Målade golv (Painted Floors), Göran Gudmundsson

Few things create such a magical atmosphere in a room as a painted floor, and today many people dream of recreating that tradition in their own home. But are there good models to follow? What did the Swedish patterns look like? Was this only for manor houses, while farmers had only scrubbed floors? And how do you avoid a maintenance trap?

In this book Göran Gudmundsson describes the Swedish floor tradition in general and painted floors in particular: the paints, the choice of patterns and how to maintain painted floors. Nearly 20 old Swedish painted floors are described in text and pictures, from the stone and parquet imitations of the 1700s to single-colour floors of the 1900s and the functionalist era. Paint recipes, painting tips and scaled, coloured sketches are included.

The book is not only for those who want to copy an old floor; it gives enough knowledge of paints and patterns for you to paint your own floor, inspired by the old ones. The book is in Swedish.