Breathtaking stencilled wood floor

This is an incredibly cool idea from ToolGirl Frances Bolton!

Dear Mag: 
I've been reading your column in the Ottawa Sun for some time now, and I enjoy your writing style very much.  It's not often I read something in the newspaper that makes my laugh - out of enjoyment, that is. 

This is the floor I installed in my garden home. In 2002, my fellow employees and I were all laid off when our plant was closed. I took the summer for myself, and entered a one-year commercial college course that fall.

That summer, I installed my 'severance floor', as I like to call it. 

I wanted a wood floor, but didn't want to pay for the cost of a traditional hardwood floor, and besides, I like to do things myself. I ripped up the (very old) wall-to-wall carpeting, and screwed and glued down 4' x 4' 1/2" thick sheets of baltic birch. The floor is about 16 by 20 feet. 

I did a light sanding, and applied a stain.  I then bought several copies of a stencil from a local craft store, taped them together, and applied the stencil using two colours, a burgundy to bring out the colour of the stain, and gold.

I used the small bottles of craft paint you can pick up in any craft or dollar store. I then applied four coats of a high-gloss polyurethane.  My father (he's now 87) just loves it - says it's the only floor of its kind - and he's right.  It's been five years now. They're some very slight cracking along two seams, and the floor shows the regular wear and tear of a household (including the time I dropped the garden shears, point down, of course), and I wish I had done a better job of applying the polyurethane, but all in all I am very pleased with the results. I get lots of positive comments about it, but the ones that count the most are my dad's.