Floor Fantasies
Be decked and be jeweled as you glide over a backlit textured glass balustrade and descend on a silver-backed stairwell shimmering in the moonlight. Or be carried along a Santos mahogany path framed by bronzed bas-relief of Maine's famous coastline pebbles.

In case you haven't guessed it, very little is pedestrian about flooring these days. Over the last 15 years technological advances have created a renaissance in flooring materials not seen since the Medicis. Now, traditional materials like oak, maple and tile are being replaced with such exotics as marble, granite, lapis, mother-of-pearl, onyx, Brazilian rosewood, and Tanganyika. But even with these gorgeous materials, it's not enough to just lay the same old floor. These exotics are dressing up entryways and stairwells in mosaics and gems that will add a lot of sparkle to what once just was another day at home.

While the Medicis had money and a school from which they could pluck young artisans to create palatial floors, they didn't have the Waterjet, a late 20th century invention that precision cuts semi-precious stones and glass, nor the laser to finely cut wood and metals. With these tools, what would have taken 50 painstaking years to produce then, can now be done in mere months. And what would have been affordable to scions of wealth is now affordable to the middle-class market. This wider availability has created a burgeoning market for upgrading and installing unusual materials to create powerful and individualistic design statements.

Floor them with Jewels

Of course, there is always a temptation to take everything good to the hilt, and floors are no exception. Stewart Ritwo, president of Manhattan's Lodestar Statements in Stone says impact is king. So follow his advice and floor them with jewels.
"Not only popes and aristocracy of the great kingdoms of Europe walk on tiger's eye and lapis lazuli," says Ritwo. "We bring semi-precious floors to the moneyed of America."

But, as you probably guessed, costs can be just as semi-precious, topping at $400 a square foot. For maximum payoff with minimum payout, try adding one great piece, like a mosaic medallion, in a smaller, high-profile area, like an entryway. Using materials as delicate as mother of pearl, Lodestar creates mosaics--both Florentine, which artfully combines stones of varying sizes to make designs, and Byzantine, which uses uniform square tiles--for home and business.

"It works because of the way we cut it and because we use pieces of shell that have a thicker substrate," he says.

Glitz for Guys
We all know diamonds are a girl's best-friend, but women are not the only ones getting excited about jewels these days. Harri Aalto is president and designer for Creative Edge, one of the largest and most experienced independent Wa terjet fabrication and design companies in the United States. He and Ritwo agree that women are more seduced by opalescent, semi-precious stones than men, but when it comes to the design phase, men join the act.

"There is such a physical awareness of stone floors," says Aalto. "Ninety percent of people will notice a unique floor because one, it is so unusual, and two, everyone is looking down where they step!"

Glass Class
Walking on glass, needless to say, doesn't conjure up feelings of hearth and home. But an innovative technique known as glass "slumping" creates warm, resilient flooring that stands up to stiletto heels better than wood with its own share of star power. "People are wowed that it's glass, then they discover how practical it is," says Jane Skeeter, founder of UltraGlas, a company which specializes in this technique.

Slumped glass is poured in a shallow mold where it picks up contours, patterns (watery shapes are popular) and textures, which impart a grainy surface so your floor is not your skating rink. While slumping, the glass also picks up any color or even embedded appliqués for a Pop Art mood. During installation, floors can be laid over lights, leading to all manners of customization.

Fairly new to residential, UltraGlas has installed floors in entryways, bathrooms, kitchens and as base moldings along tile or stone floors. But anything is possible, Skeeter says. She's even used the material as a shower enclosure and to frame mirrors in her own home.

Return of the Bronze Age

Other unlikely materials cropping up under foot are bronze and nickel. Used as accents with wood or stone floors, Metaphor Bronze's metal panels bring a sense of the outdoors in. Two of its most popular lines, Coastal, which replicates pebbly Maine beaches, and Timberline, with pinecones and acorn motifs, blend particularly well with the mellow hues of wood. But, interspersed with metal, tile and stone floors become mosaic-like.

Because of the over-riding simplicity of a contemporary layout, customers often replicate a theme from floor to wall. Metaphor Bronze founder Jay Gibson has seen customers take his panels from floor to wall and room to room. One particularly nice flourish, he recalls, went from the floor to up around the fireplace.

Sustainable Stand-ins
From floor fantasies to deeply rooted convictions, some homeowners, like Amanda Fisher, who is in the midst of renovating her new Southern California home, make a priority out of using sustainable materials like bamboo and cork tile. "Bamboo takes 15 years to grow back, while hardwoods take 50 years," she says.

For the bathroom in her previous home, Fisher had to import the cork tile she wanted from the UK. Made using excess cork from the bottling industry, it fit her politics and provided a warmer, less slippery surface than ceramic. Now becoming more prevalent in the United States, resources such as Metro Laminate of West Babylon, NY, distribute cork and bamboo flooring in a range of finishes.

Luxurious Lumber
While bamboo and cork are two floor products still in their niche stages stateside, according to Bob Weiss, president of the National Association of Floor Covering Distributors, hardwoods with a pedigree are the big trend story.

"People have moved on to Brazilian cherry, Brazilian walnut and Santos mahogany," says Weiss. The natural coloration of these exotic species shines through with merely a clear finish. Nothing sets off an open and airy center hall like expansive, five-and-a-half inch Santos mahogany planks.

A new twist on hardwood from Italy digs deep. Olivo is made of the milled roots of olive trees that have lived their productive lives. While wood floors alone create an undeniable presence in a contemporary home, with so many materials available, people just can't help customizing their floors, notes James Carroll, Jr., who creates highly innovative flooring through his family firm Buffalo Hardwood. In addition to metal inlays and even tailored leather-wood-mixed parquets, Carroll sees customers mixing woods like Olivo with butterflies, flowers and other objects, all gently suspended in amber-toned resin panels.

"Residents are spending a lot more money on floors than they used to," notes Carroll. "Floors have become, and rightfully so, a centerpiece of designing a home."