Mariusz Karnas, owner of Chicago-based H&M Flooring Design Inc., has been collecting leftover pieces of flooring and log rounds for years in the hopes of turning them into something beautiful one day. For six years, Karnas had been staring at an empty, 11-by-16-foot space in his home workshop, thinking about cool wood flooring designs he could put there when he had the time. But he knew that once he started a passion project, he would want to work on it continuously, rather than dragging it out over months or years. So, the space sat empty until last year, when he found an opening in his schedule. “From the beginning, I knew I had to be ready, physically and mentally, to make sure I had those times available to really hit it and get it done,” Karnas says.
Karnas describes himself as a spontaneous artist; he doesn’t sketch out drafts of his work. Instead, he has a rough idea of what he wants a project to look like, and then he makes things up as he goes. “It just pops into my head; there’s no preparation,” he says.
This project began with a medallion Karnas built 10 years ago with white oak and rings of hickory and walnut log rounds cut into curved blocks around the circle. It had been hanging in his showroom, waiting for Karnas to come up with the right project. The second he laid down the medallion, Karnas said the project became an “addiction,” and he couldn’t stop building the floor until it was finished.
After the medallion, he laid down an oblong sunburst of red pine and Eastern white pine and bordered it with hickory, walnut and white oak log rounds. Surrounding that layer, Karnas installed a larger ring of stained hickory log rounds, cut to fit perfectly alongside one another and appear to overlap. The next ring was another sunburst, this time with white oak. For the border, Karnas spaced out white oak log rounds with live-edge planks.
From start to finish, the project took four weeks to complete. Karnas says he’s glad he did it in one go, instead of tackling the floor over time in between other busy projects. “When you’re busy, you cut corners,” he says. “I want people to see this and know, this guy isn’t cutting corners, he’s putting his heart into this.”
SUPPLIERS: Abrasive: Norton | Adhesive: Wakol MS 260 | Buffer: American Sanders Epoch | Edger: American Sanders Super 7 | Filler: Woodwise | Finish: Loba Duo | Moisture barrier: Wakol PU 280 | Moisture meter: Lignomat | Nailer: Bostitch | Router, Sander (Palm), Saws: Festool
