the designs they could offer to their customers, but also signalled the rise of manufactories that could increase production and reduce costs. By the early 1800s, individual markers dwindled, unable to compete with the variety, efficiency, and affordability of the floorcloths produced by these larger manufacturers.
While industrialization hurt artisan production, advances in manufacturing enabled even working-class families to decorate their homes with floorcloths by the end of the 19th century (6). Industrialization also got the production process down to a near science. According to an 1869 article in the Scientific American Journal, the most popular process was to mix a waterproof varnish made from resin and linseed oil over a fire until a thick paste, and then spread upon canvas or linen cloth backed with burlap to create a glaze over the textile (7). The invention of the power loom shuttle further improved the process by weaving cloth into canvas more efficiently, and allowing for wider lengths (8).
With all dimensions available, a floorcloth’s size was largely dependent on budget, but also function. As with design. Floorcloths made for foyers, hallways or parlours - the public spaces of a home - had more display appeal than areas used for domestic work like a kitchen or pantry (9). Owners also tended to have their “display” floorcloths repaired and repainted as styles changed and new trends came into fashion.
Perhaps the families of The Brown Homestead sought to redecorate this way. After all, the house has endured over two centuries of interior design!
Floorcloths of The Brown Homestead
Indeed, if only we could get a glimpse of how this house was decorated at the turn of the nineteenth century!
Building their stone home in 1802-1804, the Browns were a farming family. Function came first. However, as their house was also a landmark on a busy rural road before much else was built in the area, it was also a community gathering place - for meetings, meals, and festivities. When welcoming their neighbours and guests into their home, the Browns would have sought to impress through the little luxuries afforded to them. Like a floorcloth decorating a room or two.
“The Woolsey Family”, 1809. William Berczy. National Gallery of Canada.
The Chellew family, who moved into the Homestead in 1858, were also likely to decorate with floorcloths. Though also a farming family - and a large one with 11 children - the Chellews were still considerably invested in the home design trends of the time. The Victorian era had an eye for the colourful, bold, and ornate. Not only did the Chellews build a veranda to span the front of the house, they applied a veneer finish to the exterior stonework, and, inside, styled themselves a parlour with decorative plaster moulding, among other renovations. Given all of the evidence of their redecorating through the 1860s, having a fashionable floorcloth made for any of their rooms wouldn’t be out of the question for the Chellew family.
While we have no way to confirm, markings found on the original hardwood flooring in the John Brown House dining room are thought to be the outline of where a floorcloth may have once been. A replica was recreated and installed in the dining room by heritage conservationist, and previous homeowner, Jon Jouppien, who was inspired by a family portrait of the prominent Woolsey family painted by artist William Berczy in 1809. However, the floorcloth that decorated the Woolsey’s home in Quebec was likely too ornate for the Browns, where life in rural Niagara was much simpler. The Brown Homestead’s Project Manager, Mackenzie Campbell, is currently working on the design of a new floorcloth to install in the dining room at a later point in 2024.
A traditional floorcloth spanning the floorcloth of the John Brown House dining room. Notice the circular patterning and colours, similar to what was captured by Berczy in the Woolsey family home, pictured above. The Georgian era-inspired decorations of the room have since undergone adaptive reuse focusing instead on the craftsmanship of the period. The Brown Homestead, 2022.
Reviving the Oilcloth Trend
Mackenzie Campbell demonstrates how to use a traditional paint mill.
To go alongside Mackenzie’s floorcloth design process, in July 2024 The Brown Homestead offered an oilcloth workshop as part of our first-ever series of heritage arts workshops. Participants were invited to decorate their own small oilcloth sample, a size similar to a placemat rather than a full floorcloth! The workshop followed a hands-on lecture on oil paints with master heritage carpenter Doug Vickers. At the lecture, participants helped us make our own Prussian blue oil paint using an 1860s paint mill. Since traditional oilcloths and floorcloths would use seven or more layers of oil paint, taking about two days to dry per coat, for the purposes of the workshop we opted to use acrylic paints instead.
The canvas given to each participant came pre-coated with two layers of Gesso, a primer that adds texture to a canvas for painting . Instruction focused on technique, which participants then took to create their own personal art pieces. While we had stencils available to use, inspired by the motifs found on the walls of The Brown Homestead, and offered suggested patterns based on historical examples, participants were eager to lean into their creativity, bringing in their own modern stencils and selecting modern paint palettes. Unlike floorcloth consumers of the 18th and 19th centuries, our 21st century participants were not interested in imitation, but rather creating something entirely novel! Following the design portion of the workshop, Mackenzie taught participants how to hem their clothes to finish their pieces.
We hope that those who attended the workshop will agree that the atmosphere created was both inspiring and nurturing. Connected through a shared appreciation for traditional crafts, participants often got up to walk around the room to see others’ oilcloth designs and offer words of encouragement or consideration. In the span of an afternoon, participants honed new skills and sparked even further curiosities. Some came away from the workshop intending to make their own full size floorcloth. Another was inspired to finish an oilcloth project of her mother’s.
Conclusions: Rolling out the Red Linoleum
The fashionability of the floorcloth lasted for more than two centuries - an impressive feat for any design trend. However, technological innovation would eventually cause its popularity to give way to linoleum (10). More like a thick rubber, linoleum was also promoted for its waterproof and easy-to-clean surface, as well as for its affordability and wide choice of styles, colours and patterns, while also boasting a comfortable padding that the floorcloth could not.
Yet, our collective idea of linoleum certainly does not carry the same air of craftsmanship, nor historical appreciation, as the floorcloth. This is despite the fact that many homes built until the post Second World War era covered their homes in linoleum - and many homes today still have that same flooring, even if it's now covered with carpet or laminate. Perhaps a future heritage arts workshop here at The Brown Homestead could be a chance to give new appreciation to linoleum floor coverings!
Stay tuned for more heritage arts and heritage conservation workshops in 2025!
Sara Nixon is a public historian and Community Engagement Manager at The Brown Homestead.
Footnotes
(1) Sophie Sarin, “The Floorcloth and Other Floor Coverings in the London Domestic Interior 1700 - 1800”, Journal of Design History, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Summer 2005): 133.
(2) Shannon Tate Gray, “Swept Under the Rug: The Use, Representation & Manufacture of Floorcloths in Early America,” (MA Thesis, The George Washington University, 2018): 5.
(3) Sarin, “The Floorcloth and Other Floor Coverings,” 134.
(4) Gray, “Swept Under the Rug,” 14.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Pamela H. Simpson, “Comfortable, Durable, and Decorative: Linoleum’s Rise and Fall from Grace,” APT Bulletin: The Journal of Preservation Technology, vol. 30, n0. 2/3 (1999): 18.
(7) “Manufacture of Oil-Cloth,” Scientific American, 21, no. 8 (1869): 123 as cited in Gray, “Swept Under the Rug,” 18.
(8) Simpson, “ Linoleum’s Rise and Fall from Grace,” 18.
(9) Sarin, “The Floorcloth and Other Floor Coverings,” 139-40.
(10) Interestingly, the word “linoleum” derives from the Latin linum, meaning flax (of which linseed oil is made), and oleum, for oil. Linoleum then, can be translated to mean linseed oil. Simpson, “Linoleum’s Rise and Fall from Grace,” 19.