How To: Paint Your Floors and Not Screw it Up

(An unusally popular post on the web, we repost here for the first time in over 2 years. Enjoy)

When my wife, Sara Kate, and I decided to paint the floors in our small summer house, most people were shocked (including our parents). Bare wood floors are so chic and such a staple of 90's style, that painting them over and covering them up seems sacriligous. Barely.

Our floors are cheap, new solid floors, and they were in great need of refinishing. It was either sand and polyurethane (which would have been messy and cost at least $2,000) or paint them ourselves with polyurethane based oil paint (cost: $200 for the paint + 3 weekends of our time).

The inspiration came from visiting my friend Charles' house in Massachusetts that had been part of a Shaker community. All the floors had been painted and repainted for years in the richest colors. The house was warm and bright without the aid of carpets or rugs, and the idea seemed perfect for any summer house, where all you want to do is walk barefoot for days at a time.

It seemed easy to maintain, and removed all hint of preciousness to the floors. They just seemed practical and lovely, reminding me, as well, of the bright colors in Monet's house at Giverny where he painted both the inside and outside with the bright colors of his surroundings.

Moving the furniture was easy, the problem was working with the paint. 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. I had to work hard to undo my mistake. Here are my new tips on how to do it right:

1. vacuum and wipe down floor thoroughly to remove all dust and dirt
2. use polyurethane based porch and floor enamel
3. after cutting the edges with a brush, roll on a thin coat with a 1/4 inch roller
4. keep the heat on (@ 70 f) to insure quick, dry drying
5. roll at least two more thin layers and allow at least 24 hours between coats
6. don't plan to stay in the house (bad fumes) and keep the windows open while painting

We found that the white floor paint behaved much better upstairs than the red that we used on the first floor and attribute this to the warmth upstairs of both the air and the floor itself. While we would rather use a less toxic paint, we have yet to find one that can withstand this use. We are still looking, however. The result? A shiny, clean, beautiful floor that establishes a new style for the millenium. MGR

(Orginally posted on 2004-04-19 - MGR)

Comments (16)

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I'm just thrilled. Thank you, thank you!

When I was in high school, my mom and I went on a painting spree. My bedroom floor was white with pink stripes about... 4 planks wide. It somehow worked really well. Not a lot of the floor showed because I had a French rag rug down too, but it was just interesting enough to make my room really unique and put-together. Our formal living room had a light green and light yellow harlequin diamond pattern on it too. It was light enough that you didn't really notice the pattern unless the sun was beating through the windows. It was awesome.

Even though I am quite afraid of painting the floors in my house, it really works sometimes- especially when the floors are pretty banged up

I love the art above your fireplace. What is it, exactly?

Is it common practice to purchase a home without first learning what type flooring is under the carpet? I would at the very least ask.

i painted the landing on my second floor with "nacho" by benjamin moore. it looks great and i give it a light top coat every three or four years. i also painted my plywood stairs white -- it took about 3 coats of bin and four coats of outdoor paint. again, they look amazing. i did, however, end up putting a small runner down the middle because the stairs could be slippery. the rest of the house has wood floors and i don't think i would paint those. love paint!

muriatic acid is generally in the garden/pool supply area at Home Depot or similar stores.

Concrete can be stained with a product made to do this. It requires etching, but there is a non toxic product I got at my paint store to do this. The stain was easy, and looked great. I bought a cheap garden sprayer, per the stain manufacturer's suggestion and used two colors. It looked like stone, and was lovely. Looked good for the three years I lived there, too.

Don't underestimate the value of a professional paint store. Home Depot is hit or miss. Once you get past the idea that the guys at the paint store are pros, you will realize that pros are what you want. Just lay it out there, what you want to do and what you did and so forth. Most of them like a challenge, and if nothing else you are providing them with wacky customer entertainment. They have seen and heard it all, when it comes to paint, so skip Home D.

I've done my stairs and now what to keep going.
http://sewbeeit.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/red-hot/
I like the oil based benjamin moore 133 for this type of project. I wonder if the new generation of latex paints will be able to replace it fully.

All kinds of great coatings for all different applications (floors, countertops, faux stone/granite, etc.) are available at ArmorPoxy.com. I've used several of their products and all with great success. Particularly fabulous is the "For Dummies Bath Refinishing Kit". You can use it on your tub, sink, tile, etc. and it makes everything look like brand new white porcelain. It's truly amazing and easy to use. I did my bathroom more than 2 years ago and it still looks amazing....

Great tips and advice in this post - I use this technique and look quite a lot - especially in newer buildings for younger people.

Although I have only started to use it within the last 10-12 months. Will be interesting to see how it holds up with time and heavy foot traffic.

Do you think newer latex paints will last longer or do you think its oil based all the way?

I'm wondering if you would absolutely have to sand first? I have wood floors that have already been painted. Unfortunately, my landlord wasn't using any sense at all and painted the wood floors in our living room and home office PEACH! Blimey, it is ugly as heck! She painted the guest room floor white, and chose this hideous colour for the more used rooms.
I'm thinking in the spring, I would want to repaint the peach floors white but really loathe the idea of sanding two 10x10 rooms

I just bought a house that was built between 1890 and 1905. The wood floors had been painted, but I was hoping to sand and stain them. I have since learned that they are a softer pine rather than the oak I had hoped. I was thrilled to stumble on this website when I googled "painted wood floors". Your photos are wonderful and I am reminded of a family vacation to the east coast.

My little house is in Indiana and has much of the original character. I have not had much luck learning about residential architecture of it's period other than Victorian or Georgian homes. My home is much more modest.

As it turns out, the painted floors seem to be appropriate for the time period as well as being more budget friendly.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Ok so first of all...I think your painted hard woods look amazing and I am very jealous :)!! BUT....I moved into a rental house about a year ago and the hard woods have been painted brown. And I HATE them now...the paint chips very easily when you move anything across the floor and when this happens the chips make it look dirty. Plus the dark brown shows everything! I have to sweep and mom my house everyday or it looks filthy! Does anyone have any suggestions for cleaning/maintenance? Remember it is a rent house!

I love painted floors. Just started painting floors in my older home. On my third room and decided to paint it a darker color but may have to do it again in a lighter color as I feel the room looks way too dark. For anyone considering painting over your wood flooring, please consider the quality of the flooring and the impact on resale value it will have on your house. Wood flooring is a timeless style that is always a desirable characteristic to have in a house, if in good shape.
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I hope somebody can help me out a bit here... When I first got my apt., I put in beechwood floors (tongue/groove parquet in appr. 15mm thickness, which has a pine base and a 7mm layer of beech on top). When I had to put in kitchen cabinets which move up and down electronically (with counters with no cabinets under because of wheelchair use - the whole thing is a unit which stands on top of the floor on some tiny legs, the lift mechanism is built into the side walls, so no metal shows when you have the cabinets in a lower position, but the downside with this, is if you want to do something with the floors, moving the cabinets would cost a fortune) and in the process also had to knock down some walls, hence I had to put in a new floor in that part of the apartment (I removed a large closet and used the space to make the kitchen and a bedroom bigger). But, a short time after, I got a new maid to help me out. Since I was very particular when it came to take really good care of these floors, I made lots of microfiber mops wet, then used the washing machine spinning cycle to remove most of the water, to make them only damp - since this was recommended and also a great way of doing it (so much easier, when one got soiled, you just moved onto a clean one etc., so no need to rinse the mop out, dip it in a bucket etc.). The maid came at 9 a.m. while I had gone to work, but when I got home around 4 p.m., the floors were still wet (and still dirty, since all the dirt was in the pool of water on the floor). I asked her over and over again, trying to make it work, but after 6 months, I gave up and called her agency, who immediately said they would give me a new one (I got a very clear impression that she had got many complaints, since she did an awful job in general and the place never got clean). Problem was, when those 6 mths were over, my beech floor was real damaged. It swelled up in the joins, the varnished loosened etc. But it got real bad when I got a little dog who sometimes had a little accident, as the swelled up joins really let water through. That and continued cleaning, has made the floor look so horrible, I'm really embarressed when I have guests...

I have debated over what to do. One thing is a limited budget, another is that I still have a dog (who's getting old and sometimes have accidents during the night, even if she uses a puppy pad, she sometimes misses), and I'm thinking that maybe it's not the best idea ever to go for new floors in the whole apartment (and it'll cost me a lot too, as I just can't do anything myself anymore and as it just happens, my friends and me both have been quite unlucky health wise, most of us are now wheelchair users for several reasons...). BUT, the past year or so, I have watched quite a lot of reality shows, and it has become quite obvious that dark floors have been really popular. And some of the dark brown ones I have seen, really seem so dark you can't see very much of the wood grain, I think. So I'm wondering if my best bet actually would be to paint my floor and seal it super well. I know that there are great floor paints on the market here, both oil and water based, and I hope I could get a nice color. I see though that some tell about having problems with everything showing. Here the floors are vacuumed and mopped twice a week, and I am not sure if that would be enough... The color I would love, is a dark, cold brown (with black/gray in it rather than yellow/red). But, I also really love taupe! Especially a darker taupe. Have any of you seen floors painted (or stained) in such a color? I have also been thinking about an old painting technique they used a lot way back to make a pine floor look more exclusive (my apt. bedroom way back had such a floor, in a house built in 1936, and as I remember, the owner said it was the original floor, done by his father in law who built most of the house for them). What they did then, was something they here called "Combing". They first applied a lighter color paint as the base coat (as many layers as needed to cover nicely), then used an oil paint thinned with water (now we would probably buy a ready mixed thin glaze). This was applied in only one layer, then a "comb" was pulled over it, board by board. This gave an impression e.g. of oak wood grain. I am thinking that what maybe could be something to try (test it before doing it, of course), was to paint with a dark taupe, then glaze/comb with a very dark brown. Hopefully it would be possible to find an expert on old painting techniques (or I could actually call my old landlord, he's in his 80's now), to find out what this "comb" was made of, and what it was called, so hopefully it would be possible to alter some existing painting tool to do the job today. I would e.g. guess that one could take a wide brush, then use some hair stylist thinning scissors, I do have two different ones myself, and cut away some of the hair - making a brush that would paint "stripes" of varying widths. Guess it must have a somewhat random pattern to look as it should. But in total I would think that you could get a somewhat richer look, and that I could get the feeling of warmth that I oddly get from looking at COLD colors... Or cut notches in a squeegie to make a painting comb from that, making it as wide as 2 boards (which is about the same width as the old pine boards used to be and which is the width each parquet board had) and use that to make the pattern... Then do it the opposite way, roll on the glaze, then use the squeegie to remove some of the glaze. Actually I would think that could work, as I have made similar combs from stiff plastic to use to make some texture when painting on canvas using acrylic paint...

OMG, I can't even stand the thought of having to paint these floors (or replace it, for that matter, both will be quite an ordeal). I have no idea of how we will be able to move all this furniture, huge book shelfs etc., so the floors can be done... Somehow I'll have to paint parts at a time, I simply can't remove everything I have, as I have no place to put it while at it. I guess I will have to use my kitchen and bedroom (and maybe something on my balcony, but a bit scary if the weather turns bad) - move everything from the living room and hall in there, then when that is done and has gone hard, we'll have to move everything and everything from the kitchen and bedroom into the living room and hall, then carefully sand the part where the two "portions" will meet (the door opening to the bedroom and the wide opening to the open kitchen), and hopefully be able to make a seamless join... I know that I many times have done something like that on walls and have a way of "fading" the paint into nothing by using a quite dry roller and give it a "jagged and faded" transition, but the floor sure is a lot smoother and have much less to no texture (and my walls have textured and painted wallpaper which is a lot more forgiving and also somewhat absorbant). I sure hope that you, by first fading the first part into nothing, then sanding the transition area lightly with fine paper before you start painting again by trying to use the fading technique in the opposite way, can get a smooth and pretty looking floor. I would love it if somebody have done a floor this way and can offer some advice on it!

Traditionally we here (Norway) do not use the wide (or is it high?) baseboards that are very common many other places (e.g. in the US) anymore (you do see them in old houses though). We normally also use the same wood/color on the base boards as on the floor itself, not the white or neutral color that I've seen so many times in homes in the US or England (and on TV from these and other places). I am a bit in doubt as to what would be best in this case, esp. if the floor ends out very dark... Would love to hear what you guys have done and why you prefer it like that (the existing base boards I have, are oak even if the floor is beech, since I could not get beechwood ones locally at the time and they suggested using oak to me, and it actually looks very nice, does not look very different than the floor, it's just slightly darker/colder without clashing at all). The base boards are not very high/wide, not entirely sure, but would think something in between 2" and 3". Should I paint them in the same color to become part of the floor like we traditionally do here, or would it look better with white ones (most walls are egg shell white, I have one colored wall in taupe in the living room, which I am planning to change soon, either using a dark brown or a plum purple - with lots of new light in the part too, so it won't get dark).

Sorry, this must have ended out super long. I am rotten at explaining such things in a short way (esp. in English, which is not my language) - hope you'll forgive me and can stand reading through it all!

Thanks in advance for any creative input, experience/advice or simply your thoughts on the subject! I'll appreciate it a lot!!! :)

Lotta :)