Replication of Heritage Area Linoleum Rug
Damaged 1890 Linoleum Oilcloth at Pinhey’s Point Museum, Ottawa
Pinhey’s Point is a museum in Dunrobin Ontario and operated by the City of Ottawa. In 2024 the museum suffered water damage because of a leak and a beautiful area rug that was made from linoleum circa 1890 was damaged. I was asked to replicate it.
Replication of Heritage Linoleum Rug
In the 18th century painted canvas for floors called Floorcloths or Oilcloths were becoming increasingly popular. They were primarily painted to imitate blocks of marble but overtime many different stencilled patterns were offered. These were painted using linseed oil and oil paint. With the passage of time they became brittle and not many exist today. These were very popular up until the late 19th century when linoleum was invented replacing painted canvas oilcloths for printed linoleum. Many remnants of these can still be found in heritage homes and museums.
In the spring of 2025, I travelled to Dunrobin and Pinhey’s Point Museum to inspect a damaged heritage linoleum floorcovering. I took a rough tracing of the extremely intricate design and matched colours on site.
Process
Back in my studio in Hamilton I began the process by sourcing and ordering canvas that was heavy and big enough to replicate the original. I stretched the 10’ x 13’ piece of canvas on a wall in my studio. I stapled it onto the wall to stretch it, primed it with 2 coats of gesso. When it was dry I painstakingly removed the staples, flipped the canvas, re stapled and primed with gesso. When this coat was dry, I used a precut vinyl and temporarily adhered it to the canvas and trowelled a flexible, hard paste through the stencil. This left a texture very similar to the textured dots in the original. I removed the vinyl, let the paste dry and sanded it. Next, I rolled on two coats of the basecoat in the appropriate colour. From my analysis I found that there was a very vivid blue colour beneath the dirt and grime of the linoleum. I knew I was going to add a tinted clear glaze at the end of the process that would add depth to my colours and based on that knowledge I chose my colours be a tone that would not end up too dark after the glaze was applied.
With the canvas prepared I turned my eye to the task of creating the stencils from the rough tracings I had done. Using a grid, I drew out the area of the design that will be repeated. The size of that stencil design is 36” x 27” and repeats 36 times around the entire canvas.
After drawing this out to scale on acetate, printing it and colouring it for the colour separation, I sent it to be scanned to make a digital file. This file was then tweeked using photoshop to make the repeats exact and to separate digitally the colours in each design element. These elements each had 8 colours so that 8 separate stencils needed to be made for each design element. This meant 60 stencils needed to be cut.
The digital files of the designs with the colour separations were sent to a company that is capable of laser cutting mylar. After meeting and discussing the project, the company added in registration marks so that I was able to line up each of the 8 overlays of each design element exactly.
I then drew the registration lines onto my prepared canvas using removable coloured pencil. I could then line up each stencil using the registration marks on the stencil with my registration marks on the canvas.
I stenciled the bottom half of the canvas completely applying all overlays and borders before I worked on the top half. To reach the top of the canvas, I needed to work on scaffolding, and it was easier to do the top in it’s entirely so that I didn’t need to climb up and down for the project.
Once the entire canvas was complete with all repeated patterns, overlays, borders and corners, I let the paint dry for a few days so that it would cure. I then sealed the canvas with a clear flexible protective coating and let this dry for two days. Then I rolled on a coat of slow drying glaze tinted with raw umber colour. I applied two coats letting each coat dry for one day in between. This gave the colours more depth. When the glaze was bone dry I rolled on 7 coats of the clear protective coating letting each coat dry for 1-2 days.
When the cloth was completely dried and cured, I carefully removed all the staples rolling it up as I went. I then flipped it over on the floor and hemmed a 1-inch border around the entire cloth. It was then rolled back up, packaged and shipped off to the museum.
I was very happy with the result. It was truly a labour of love to replicate this beautiful pattern on what we estimate to be a turn of the century piece of linoleum. The main challenge I found was matching the original colour without having the original in the studio beside the replication which is normally how I would do it. I could not take a large enough piece back with me, but I knew if it was not exact, I could add more glaze deepening the colour on site if need be. I could go darker; I just couldn’t go lighter so that was taken into consideration when making my colour choices.
Below are pictures of the process:
