The Painted Floor

Hey! Welcome back! Hope you have found some fun stuff here at CarrierHouseProject. We love bringing this house back to life and sharing our progress with you. So much has been learned along the way.

One of the amazing things I’ve learned is that my best results come from my scariest experiments. My favorite projects have started with things that were is such bad shape  I couldn’t possibly make them worse. 

Isn’t that what holds most of us back from starting a house project; the fear of messing it up? I’ll find a tattered piece of furniture, a beat up door headed for the trash or, as in this article, a very old and ugly vinyl floor that is going to be replaced and try out a new technique. Usually it comes out beautiful and I, in the process, learned how to do something new and gained the confidence to try it on something good.

So let’s get into one of the coolest experiments I’ve tried…and probably the riskiest… Painting an old vinyl floor. 

This is the hallway between the laundry/mud room and the kitchen. When we renovate the first floor, this space will be part of the kitchen. Because of that I didn’t want to do too much. But this is the view as you enter the back door, I had to do ‘something’ with that floor. In my web searches, I came across painted floors. And yes, even vinyl. I know, I know, you think I’m crazy. But c’mon… what could go wrong?… 

I’m very fortunate that my husband let’s my run with crazy projects like this one. He jokes around saying “If I stand in one place long enough, I think she’ll paint me” That’s his excuse for always working on something around the house. And I think that’s why he does his best to make sure I always have something to paint.

So, are you ready to find out how to transform that ‘lovely’ green vinyl into a floor that produces Ooo’s and Aah’s? Yes? I thought so… Let’s get stared…

Supplies

• floor cleaner and/or white vinegar
• pole sander
• sand paper 150 grit
• primer
• latex porch and floor paint
• paint roller
• paint brushes
• painters tape
• second paint color
• stencil
• stencil brush
• clear coat
• sand paper 220 grit
  

Ok, so that was my first attempt at writing a materials list. Hope I didn’t forget anything…You’ll let me know, right? Great! 

Step 1- Clean floor well. I used an all-purpose cleaner, scrubbed thoroughly, then rinsed with white vinegar and water. 

Step 2- Sand entire surface. I used 150 grit sandpaper on a pole sander. Save your back kids. Then vacuum, dust and rinse again with white vinegar and water. Let dry.

Step 3- Prime floor with roller

.Step 4- Wait at least 1 hour. Paint with Porch and Floor paint in desired base color. (I used the same color, ivory, that was on my trim so I didn’t have to cut in) Use a brush for the edges and fill in with roller. A second coat after 4 hours is a good idea. Then wait at least a day before the next step.

Step 5-  Use painters tape to create a border. I did this so I didn’t have to worry where the stencil ended.

Step 6- Paint second color between painters tape. I used an interior latex in black that I had from a previous project. There are some tricks I’ve learned since this project. I’ll share that at the end of this post.

Step 7- Now for the fun part! Stenciling! I started at the center point for balance. Use painters tape to keep the stencil from moving. 

Step 8– Start Stenciling!                           I thought I could take the quick route and used a micro fiber mini roller. As you can see in the center stencil, it came out too dark and the lines were not crisp. I then got a stencil brush and dabbed and pounced the paint over the stencil. Took much longer but the results were so much better.

Step 9- Continue to move and align stencil along the floor .Using the same color on border and stencil makes it easier for seamless edges. I went back with other colors for more interest and subtle texture. 

Step 10- Three coats of polycrylic with light sanding (220 grit) between coats to seal. This may sound like overkill, but 3 years later, with heavy cowboy boot traffic, the floor is holding up beautifully.

This all took about a week to do from start to finish. Waiting for paint to dry was the hardest part. And we waited a week before we walked on it.

SO! Are you ready for the reveal?!… Yes? Ok… Here it comes…

TA DAA!!! 

How’s that for an experiment? Are you wishing you had some ugly vinyl floor to paint over? And it looks even better in person. I think I’m going to do the kitchen floor next. Since it’ll probably be at least two years before we get to remodel the kitchen, it will be worth the effort.

And now for some bonus tips…

• No matter how secure I thought I got painters tape, I always got some bleed through. A trick I learned is; Paint the base color over the tape first. Let dry. Then paint accent color on top of that . It really works.
• To keep brushes from drying out between uses; put them in a plastic bag. The paint will stay wet on the brush for days and you can save on clean up time.
• You will have to clean the stencil after a few applications. The paint will build up and blur the lines. I have found that a soft bristle brush with water works great. Don’t scrub, just emulsify.

That’s all for now. I’ll leave you with a side by side…

• 

Hope you enjoyed this happy experiment. Now go paint something!