Living in the northwest, winters can get quite wet so if we are installing wood flooring, I sometimes design a tile ‘rug’ at the exterior doors. In addition to being practical by protecting the wood floor from muddy wet shoes, they add a unique design element.
The photo above depicts a tiled rug made from travertine stone (called Volcano) with accents of dark slate 1″ mosaic. The colors in the travertine help introduce the fall color palette throughout the home. And if you’re curious, the wood floor is Brazilian walnut in a deep reddish brown.
We used a warm travertine stone tile installed on pointe (diagonal pattern) that we also used for the kitchen floor and an inlaid stone border. We centered this tiled rug keeping a small wood border around the perimeter.
In this home, we didn’t particularly need a tiled rug to protect the slate floor, but created one using different size polished red slate as a design element in the grand foyer.
