Stencil designs showing up on wood floors Stencil designs showing up on wood floors

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A wood floor doesn't have to be plain to retain its particular beauty.

Brightly colored or intricately patterned, stencil designs applied to wood floors are back.

"Natural wood is very popular now, and people are looking for a new twist," says Linda Daly, an interior designer in Ivyland, Pa. "Stenciling is a way to enrich something that is already very attractive and rich-looking."

Floor stencils were often used in early America, 19th century England, and in Scandinavia to brighten and warm the decor when carpets were not available or traditional.

Today's designs are limited only by the imagination, with a wide range of commercially produced stencils, says Mike Bova, who manages the Stencil Shoppe in Chadds Ford, Pa. "It's not just ducks and pineapples," he says. His shop manufactures and sells its own line of 1,100 plastic stencils, which might be topiaries, pillars, columns, rabbits, carousel horses, palm trees - or anything else.

"When people think of stenciling they often think 'primitive' or 'country,"' Daly says. "It doesn't have to be that. It can be very elegant. There's really a lot of flexibility."

Some of the more sophisticated ideas are to replicate the image of an oriental rug, complete with fringes. Or perhaps marble-mocking "tiles." Borders of leaves or ivy can cascade down staircases. Stencil paints can pick out colors used in a room's decor.

Or for some fun, how about a checkerboard or railroad tracks for a young boy's room? A teen's lair might have footprints or tire tracks.

Bova estimates that painting a simple border around a room can cost as little as $40, with paint, brushes and stencils left over for other projects.

And there are other advantages. You can't trip on a "rug" that's painted on. The floors are easy to keep clean. They won't trap dust, harbor dust mites or other allergens.

Stencils applied to sanded floors and protected with a few coats of polyurethane finish should last for years, according to the Hardwood Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group.