apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Have you looked at the Flor carpet tiles from Interface? They come in a variety of sizes and you could arrange them to cover the whole area.

Get an L-shaped piece of sisal or seagrass (or whatever floorcovering you like) cut ...

What a great old house! And that wood flooring is beautiful. Flor tiles are a good idea. If it were me, I would cover as little of the wood as possible. I understand you may want to protect the wood, but it is a natural material that is meant to weather (a little). Regular maintenance will keep it gorgeous!

I second the vote for Flor Interface tiles.
http://www.flor.com/

This definately isn't an expert opinion, but I think a large rectangular rug infront of the door that goes all the way to the stairs would work really well for you. That way you can still see the beautiful hard wood but the rug covers the high traffic areas.

I have Eva Zeisal's eclectic rug-filled living room in my head after seeing it in New York magazine's design special. While Flor tiles are modern and clean, the kilm-type rugs she had strewn were wonderfully aged and warm. You could go either route depending on your preferences. I wouldn't try to exactly fit both areas with a very precise L-shaped rug but that's just me. Think round and oval too - it might be interesting to break up the linearity. Congratulations on what appears to be a wonderful home!

You could use rugs to divide up the space - if you put a large round or square rug between the door and stairs, you could then put a smaller rug by the closet/chair to delineate a smaller area with a particular function (ie. taking off and putting away your coat, dropping your keys and purse onto a landing strip) - it's actually a funny little space, I'm not sure what I'd do with it.

This is a stellar space. For me what really makes it pop is the contrast between the floor and the walls, so I say keep some of that wood exposed!

If you're comfortable with a little bit of wear and tear on the floor, I'd say put a rich-colored runner from the front door to the closet. To keep the L-shaped space visually cohesive, pick up a color from the runner in an accent piece of some sort for the hall table - maybe a cloth, fresh flowers, or a pretty bowl.

This also leaves you the option of putting a coordinating runner on the stairs later on.

beautiful entryway

BEAUTIFUL floor. yum. gorgeous.

Two Oriental rugs: a rectangular one that covers the area from the outside door to the beginning of the side doorway, and a runner that goes from the first rug to the doorway by the chair.

Do you take your shoes off ounside? If not, why put a rug right in front of an exterior door anywhere, but especially in Toronto? It would get wet, dirty, etc. You could get a very small, mat in front of the door.

I would put a rug NEXT to the stairway, as wide as that space and down to the end of the doorway/hall table in length and probably ending 6 - 12" from the closet. A 4 X 6 would probably do it - true tribal kilmns would probably fit but you'd have to really hunt for one and they're $$$. The floor is beautiful and a single rug will both show it and break it up.

Consider an oriental rug/kilim, but get an interesting one that becomes a focal point of a beautiful, traditional space.

More than one rug is too much for this area and an L-shaped rug would look like you can't afford carpeting.

my thought was the same as Downeast Suzy.

Go with two Orientals.

Personally, i hate the idea of two rugs. I think it will look strangely patch-worked, like you wished you had wall-to-wall but somehow didn't.

I vote for putting a single rectangular rug in front of your front door, the long side parallel to the door itself, and leave the rest of the floor bare. Your floors are lovely and that space doesn't look to me like it needs a rug beyond the immediate entrance. Is there something about the room that I can't see that makes it 'need rug' over the whole area? Do you simply prefer the feeling of walking on rug over cold floor?

Oh, and i'd also vote that you skip getting curtains on the front door (unless you specifically are going for a 'country' look). If you want increased privacy, why not simply have the window frosted?

This is so funny. When I saw the first picture I thought, oh, how interesting, that staircase looks so much like ours. Then I read on to discover that it is indeed in Toronto (just like ours!)

I have often wondered that same thing about hallway treatment (except that our hallway is much, much narrower). I vote for a long rectangular rug at the base of the stairs only.

Large round rug that floats in the center of the actual entryway.

You could almost have a square-ish rug which would cover the bottom of the stairs and in front of the door. That would give you plenty of 'landing space' inside the door for shoe removal, greeting, etc. But it would still show off the floor towards the coat closet. Beautiful space! :)

For the front door and window, I would get a single heavy curtain/ bedspread, such as they use in wintertime in England to cut the draft (it was popular in Victorian and Edwardian houses).

The February 2007 issue of Canadian House & Home showed an entrance with a similar curtain, actually it was an ornate rust brown/orange silk appliqued bedspread (pg 108), from Sita. Or a heavy silk or rayon velvet, with a bit of an irredescent sheen, would look gorgeous. In the magazine, they hung the curtain in the doorway between the living room and hall, instead of in front of the door. Either would work in your case. This is very much a seasonal look however, i.e., autumn/winter, so you would probably want to take it down come spring.

Because the front window and that in the door are so small, any kind of window covering would look fussy, and combined with the radiator, that wall would look too disjointed. Instead of curtains, you should look into having a custom leaded glass window made for both, as was typical in this era. I would go with clear white glass with some bubbling or other texture to blurr the view into the house. The same photo with the bedspread curtain shows just such a window, in a house of the same vintage as yours.

In order to streamline the radiator, you may wish to speak with a cabinet maker about building a radiator cover to extend into the corner, incorporating drawers for your landing pad items (keys, etc.). There was a great one (i.e., very neat and unfussy) on page 186 of the October 2007 issue of Canadian House & Home.

Are the floors in the entrance and living room new laminate or are they newly stained orginal refinished floors? the reason I ask is that they seem a good bit redder and quite different in nature to the original wood on the stair treads and railing. If it is possible to restain them, I would restain everything as dark as possible, like the floor on page 186 actually, in order to make them seem the same. Plus, I happen to love the look of white walls, cream or ivory trim, and very dark floors.

As for rugs, I think that tangerine orange and orange reds sing on a very dark floor; again, the rug in the picture with the radiator covers would look amazing (it is not sourced though), or something such as this would look good:
http://www.kilim.com/shopping/productdetail.asp?lblProdid=2084&lblForm_no=9999&lblAON=11
This would of course be with an orange curtain such as featured in Cdn H&H.

If you go with rayon velvet, brittle orange red would look great, or dark burnt umber (no red tones), or a silver or silvery oyster would look stunning. I think this sort of curtain would look amazing with BDDW's Harroll rug, especially in the dark brown colourway. I think the circular shape would be lovely.
http://www.bddw.com/rugs/harroll_2.html
Key would be your decision on lighting; if you go with the Harroll rug and silver velvet curtain, my vote is for a Moooi ShadeShadeLamp, which comes in 3 different sizes
http://moooi.turnpages.com/ (pages 36-41)

If you go with orange, maybe something antique (of the period), fairly simple, perhaps 6-9 arms, in warm dull brass.

Get rid of the chair and current hall table (because of the new radiator cabinetry), and get a bench. A simple leather or cowhide bench would look good; you will also need a larger mirror (check out the ones at BDDW or consider something venetian).

As for how many rugs, it depends entirely on the look. If you use more traditional elements, i.e., the orange Turkish rugs, try to get 2; if you go with the round Harroll rug, that should stand on its own.

Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful suggestions!
Nancy

Nancy, I just had another thought (okay, so I miss Toronto and find your house inspiring :-) being old, your house probably doesn't have an adequate mop cupboard or place to hide the vacuum cleaner, but there is an ideal space under the stairs. You could ask the carpenter about building a broom closet under the stairs (perpendicular to the coat closet); it could be panelled to match the coat closet door, and painted out so that no one knows it is there.

These guys are in Toronto and do beautiful work (both radiator covers and also custom cabinets): www.fichman.com. Check them out - I use them all the time and they are a pleasure to work with.