Painted Wood Floor Makeover!

In 1913, cheese cost 17 cents a pound, a Hershey Bar would set you back 3 cents, McDonald's did not exist, the zipper was invented, and my house was built.

When we purchased our home in 2005, it had new carpet in the dinning room.  It served us well until babies 1...2.... and 3 came along, then we knew we NEEDED a change.

Hidden under the Koolaid sodden carpet, was a hard wood floor nearly a century old.

 The wood floor was stained two feet around the perimeter of the room, the center of the floor had never been stained.  Originally the center of the floor probably had a carpet.  Where the floor was stained the it well preserved, and the wood was light. However, in the center the wood was dark, because it had not been preserved.

We knew we wanted to do something different, the adjacent family room we refinished the floor, and we wanted to make the dinning room look a little different.  We decided to add a stencil!  After much consideration we decided to create a large diamond pattern on the floor.  I practiced first with newspapers.

 Items Used (all of these items can be found at the Hardware store!)

      Large Drum Belt Sander Rental 

      Sandpaper for the Belt Sander 

      Sandpaper for our palm sander

      Fine grit hand sandpaper

      Painters tape

      High quality paint brushes

      Plastic doorway coverings

      Oil based paint (We used a granit brown color)
      Polyurethane

a. The first step was to move Carpet, carpet tack, and carpet Staples. 

b. Next we Sand, Sand, Sand, and sand some more!  We used both a belt sander (rented), and a palm Sander.  My husband was best at the big belt sander, I used the palm sander to sand around the perimeter of the room.  

After sanding we complete we sealed the floor by putting two coats of polyurethane on the entire floor.  Then we were ready for tape.

(Pythagorean Theorem)

c. Painting the diamonds on the floor was quite the process involving a lot of math, you can tell your teenager, yes you might use the Pythagorean theorem someday! You need to get a general idea of the diamond size you would like, but remember you need the length of the diamond from point to point or the hypotenuse (that is when the The Pythagorean Theorem comes in handy).  My husband and I drew it out on a paper, then used a chalk line to create the pattern on the floor.  The chalk lines gave me a guide to tape the floor.

 When taping your floors a putty knife is very helpful to cut your tape cleanly.  I was on my hands and knees taping the floors for THREE hours.  The diamond pattern disguises the dark light contrast around the perimeter of the room (see tape picture 'c' above).  I put tape on the diamonds I was NOT going to paint, so I didn't paint them on accident:)

d.  Now that all of the prep is done, take a deep breath and start painting!  It is important that you use oil based paint, so it does not gum up, or come off easily.  This was my first project using oil based paint, and I am here to tell you that it is a lot like painting tar!  I only used one coat of oil based paint, that is all it needed.  After letting the oil based paint settle for over 24 hours, I applied two more coats of polyurethane on top of the diamonds.  In between each coat of polyurethane, I sanded just a little with high grit sand paper.  Tip, when painting polyurethane make sure you buy a HIGH quality paint brush, that way the bristles will not end up on your floor.

I love how the diamond pattern defines the dining room space from the adjoining family room.  Not to mention it helps create the funky vintage soda fountain look I am going for!

This project was a lot of work, but I LOVE how it turned out!  This floor has personality, lots of character, and it is easy to clean!

  The cost of the floor was $321.73, or $1.43 per square foot.

 One more time... Before...


And After!  Oh the stories this old wood floor could tell!
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