DIY Painted & Stenciled Floor Tutorial: Part 1

Hi Everyone!

Happy Friday loves! So how many of you have homes afflicted with not so pretty linoleum or vinyl sheet floors? And how many of you have sworn to eventually change them out with beautiful hardwoods or tile once you save up a bit for them? Now how many of you have considered the possibility of a temporary fix that won't cost an arm and a leg?

I was in that same boat when it came to our kitchen/dining room floors. We had worked so hard to make the rest of the space pretty and the builder basic lino sheeting was a total buzz kill.  What I didn't have was the thousands of dollars it was going to cost to completely redo them so I turned to my DIY favs to help me give them a face lift in the interim: paint and patience. 

If you have vinyl or linoleum sheeting floors and wondered how to paint them, this is the tutorial for you.  It IS possible and you CAN do it as long as you follow a few easy steps.  For my project I decided not only to paint them, but also to try my hand at stenciling so I had to break this up into two parts.  Today Ill discuss just the process of painting the linoleum and tomorrow (yes, I know its Saturday) Ill post the stenciling process. I didn't want to make you guys suffer through a ridiculously long post.

Ok so, here's what my floors looked like before

Now, 90% of this project was done at night once the little feet were in bed so the lighting wasn't optimal, but I tried to capture the best pictures I could for the tutorial so bear with me.

I started by cleaning the floors and giving them a good scrub with some TSP and hot water.

This step wasn't necessarily needed with the primer I used, but it doesn't hurt.  If you use a good primer you wont have to use TSP to prep the floors.  Giving them a good cleaning with your regular household cleaner is just fine. 

After the floors dried I taped the baseboards and around the cabinets.  I usually don't tape when I paint, but I knew this was going to take some precision painting so I used blue painters tape with edge lock.

For this project I went with my typical 1-2 ratio of 1 coat primer, 2 coats paint.  The primer step is THE MOST IMPORTANT part of this while project.  If you use a good primer your entire project will be smooth sailing and you will not get chipping or peeling from your paint.  My primer of choice was Zinsser BIN 1-2-3 primer.  This stuff is amazing.  Its water based, can go over virtually anything, including glossy surfaces, and can be recoated or painted in 1 hour.  You could also use the Zinsser Shellac primer or ever the water based Cover Stain too.

Painting floors is so much easier than painting walls, yall.  Gravity is absolutely on your side here.  You can literally just pour the paint on the floor and roll!  Remember: the point of primer is not for it to look good, its for it to give your paint something to grip so this step should not take long at all

After the primer dried I moved on to my top coat.

 

For the color I chose Mint Gala by Valspar, and had it color matched in the Glidden Porch & Floor formula. Originally, I wanted to go with gloss finish, but I learned Home Depot cant sell gloss finish for this product at my local store because its regulated by the state?  Its the first Id heard of that so I just decided to give everything a poly coat in gloss once I was done with the stencil step.  In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't go with the gloss base because of the stenciling anyway.

 

I used a microfiber roller head to ensure a nice smooth finish. 

 

 

 

After cutting in along the sides I started rolling on my paint.  Again, I just poured some paint onto the floor and rolled.  I let it dry between coats according to the instructions on the can.  I believe it was about 6 hours.

 

My first coat went on at night while everyone was in bed so it was dry by time morning came. 

 

 

I put down a layer of painters paper to protect the floors during breakfast and lunch making and painted the second coat once I dropped the kids off at school. Since there was no one home but me, the floors got several hours of uninterrupted drying time. 

 

 

After the second coat dried for about 3 hours I put down the painters paper again to protect the floors from the kids and to give us a path to use for cooking, etc.

 

I know I wasn't necessarily supposed to be on the floors as much as I was, but I was painting my kitchen floors people!  In the middle of the school week, no less.  Staying completely off the floors for a full 24-48 hours just wasn't possible.  I'm happy to say the paint was perfectly fine.  It pretty much completely dried in abut 3 hours after each coat so I just tried my best to keep everyone off them and if they absolutely HAD to be in the kitchen they were bound to the protected areas only.

 

 

After my second coat of paint I let the floors sit for a day and a half before I moved on to the stencil step.  At this point, if I weren't stenciling I would've rolled on one more coat of paint and then two coats of WATER BASED poly and called this project done.  But since I was, I moved on to phase 2.

 

I'll be back tomorrow with a rare Saturday post detailing the stenciling process. Have a great weekend everyone! Until next time....

 

Xo-Shavonda