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This is a page from a 1932 supplement of Armstrong's design book showing pattern #5352 at the bottom of the page.
It’s underfoot everywhere. Yet in Armstrong Flooring’s new headquarters, pattern 5352 hangs prominently on the wall.
Other vintage flooring samples sit in a corner, waiting to decorate the new space in Greenfield. Pattern 5352 is framed. It’s the centerpiece that catches your eye. It’s art.
"It’s part of our history,” Di Anna Borders, vice president, design says #5352 has been called the most popular resilient flooring pattern of the 20th century. For Armstrong, it’s the Lancaster company’s most popular pattern.
This is a page from a 1932 supplement of Armstrong's design book showing pattern #5352 at the bottom of the page.
The heritage brick pattern flooring was made in Lancaster for decades. Last year, a modern version was released.
Not everyone’s a fan but #5352 has a fan club, from mid-century renovators to people who want to recreate a nostalgic room from the past.
The name for this pattern changed through the years but at Armstrong, it’s called the Christmas pattern.
Why? In the early years of the Depression, a layoff in the Lancaster plant was expected. However, orders for the new pattern took off, boosting production. “And so they avoided the layoff and instead, they were actually able to give bonuses just in time for Christmas,” Borders says.
1 Rank of #5352 among Armstrong’s patterns, by sales
6 Width of a path, in feet, reaching halfway around the world that could be covered by #5352 flooring
107 Number of comments in a Retro Renovation story about the pattern revival
“This also was the kitchen floor of my childhood. It was a 1956 ranch. It brings back wonderful memories,” one woman wrote.
• The original pattern was designed in shades of red, later known as coral. There also was a version with muted primary colors and a version with neutrals.
• In the 1960s, the pattern was rebranded as Terra Cotta: “a tile design of ageless charm.” It came in red, green, gold and white.
• In the 1970s, a Solarian version “which shines without wax” came in light green, light gold, a deeper gold and white.
• The latest version, released in 2020, had four colors. Two didn’t sell well (camel and the iconic coral red) so now only two are available (black, white and gray called mismatched silver glaze and a neutral in grays and blues)
(click the arrow to the right to scroll through)
Making original linoleum was an involved process. Each shade had its own 6-by-6-foot stencil. For the “grout” part of the design for example, the stencil blocked out everything but the thin lines between the bricks. Linoleum chips were released. The chips were heated to form a sheet.
The flooring was embossed to create dimension around the design, mimicking the outline of the bricks. Both the stencils and embossing plates were made in the Lancaster tooling shop.
Today, designs are created with computers. There wasn’t a digital file of the pattern for the revival so designer Mark Zeamer researched #5352. He re-created it on his computer, using filters and editing software to mimic the shading and texture.
The new Heritage Brick patterns are printed and embossed but the impressions are not as deep as earlier versions.
Instead of layering colors with stencils, this printed version layers the pattern with 12-foot wide cylinders.
• In “Apollo 13,” set in 1970, the pattern’s part of the Lovell family’s kitchen.
• A decade late, a brown and tan version of the pattern’s in the Huxtable kitchen in “The Cosby Show.”
• And in the 1990 movie “Misery,” Annie’s kitchen has heritage brick floors.
Do you have a photo or memory of the pattern, submit it below:
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