Patterned floors have been a popular form of decoration for centuries, going back to the staggeringly intricate mosaic floors and pavements of the Greeks and Romans. Clay tiled floors were used in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries, sometimes laid in intricate patterns but using only a few colors such as red-brown and yellow.
Many traditional patterns, particularly the simpler geometric ones, are still very popular today, not only in tile form, but also on carpets and sheet flooring
All sort of geometric patterns can be made by arranging tiles of one or more colours or designs in a veritey of ways.Shapes and sizes vary, too , from squres and rectangles to hexagons and octagons. On a floor made up of tiles in a single colour you can emphasize the shape of the tiles
by using grouting of a lighter or darker colour. Wood parquet is also laid various diffrent traditional patterns.
A careful choice of pattern can some times help to hide or reduce a visual defect, particulerly where the propotions of rooms are unsatisfactory. For instance, wide horizontal stripes across the floor of a long thin room visually shorten the distance. Or where thwre is more than one activity- as in a kitchen/dining- room-each area can be , as it were, outlined and defined at floor level.
