Thinking About Painting Your Floor? Consider These 10 Tips First….

A stenciled or painted floor is an inexpensive way to make a dramatic change to worn out flooring that needs a quick update. Below are 10+ tips to creating interest with a patterned stenciled floor:

• Give Your Floor A Thorough Sand “A properly prepared floor will yield the best results,” says Kellie Hodges of the decorative-painting firm Billet-Collins Studio. Hodges suggests that floors which have been professionally sanded or screened prior to painting will produce terrific results.

• Old Floors Which May Have Been Waxed Need To Be Sanded. According to decorative painter Bob Christian, sanded floors is an imperative step if the floor is old and has a wax finish. “The wax has to be removed; otherwise, the paint won’t adhere to the floor.”

• Go For Satin, Rather Than Gloss– A glossy floor can look dramatic, but it can also draw attention to scratches. A satin finish, on the other hand can be more forgiving. Kellie Hodges recommends that at least two coats of polyurethane need to be applied once the floor is painted.

• When Painting Your Pattern, And Don’t Worry About Mixing Sheens– Lucianna Samu, a decorative painter in Saratoga Springs, created this star-bedecked pattern with leftover latex paint in five colors. “It’s fine to mix sheens, because you finish with polyurethane,” she says.

• Glaze Can Produce A Great Faux Inlaid Wood Appearance– Glazes can offer translucent color and are often used to create the look of inlaid wood. Kellie Hodges uses glaze when she wants the grain of the wood to show through.

• Do Not Overload Your Roller With Paint And Always Blot Off Excess Paint Onto A Paper Towel When Stenciling- Cutting Edge Stencils says if you want crisp lines on your stencil print, or if you are using contrasting colors, use a spray adhesive. Shake the can well, then lightly mist your stencil with Elmer’s (or other craft brands) spray adhesive, let it dry for a few seconds and place the stencil on a wall or whichever surface you’re working on. They personally prefer to use the blue painters tape to secure stencils. With right amount of paint on your roller and right pressure there is usually no bleed at all and edges are crisp. They also say it is much better to start light with your paint and quickly build the opaque coverage, rather than press on the roller too hard right from the start and possibly get paint bleed underneath the stencil.

Cutting Edge Stencils says to avoid the temptation of pressing hard on a roller to squeeze out the last bit the paint when your roller starts to get dry. You may get undesirable paint seepage if you use excess pressure.

• Thin Coats Are Better Than Thicker Coats– “I made a big mistake in laying the second coat on too thick and painting on a rainy day. The humidity and the thickness caused the paint to wrinkle, clot and appear dull and matted.” Roll at least two more thin layers and allow at least 24 hours between coats. Keep the heat on if necessary (@ 70 f) to insure quicker, dry drying, and don’t plan to stay in the house because of potential fumes, and keep the windows open while painting.

• Use A Microfiber Roller To Apply Paint For A Solid Painted Floor– Christopher Comer of Noble Pro Painting in Chicago says you can use a brush or a roller, but make sure you have the right equipment and that you put on a very thin coat of paint. “Apply it slowly with a 1/4-nap microfiber roller or natural bristle brush,” says Comer. “You won’t get any bubbles at all with a brush, but it’s very labor intensive.”

• Do You Like Floors With Natural Distressing? If you plan to paint a high-traffic area, make sure you’re comfortable with a certain degree of patina and wear. Find pictures on the internet of painted floors to see if you like the look of floors that might show wear and tear before you jump into painting your floors. Painted floors can be durable, but extra precaution should be taken. Avoid dragging furniture across the floor, and use area rugs for small children to play with their toys on. Felt pads under chair legs and dressers will also prevent any additional marks on the floors. Be sure to save enough extra paint for touch-ups.

•Play Around With Pattens Using Cut Out Kraft Paper– Use kraft paper to work out the best pattern and scale for your floor. Designer Stiles Colwill says he might try three or four different sizes before you reach a decision.

• Go For A Classic Look For A Painted Border “A painted border, be it a Greek key or interlocking circles, is a timeless way of defining the perimeter of a room,” says designer Richard Keith Langham. He also suggests entertaining the idea of a larger scale pattern. “Go larger than you think you need to,” advises Langham. “A larger scale helps the breadth of a room.”

Kellie Hodges of Billet-Collins Studio suggests that if a room has a lot of doorways, the border should be 2 to 12 inches from the wall.

Large Greek Key Stencil, 2 layers with the following dimensions: 21.5″ W x 8.75″ H. Amazon
Arabesque Border Stencil 5″ high x 16.21″ wide Amazon

Stenciled Floor – design based on family’s tartan. The designer had the stencils created – each square foot of floor required 8 passes (with various stencils and hand painting).

Danika – Gorgeous Shiny Things

Painted and Stained by Billet Collins Studio

Stained and Stenciled Floors Sunny Goode’s Blog

Jeffrey Bilhuber’s New York City apartment features a geometric stenciled floor by decorative painter Mark Uriu, Picture Credit New York Social Diary

-Moroccan Wall and Floor Stencil (16 wide x 16″ high) on Amazon
– Leopard Wall Stencil (16 wide x 16.4″) on Amazon
-Agadir Wall Painting Stencil (13.9 wide x 17″ high) Amazon
-Marrakesh Stripe Border Stencil (4.3″ high x 14″ wide) Amazon
-Cornelius Wall Painting Stencil (15.4 wide x 15.4 high) On Amazon
-Rabat Wall Painting Stencil(16.1 wide x 16.23″ high) Amazon
-Amina Wall Painting Stencil (18 wide x 15.89″ high) Amazon
-Tatum Wall Painting Stencil (17.5 wide x 17.5 high) Amazon
-Meknes Wall Painting Stencil (13.9 in wide x 17 in) Amazon
-Ascot Houndstooth Wall (15.93 wide x 14.85″) Amazon

Geometric, color block painted floor- via marieclairemaison

Unique Pattern For Flooring -Found on Cute Stencils

DIY Painted Floor Found on ariadneathome.nl

Grey Plaid Painted Floor – Elad Gonen

Painted Floors Seen Visit planete-deco.fr

Skona Hem

Ariele Alasko | Nicole Franzen by Nicole Franzen Photography on Flickr

Neat 3D Floor Tile Design by Chris Tingom on Flickr

Found on marvelousmarbledesign.com

Sergels torg, Stockholm

Found on sommario.tumblr.com

The drawing room of Mehall Griffey and Jerry Maggi’s home in Catania, Italy –Tour the entire home here

Suzanne Rheinstein is owner of Los Angeles renowned

Most people love to see “before” and “after” pictures, but what about “in-between” photos?

Everyone loves great make-over pictures of a remodel, but rarely do we ever see pictures half way through a job which could give a reader a visual “how-to” guide.

I stumbled upon Danielle Blue’s Flicker Photostream, (Valley Craftsmen) which included some wonderful pictures of remodels featuring faux floor painting. Painting, especially faux techniques can be tremendously complicated even for the average painter.

In one of the photos you can see they taped off a grid on top of a sanded wood floor where they stenciled a very simplistic, yet breathtaking design on the wood using plain regular tape. The hardest part to creating a grid pattern, or any pattern for that matter is to get the overall measurements correct while taping.

Putting some extra time in the taping and measuring will assure you a great finish. For our floors we rented a belt floor sander from an equipment shop, and if you decide to re-finish your floors yourself, check into your local equipment rental shops for a belt sander.

Consider purchasing the Cutless Stencil Pen which allows you to cut your own stencils. Simply find the pattern you want and copy it on to a clear piece of plastic. In the past I have used overhead projector paper, which doesn’t work so well unless it is quite thick.

Self Adhesive Stencil Film might also work nicely, and may prevent the bleeding from the sides of the stencil on the floors. Traditional Stencil film also works. Again if these are not thick enough, consider a heavy weight overhead projector clear paper. Check out Valley Craftsmen for more faux finishing pictures.