Have I Told You About My Painted Floors?

At The Point
34 Comments

Oh boy, do I LOVE a painted floor!

I have painted at least one floor in every house we have owned.  I’ve done it on tile, wood, cement and plywood subfloors.

In my limited experience, cement yields the best results.  It takes the paint well and it lasts a long time without much care.

Right now I have two rooms with painted floors.  When we added our bathroom to the house I knew I wanted to paint the floor, that way I can change it any time I want.  I have re-painted it once, a few years ago because I wanted to change the color.

That’s the best part about a painted floor.  It can be changed in a day for very little cost.

I wanted a classic tile look in the bathroom, so I painted 12″ squares in a checkered pattern.

I always prime the floor first if it hasn’t been painted before.  I go over the primer with a couple of coats of floor paint.  In this case, I used white floor paint.  Then comes the fun part, creating the floor that you want.  I just use those little bottles of acrylic paint from the craft store for the decorative part of the floor.  In my bathroom, the tan color is $.99 acrylic paint.  One thing I have learned from having so many painted floors….if you leave it a solid color it will show EVERYTHING.  So I went over the whole floor with a wash of watered down brown paint once I had the squares all finished.

A couple of times I painted a rug, I have done vines, fallen leaves, stripes, stars….you are only limited by your imagination.

A few coats of polyurethane and you’re done.  I did my whole floor in a day….start to finish.

It still looks good and we are not careful with it at all.  We mop it and scoot things around.  I do keep a rug on it, but that is for warmth.

Our other painted floor is in James’ office.  When we were building his office we ran out of money for the floors.  I decided to get creative and paint it temporarily.  That was 10 years ago.  It has stood the test of time and we still like it.

I used gray floor paint and then cut a car washing sponge into a rectangle the size of a brick.  I squirted different shades of red, brown and black into a pan and dipped the sponge into the pan without stirring the colors.  Then I stamped a brick pattern on the floor.

We love the way it looks and you can’t beat the price.

I am mulling over painting the boys’ bathroom floor (update: link below).  The room needs re-painting anyway and it’s about time I added some personality to the space.

Isn’t it a joy to use your creativity and save money?

Be sure to also check out my painted floor in my boys’ bathroom!  It’s completely different than these two.  That’s what I love about paint, you can just do whatever you want and change it when you want….so easy!

34 Comments

  1. i am so impressed.

    i have done all types of faux finishes, but never a floor. i love painted floors too. i so want to do a faux brick for our front porch. perhaps next spring. we need to have it striped or water blasted before i do.
    these really are beautiful. and excuse me, household with 9 kids, how on earth do you keep your floors so clean?
    .-= this blessed nest´s last blog ..Tomato Pie =-.

  8. What a fabulous idea. The checkerboard looks fabulous! and the brick is super cool! I can’t wait to see what you have planned for the boys bath! I can’t believe you did this with acrylics – Thanks for sharing the tips. Thanks so much for joining The Sunday Showcase – I greatly apprecite it! Hope you have a great week! ~ Stephanie Lynn
    .-= Stephanie Lynn´s last blog ..The Sunday Showcase Party w- Dot Mine Giveaway No13 =-.

  11. I love the look of the painted floors, what kind of floors did you paint over? I want to do that to my basement floor. I love the look of brick flooring.

  12. Amazing! Your floors are beautiful. We live in a 1800s Victorian and our upstairs bathroom needs a complete overhaul. We have a very similar bathtub and the checkered floor would be perfect! My husband works in the tile business, but I’m tempted and intrigued to try my hand at painting. You’ve inspired me!

  13. Thank you so much for your post on your painted floors. Because of you I have thought of nothing else but to try this in my master bathroom. I figured what the heck?, and if it doesn’t work out I can always have some one bring in some vinyl tile. But I am doing it and will post pictures to you if interested. Again, thanks.
    .-= Pamela´s last blog ..Restore to adore- 7 project =-.

  16. WOW! amazing! i love those floors and love what you did! i also love that tub- i dream of having one of those when i have a master bath one day. i could spend hours soaking in your tub, sipping wine, and drooling over the floors.

  17. WOW! This sounds so easy and looks GREAT! I love both floors you’ve completed. And you can’t beat the price! Thanks for sharing and the tips!
    Sharlotte

  18. Hi, Lisa!
    This is JUST awesome!
    I have a friend who painted her slab foundation floor (concrete) in her whole house- it is wonderful!
    What are the floors in the rooms above made of?
    You got me thinking I can paint my bath floor!
    When we moved in (we built our home) Mark wanted carpeting in our Master Bath–yuck!
    In exchange, I got hardwood in my foyer and dining room.
    I wanted hardwood so desperately, I agreed to the carpet…
    However, he agreed, just last night (PRAISE GOD!) to let me take up the carpet!
    I know there is plywood under the carpet–I was gonna tile the floor- but you got me thinking!!
    Give a girl some more info!
    Please!?
    Hugs,
    ~me
    P.S. thank you for the sweet birthday wished for my Alyssa!
    .-= Leslie, the Home Maker´s last blog ..The Art of French Cooking- Week 8- Salade Nicoise =-.

  20. That’s amazing! I love how both floors look. Found you through Under the Table and Dreaming. I love the look of your blog too. It has the feel of a beloved journal. 🙂

  21. How timely! I have been putting off painting my guest bathroom floor. I plan to do harlequin b&w. It has a claw foot tub like yours. Most people don’t understand why I want to paint it. I get asked “Don’t you want to do ceramic tile?”

    Thanks for posting your experiences and lovely photos!

  23. I soooo agree! I painted the bathroom floor in my old house in a brick pattern… It was supposed to be temporary too, but we ended up loving it so much I just never changed it. It was the first floor I had done so I consulted the paint fella at the hardware store. He insisted it was impossible and would not hold up. He was soooo wrong. Like you, we weren’t careful with it either. People used to touch it to see if it was really brick. What a money saver. I painted the basement floor in a cobblestone pattern too. It was cement that had been painted before and we did have a little bit of trouble with it staying put. The entry in this house is painted and I can’t imagine it any other way. What an inexpensive solution to a problem. Yours turned out sooo pretty. Bravo!

    Warm blessings,
    Spencer

  24. Pingback: Painted Floors · Home and Garden @ CraftGossip

  25. I just wanted to stop by and let you know that I linked to this post today from the new Home & Garden channel at Craft Gossip. 🙂 My hope is to share many of the fabulous projects I see everyday with the vast CG audience. I hope you will not only stop by and subscribe to CG, but will tell your friends about the new category! Hope you see some traffic from it!

    Your feature will appear in the main Craft Gossip RSS feed, on the main home page and can be found directly here
    http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/painted-floors/

    If you would like a “featured by” button, let me know 😉

  30. Thanks for linking up to Topsy turvy Tuesdays! I’ll be featuring this on Monday! I love how well they turned out! I’ve been thinking about painting floors, I’ll be braver now!

  31. WOW!!!! That is really inspiring. I’m thinking about painting my porch (cement) and have thought about painting over the tile in my kitchen/nook/laundry. Would love any advice you could offer re: painting on tile. Thanks for the post!

  34. I hope you get this comment and question being that 3 years have past….haha I want to do the top of a concrete patio of our new house. It is 14×18. I like the faux brick design you did for your husband’s office. I’m not sure what paint type to use even though it is covered and screened…it’s still considered outside. Any recommendations?

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