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Pattern is a big factor, of course. If the field has a complex pattern, it's common for the border to be simple, and vice versa. This prevents the two areas from visually competing with each other.

When designing a border, you have to keep in mind how you will handle the corners. The range of patterns you can use for a border is practically limitless. However, know that the simpler the border, the simpler it is to install because the corners are easy to join.

The Golden Ratio

In design, proportion is king. Make a detail too big and it looks clunky, too small and it gets lost. Good design is largely about how the sizes of the elements relate to each other. Designers search for perfect proportions, but what looks good varies with personal taste.

One attempt to quantify aesthetically pleasing proportions is the golden ratio, or golden section, of about 1.6 to one, which has helped guide artists and architects for thousands of years.

According to the golden ratio, the length of a perfect rectangle would be 1.6 times its width — so five feet by eight feet, or any multiple of those numbers, would yield a perfect rectangle.

Numerous studies show that people clearly prefer rectangles proportioned by the golden ratio. However, the golden ratio is of limited use with flooring, because the size of most floors is set long before the flooring is installed. You can put it to use occasionally in ornate floors that contain multiple rectangles and in some border designs.

The width of the border and apron should be in proportion to the size of the room and the flooring material used for the field. Although there are no fixed rules as to the proportions of the border to the field, the size and color of the border should be in balance with other elements in the floor.

My eye is partial to the classic proportion used for interior trim, which is one to six. By this ratio, a door with an opening of 36 inches would have a trim width of six inches, half on each side of the door. This would make the entire width of the window and trim 42 inches.

The door is akin to the field of a floor, and the trim to the combined border and apron. Remember that there are seven parts in a one-to-six ratio. The door is six units and the trim one unit, for seven total units.

Figuring the field and border/ apron of floors differs from figuring doors and trim. The total width of the floor is fixed, and to find the width of the parts of the floor you first divide the total width by seven.

The field will measure six-sevenths of the total width, and the width of the border and apron will be half of the remaining one-seventh.

For example, consider a 21-foot-wide room, dividing 21 feet by seven yields three feet. The field would be 18 feet wide (six by three feet) and the border/apron would be 1.5 feet wide (three feet divided by two).

Of course, what looks good to me may not look good to you. You should consider the one-to-six ratio to be a starting point rather than an inflexible rule. That said, I don't think I'm alone in appreciating this proportion — it's often found in Oriental rugs where the range seems to be from one to four to one to six.

Aprons

Aprons are one of my favorite elements on a wood floor. In most cases, aprons are more utilitarian than borders. They both provide an area to place furniture without covering up the ornate work in the field or border, and at the same time focus attention on those other areas.

From a design perspective, aprons can provide an area in which the eye doesn't expect much. This is important because it provides a workable area that can compensate for discrepancies in the walls or the room's proportions.

For example, if the wall jogs slightly, the apron can accommodate this irregularity and the border and field can remain a rectangle.

In those cases where the walls jog in and out or are severely out of square, using a more complicated flooring pattern for the apron can work well.

The narrow slats typically used for herringbone floors can be laid perpendicular to the wall or installed as you'd expect, in a herringbone pattern.

You can use standard strip flooring this way, as well. The advantage of any of these installations is that they hide flaws in the wall.

Corners where the apron meets can be mitered or laid log-cabin style. Variations on these themes include reverse log-cabin corners and chevron corners. Add decorative elements to the corners for more interest.

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Charles Peterson, owner of CP Hardwood Floors, has been in the wood flooring business for almost 30 years. A nationally certified Advanced Master Craftsman and Wood Flooring Inspector, Peterson is a technical contributor to a number of national publications, including Fine Homebuilding magazine. The floor featured in Wood Flooring received the 2009 Floor of the Year Award from the National Wood Flooring Association.

This article is excerpted from Wood Flooring by Charles Peterson with Andy Engel, copyright © 2010, with permission of the publisher, Taunton Press.

SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE A soft mallet aids in placing flooring components, such as the elements of this herringbone apron. Photo: Randy O'Rourke/ Courtesy Taunton Press Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE The "log cabin" detail is a traditional way of handling corners where the aprons meet. Photo: Courtesy Charles Peterson Extra Large Image Accent strips are often incorporated into aprons and borders and are usually prepared from a contrasting wood. They serve to separate the border from the field, or the apron from the border, or just to add a decorative touch in the middle of a border. Photo: Randy O'Rourke/ Courtesy Taunton Press Extra Large Image Border designs can include formalized botanical imagery (top), traditional designs such as the Greek key (middle), and original geometric patterns (bottom). Photo: Randy O'Rourke (top)/ Courtesy Charles Peterson (middle and bottom) Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Installing a border. Photo: Randy O'Rourke/ Courtesy Taunton Press Extra Large Image Strip flooring laid perpendicular to the wall can help to mask unevenness in the wall. Photo: Courtesy Charles Peterson In many cases, a simple field will have a bold border, whereas a complex field will have a simple border. Photo: Courtesy Charles Peterson Extra Large Image Wood Flooring by Charles Peterson with Andy Engel. Image: Taunton Press Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.