Hidey Ho neighborinos! Today I'm continuing on in my "no money, no problem kitchen reno". After successfully painting my countertop I just knew I wanted to give the floor a try and our ugly vinyl was the perfect candidate.
Although the idea of painting my floors was exciting and intriguing, I'd be lying if I said it didn't also scare me quite a bit. I don't know why it was so scary. Maybe because it's so unconventional? Not like painting your counter isn't, but this floor was a really intimidating project for me. At the time I had no idea this wasn't a new thing and other people had already done it. I thought my idea to paint it was venturing into uncharted waters and it worried me to attempt something that had never been tried before. Turns out this has been done many times before and I'm just late to the party. Whomp whomp.
So why am I still bothering to share it then? Because it's all about the inspiration! Maybe someone else who has also been living under a rock (like I apparently have) will see this post and get inspired to create something of their own. And I really want to reiterate that even if you don't have a lot of money to work with, you can still find a way to love your space. So here I am, hoping to share even more inspiration with my painted floor. My hideously ugly, gross vinyl floor...
Ugh, that's embarrassing! I feel like I'm sharing my dirty, little secret or something. But I promise, those floors are clean enough to eat off of, they're just terribly beaten and old. No really, I had just mopped. No amount of cleaning could improve their appearance because, what looked like dirt and grime, was actually scuffs and stains that were never ever going to budge. I really didn't think I could make them any worse than they already were. They were baaaaaad. So I figured what the hey, you can't break what's already broken, right?
Total cost: $45
Time to complete: one week (including drying time)
Difficulty: easy
First, was to decide how I wanted the end design of the floor to look. My vinyl is in square "tiles" and I really wanted to work with that shape rather than try to fight against it. I have seen other people do patterns over their floors with the existing texture of another design showing through. They turned out awesome, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to make my floors look as "they came like this" as possible, so I decided to use a pattern that worked with a square shape so the existing square indentions wouldn't detract from my chosen design. Just personal choice. Do it however you want, I'm not judging you.
If you saw my last post on my countertops, then you know where I was heading. I was absolutely smitten with the floors in this kitchen and I wanted something similar.
Since I was creating my own stencil, I could make this whatever custom size I needed it to be. I measured my squares to find out what size they were to determine how large I needed to make my stencil. That way when I was stenciling on the floor, I could just plop it down and line it up with the existing squares and save myself the time and effort of having to measure and map out rows.
After I found the shape I liked and the size it needed it to be, I tried to somewhat freehand the best I could onto a sheet of regular printer paper. This was a really rough rough draft, but it gave me a good idea of where I was going. I then used my ruler to tweak it and actually measure and line things up properly. I even lucked out and found a bowl that was the perfect size to get a good curve. (Always, always cheat like this whenever you can!) After I had a shape I was happy with, I cut it out and traced it onto a heavier cardboard. Actually it's the backing of those window clings you get at the Dollar Store. Whatever, judge me if you must, but it worked and I didn't have to go buy any fancy stencil stuff.
After the design was transferred, I used my utility knife to cut it out. Just a word of advice, be careful with this. And make sure you have something you don't mind getting cut up underneath it.
Boom. Custom stencil.
The Design
Now that I had my stencil, time to transfer it to the floor. Since this was just cardboard and not a durable, thick plastic, I used a double sided tape on the underside of the stencil so it would lay flat to the ground without any bending or warping. I really wanted to cut back on touch ups on paint that bled under the edges as much as I could and using the tape helped prevent some of that.
But I will advise you not to stick this straight to the ground if you're using a paper material like I did. This tape was extremely sticky and if I had stuck that straight to the ground as-is, I would have ripped my stencil trying to pull it back up. I stepped on the tape several times with my super fuzzy socks to get some of the adhesive off. No joke. And even still, I had to take extra care when pulling my stencil up for the first half of the floor. Even by the end of the floor, after being stuck down and pulled up 50 times, it was still super sticky. So watch out for that.
Now, a lot of people use a roller over their stencils, but I had just used up my foam rollers on the counter and I sit firmly in the "use what you already have" camp. Rollers aren't expensive or anything, but I didn't need one. That said, I tried a foam brush and a cheap bristle brush to see which would be best. Neither one was best. So, I went and got a foam roller and I'm glad I did because it worked beautifully. As you can see, the foam roller gave the even, more consistent finish of the 3 and it moved a lot quicker too. So my advice is don't skimp on this, pay the 3 bucks and get a foam roller.
I chose to use chalkboard paint for this job. Why? Is there some specific reason? Is there something about chalkboard paint that you don't know? Nope. It was the color I needed and I already had it leftover from the kid's room. Like I said, I'm a champion of "use what you already have". You can use whatever color/type of paint you want.
When you're painting with a stencil you have to keep your roller and your touch very light. You want very little paint on the roller. Very, very little. You're going to be tempted to put pressure on the roller as well. Don't. If you've got too much paint or if you push on the roller, it's going to bleed through no matter how many precautions you've taken. Just go over as many passes as you need and keep it light. It also helps to roll parallel to the edge instead of up to it. If that makes sense. In the picture above, my roller is not running along side the edge, it's rolling over it. As you can see, there is obvious bleeding when you do it this way. I had much better results rolling alongside. Just keep changing directions to go with the shape of the stencil.
I didn't do this in any particular fashion or in rows, I just backed my way out of the room. I kind of bounced around a little so I could tape the edges of my stencil down without disturbing the wet paint on the square next to me. I went every other square and then went back through and filled the rest in, working my way out of the room. This portion took me 6 days. Out of my 7 day total, 6 of them were spent individually stenciling each square. Granted, it wasn't sun up to sun down work, but it was still the bulk of my efforts. It's time consuming, but it's not hard though. You just need some patience, knee pads (no joke), and a good roller. Streaming Mad Men on your laptop while you work doesn't hurt either.
To get around the edges of the room, I just bent the stencil right up against the wall and used my brush to touch up where the roller couldn't reach.
Although the idea of painting my floors was exciting and intriguing, I'd be lying if I said it didn't also scare me quite a bit. I don't know why it was so scary. Maybe because it's so unconventional? Not like painting your counter isn't, but this floor was a really intimidating project for me. At the time I had no idea this wasn't a new thing and other people had already done it. I thought my idea to paint it was venturing into uncharted waters and it worried me to attempt something that had never been tried before. Turns out this has been done many times before and I'm just late to the party. Whomp whomp.
So why am I still bothering to share it then? Because it's all about the inspiration! Maybe someone else who has also been living under a rock (like I apparently have) will see this post and get inspired to create something of their own. And I really want to reiterate that even if you don't have a lot of money to work with, you can still find a way to love your space. So here I am, hoping to share even more inspiration with my painted floor. My hideously ugly, gross vinyl floor...
Ugh, that's embarrassing! I feel like I'm sharing my dirty, little secret or something. But I promise, those floors are clean enough to eat off of, they're just terribly beaten and old. No really, I had just mopped. No amount of cleaning could improve their appearance because, what looked like dirt and grime, was actually scuffs and stains that were never ever going to budge. I really didn't think I could make them any worse than they already were. They were baaaaaad. So I figured what the hey, you can't break what's already broken, right?
Total cost: $45
Time to complete: one week (including drying time)
Difficulty: easy
- Kilz primer- oil based
- Chalkboard paint- I used Rustoleum
- Polyurethane Floor Sealer- I used Rustoleum Park's Water-Based
- Lambskin Stain Applicator- for poly
- Rough grit sandpaper and/or electric sander
- Caulk- any kind of latex will do
- Paint roller- any cheap roller for primer
- High-density foam roller- for chalkboard paint
- Paint brush- any cheap brush for primer
- Small artist's brush- small flat brush works best
- Stencil (get to that in a second)
The Prep
First I started by mopping my floors. You don't need a description of that, you know how to mop floors. Then, I used my sander to remove the glossy finish. Nothing real crazy or anything, once the sheen is gone, you're good. Then, I got all of the dust cleaned up with just a vacuum and some regular ol Dawn dishsoap and water. I did not use any fancy cleaner like others have. Just so's ya know.
Next I patched the rips and tears that I may or may not have caused when I was moving the refrigerator. But, I'm not pointing any fingers. I just used a standard caulk and smoothed it out.
Next it was time to get to priming. I first cut around the trim with my brush. I wanted to be able to really slop the primer on there with my roller and I didn't want to have to worry about trim and clean lines. So I did that first just to get it out of the way.
Cool little tip: did you know that the handle of a traditional broom will fit into the handle of any standard roller? Yeah, buddy it does! I unscrewed the handle off my broom and attached it to the roller and I had an instant roller extender. I knew rolling the floor would be murder on my back if I had to stay hunched over for a long time, but I wasn't willing to buy one of these things. Luckily, I didn't have to and if you have a similar broom, you won't have to either! *The more you know*
I wasn't fancy cleaning my floor or anything, so I just went ahead and did 2 coats of primer straight on the floor. Cause here's the thing; I'm messy. When I was painting the counters I spilled some primer on the (very) dirty floor and that shiz wasn't going nowhere. It hung around for weeks with no signs of stopping. And that was without even cleaning or sanding ahead of time. So I don't really think it needs anything special aside from a light sanding and mopping, especially if you're going to seal it in the end anyway. It's your choice on whether you buy special floor paint or fancy cleaners, but I didn't and it's all good in the hood. I did one coat, let it dry overnight, then did the second coat the next day. No muss, no fuss.
After the floors were completely primed, I went around the perimeter of the room with my painter's tape to seal off the baseboards.
After the floors were completely primed, I went around the perimeter of the room with my painter's tape to seal off the baseboards.
The Stencil
The next step was to begin on my stencil. This is a whole little "how to make a stencil" side track so if you're not using one, or you're just purchasing one, feel free to skip on.
First, was to decide how I wanted the end design of the floor to look. My vinyl is in square "tiles" and I really wanted to work with that shape rather than try to fight against it. I have seen other people do patterns over their floors with the existing texture of another design showing through. They turned out awesome, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to make my floors look as "they came like this" as possible, so I decided to use a pattern that worked with a square shape so the existing square indentions wouldn't detract from my chosen design. Just personal choice. Do it however you want, I'm not judging you.
If you saw my last post on my countertops, then you know where I was heading. I was absolutely smitten with the floors in this kitchen and I wanted something similar.
Since I was creating my own stencil, I could make this whatever custom size I needed it to be. I measured my squares to find out what size they were to determine how large I needed to make my stencil. That way when I was stenciling on the floor, I could just plop it down and line it up with the existing squares and save myself the time and effort of having to measure and map out rows.
After I found the shape I liked and the size it needed it to be, I tried to somewhat freehand the best I could onto a sheet of regular printer paper. This was a really rough rough draft, but it gave me a good idea of where I was going. I then used my ruler to tweak it and actually measure and line things up properly. I even lucked out and found a bowl that was the perfect size to get a good curve. (Always, always cheat like this whenever you can!) After I had a shape I was happy with, I cut it out and traced it onto a heavier cardboard. Actually it's the backing of those window clings you get at the Dollar Store. Whatever, judge me if you must, but it worked and I didn't have to go buy any fancy stencil stuff.
After the design was transferred, I used my utility knife to cut it out. Just a word of advice, be careful with this. And make sure you have something you don't mind getting cut up underneath it.
Boom. Custom stencil.
The Design
Now that I had my stencil, time to transfer it to the floor. Since this was just cardboard and not a durable, thick plastic, I used a double sided tape on the underside of the stencil so it would lay flat to the ground without any bending or warping. I really wanted to cut back on touch ups on paint that bled under the edges as much as I could and using the tape helped prevent some of that.
But I will advise you not to stick this straight to the ground if you're using a paper material like I did. This tape was extremely sticky and if I had stuck that straight to the ground as-is, I would have ripped my stencil trying to pull it back up. I stepped on the tape several times with my super fuzzy socks to get some of the adhesive off. No joke. And even still, I had to take extra care when pulling my stencil up for the first half of the floor. Even by the end of the floor, after being stuck down and pulled up 50 times, it was still super sticky. So watch out for that.
Now, a lot of people use a roller over their stencils, but I had just used up my foam rollers on the counter and I sit firmly in the "use what you already have" camp. Rollers aren't expensive or anything, but I didn't need one. That said, I tried a foam brush and a cheap bristle brush to see which would be best. Neither one was best. So, I went and got a foam roller and I'm glad I did because it worked beautifully. As you can see, the foam roller gave the even, more consistent finish of the 3 and it moved a lot quicker too. So my advice is don't skimp on this, pay the 3 bucks and get a foam roller.
I chose to use chalkboard paint for this job. Why? Is there some specific reason? Is there something about chalkboard paint that you don't know? Nope. It was the color I needed and I already had it leftover from the kid's room. Like I said, I'm a champion of "use what you already have". You can use whatever color/type of paint you want.
When you're painting with a stencil you have to keep your roller and your touch very light. You want very little paint on the roller. Very, very little. You're going to be tempted to put pressure on the roller as well. Don't. If you've got too much paint or if you push on the roller, it's going to bleed through no matter how many precautions you've taken. Just go over as many passes as you need and keep it light. It also helps to roll parallel to the edge instead of up to it. If that makes sense. In the picture above, my roller is not running along side the edge, it's rolling over it. As you can see, there is obvious bleeding when you do it this way. I had much better results rolling alongside. Just keep changing directions to go with the shape of the stencil.
To get around the edges of the room, I just bent the stencil right up against the wall and used my brush to touch up where the roller couldn't reach.
Once you've repeated a hundred times and completed the entire floor, you can go back through with your artist's brush and cut around the edges to get any spots where the paint bled under the stencil. Once I figured the best way to use the roller, the boo boos became less and less so this portion took me only like an hour at most to do the entire floor.
 |
| Yes, one is inside out. Nope, no particular reason why. |
Here's another little tip from me to you: wear socks throughout this project! Clean socks. The primer is a matte, rough surface and just like it grips to paint, it gripped dirt like a magnet. Every bit of dirt from our (seemingly clean) shoes left a mark and barefoot wasn't any better because even just the oils from our bare skin left a mark. Primer's just like that. And because it's such a rough surface, it ain't easy to clean. Nor do you want to go scrubbing on the fresh paint before you can seal it. I had a designated pair of clean "kitchen socks" that I left at the entryway and changed into those every time I took a step into the kitchen. Sounds weird but its better than having to get on my hands and knees to clean the floor every time I entered.
Sealing
Now a lot of people opted to use a specific floor paint and completely forgo any type of sealer on top. I obviously did not use any specialty paint. It was more economical for me to use what paint/primer I had on hand so I could just purchase a single material. So that's what I did.
I chose to use Rustoleum Park's sealer because it is the same maker of the epoxy I used on the counter and I had such great results with that. A lot of sealers say they go on clear, but they still have a yellow tinge. The Park's epoxy went on clear and stayed clear, so I thought their floor product would probably be the same and would be the best candidate for this job. It was.
The floor sealer is a much easier process than the epoxy product I used on the counter. There is no mixing or crazy steps to follow, just stir and pour. You do need to use a special lambskin applicator pad in order to get a smooth finish, but it's only like 3 bucks and it screwed right onto my broom handle like the roller did.
I applied this the same way I did my stencil, by backing my way out of the room. You do this just like you would mop your floor; just a light back and forth motion to evenly coat it. It has a white, milky sheen when it first goes on but it dries completely clear so don't panic, you didn't do anything wrong.
After the first coat had sat for about 2 hours, I went back with a thin second coat. The directions say after you've done your final coat not to walk on it for 8 hours. I gave it about 6 before I had to tip toe in for coffee filters, but it was fine.
I know that my chosen design and high contrast are very taste specific, so in case you were curious about how others have done their floors in comparison to mine, here are a few of my favs to check out...
So was it worth all the time and effort spent? Would I do it again in another room? Absolutely! This is the only room in my house that has vinyl sheet flooring so I don't know that I will be able to do it again, but I absolutely would if given the chance. It's a great update for very little money so if you're on a budget, this DIY is definitely for you! Until next time...
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So how do you feel about this post? Inspired? Thrilled? Or maybe it was terrible? Well, I hope it wasn't terrible...but let it out anyway!