How to Decorate With White Terrazzo Floors

Decorate in Colonial style. When French architects designed our nation's capitol, they insisted on marble buildings and monuments, so there was plenty of scrap left behind. George Washington had seen terrazzo floors when traveling abroad. He asked his Mt. Vernon home builder to use the crushed marble technique to make some of the floors. Your passion for Federalist, Colonial or Early American period furnishings allows you to follow in George's footsteps by choosing light wood furnishings, 17th-century stripe or floral pattern chairs and settees, plus decorating accents reminiscent of the Colonial past. Use area rugs to group living areas together. If you choose a red, white and blue color palette, you'll make George proud.

Decorate in Latin style. During the 1940s and 1950s, a majority of South Florida homes featured terrazzo flooring. It was cheap and strong, and terrazzo-makers had finally figured out how to make divider strips of plastic so cubes and strips of terrazzo were easy to install. These days, nothing's as cool on a hot Miami day as terrazzo floors, but you don't have to live there to spice up your home if you adopt a Caribbean design theme. Pair white terrazzo floors with turquoise-upholstered furnishings -- mix solid turquoise with tropical patterns in this tranquil color. Whitewashed walls, Latin art and artifacts and plenty of Arica palm trees in earthy pots complete your decor scheme.

Decorate in minimalist style. When architect Steve Hermann was hired to renovate a 5,000-square-foot home in the Hollywood hills, his interior design plan took its lead from the home's lush panorama. Hermann installed "... gleaming white terrazzo floors that run throughout the house, inside and out," to set the breezy decorating tone before low-slung furnishings were placed amid potted trees, plants and dramatic art that hung from 13-foot high ceilings. If you're working with a grand view and white terrazzo floors, take a minimalist approach when you decorate and keep it sparse so you turn 1,000 square feet of space into a showplace.

Decorate in celebrity style. Have you given your home a name? Celebs do it all the time. Consider "Lemontini," the mid-century house built among groves of citrus trees that became the go-to party palace of Dean Martin's crowd in the 1960s. White terrazzo floors provide the canvas on which the home was decorated from floor to ceiling, and stylists used one dominant color to glorify each room. If you have a favorite -- for example, red and yellow both pop on white terrazzo floors -- add black touches for high contrast to achieve plenty of drama. Don't overdo it. The idea is to delight and surprise the senses, not overwhelm them.