A floor medallion is generally a centerpiece of

flooring Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a floor covering. Floor covering is a term to generically describe any finish material applied over a floor structure to provide a walking surface ...

design that can be made with various flooring materials, including natural stone, wood, metal, tile, glass or a variety of other materials suitable for flooring. The pattern can be created using various methods such as

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

intarsia Intarsia is a form of wood inlaying that is similar to marquetry. The start of the practice dates from before the seventh century AD. The technique of intarsia inlays sections of wood (at times with contrasting ivory or bone, or mother-of-pear ...

, and

marquetry Marquetry (also spelled as marqueterie; from the French ''marqueter'', to variegate) is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case fur ...

. With a mosaic, small pieces of flooring material are put together to develop a pattern. This can be done in a direct, indirect, or double indirect method. In the direct method small pieces are set directly into a bonding substrate like cement. Using an indirect method the pieces would be placed face down against paper or other material with a temporary adhesive. After the design is completed face down the entire section would be set into the floor and then have the paper removed, revealing the mosaic floor. With intarsia pieces are cut to fit together like a puzzle. The pieces are generally thicker that those used in marquetry, and often full thickness rather than being laminated. For flooring the pattern is generally created face down so that it remains level and then flipped over and transferred into the floor. Marquetry is often associated with woodworking, but can be done with any thin material. With marquetry very thin veneer, generally 1/16 inch or less and is cut to shape and then laminated over another surface. Inlay is thicker than marquetry, generally 1/8 to 5/8 inch thick, and is set within the material. Mosaics have a distinctly different appearance than intarsia or marquetry. Intarsia and marquetry can appear very similar, but marquetry is much more common when semiprecious, or precious materials are being used. Architects like Louis H. Sullivan used these to create unique centrepieces within spaces usually presenting an absence of detail. This was widely exhibited in his design of the 1904 department store known since that time as Carson Pirie Scott and Company.

References

{{Reflist Floors Pavements Architectural elements