While How To Paint Your Floors and Not Screw it Up has generated all sorts of helpful feedback, their have been even more questions about this topic. In an effort to get them answered, here is our question for the week.
I have unsealed wood floors that are stained a rather dark brown (in a rented apartment). I would like to lighten and brighten the room, and think painted floors would work better for me than a rug. Is there a way I can do this without moving out to allow smelly paint to dry?
I have been reading about milk paint. Will a light color cover the darker stain, or do I need to sand the floors (something else I do not want to do!) Can I use regular latex paint and some sort of sealer? Also, will any paint finish be impossible to remove, if the landlord wants to re-let the apartment?
Thanks for your help, Julie
If you have an answer, click on 'comment' below....
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Dear lord, don't grab the milk paint!
Weirdly, I just wrote an article on milk paint. Here's the deal:
it doesn't stick to previously painted or varnished wood--it will literally fall off the wood. You can strip it and sand it to high hell, but you still risk that the wood has held on to some of the varnish--the milk paint won't take. The authority, The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company, www.milkpaint.com, advises that you add a binder (like a primer) to make it stick, but be wary, milk paint is great for unfinished furniture, but it's a hell of a project for large pieces. Like, um, floors.
I say: buy a sisal or seagrass rug, it'll look great on dark floors and will last forever
Sisal will look great, but it does not last forever... not at all. Unless you are shoeless and dogless in your house it will age with walking trails. Also sisal stains and is hard to clean. So make sure you know what you are getting into before you leap.
As for painting floors, you could use marine grade paint (paint used for boat decks) to cover a finished floor, but good colors are hard to find and you will need to get someone who mixes custom colors.
My recommendation would be to sand lightly.
Clean absolutely thoroughly.
Prime and paint.
Paint in sections.
If you want durability use some sort of polyeurethane finish but wait until the floor is totally totally dry.
Also make sure this is cool with your landlord. If one of my renters were to paint one of my hardwood floors, I would probably be deeply unhappy.
I know I'm way more than a day late on this one, but you should just count on not getting your security deposit back if you decide to paint your floors, even if the floors were shitty to begin with.
Meanwhile, if you are in my old apartment in Greenpoint (I tore up nasty old carpets and then sanded and oiled the subflooring), which it sounds like you could be, you ought to be prepared for another factor: if your unfinished wood floors are stained dark, they are probably actually oiled. Which means nothing will ever stick to them (it was subflooring! sorry!) So you can try to paint but be prepared for linseed oil to reject anything but the most hardcore oil paint.
I'm pretty happy with my pearl river bamboo mats in my current spot. The cheap straw mat under my desk is coming apart, but the larger bamboo mat is holding up nicely. It won't last as long as sisal, even, but it is so cheap that you can buy some time.
Just read a lot about milk paint. Apparently if you mix it with a special bonding agent, also sold by the companies who sell the milk paint, it can be put on over regular paint. See milkpaint.com and realmilkpaint.com
The colors you get will be more interesting than regular floor colors.
My husband painted the wideboard floors, not in good condition, in our old 1830s house, in a checkerboard design using two regular floor paints. Floor paint colors are in general not particularly interesting, but the checkerboard worked. He had to outline the checkerboard on the floor with pencil and then do the painting. Very tedious but it survived for years, and the scratches and dings from usage and dragging of furniture did not prove too unsightly.
Good luck!