Painting Subfloor
I've been thinking about ripping up the carpet in my living room and painting the subfloor. The rest of the downstairs is all hardwoods. We eventually want hardwoods in the living room...but it's not in the cards right now. It just seemed like the route to go...if I want to lay hardwoods in the future.
I found first a dream and she has has painted most of her home's subfloor. She has some great techniques and lots of pictures. She also just did a post about how they're holding up after a year and what she would have done differently. I saw more here, here and here. Has any one else done this or thought about doing it? Did you like it?
We tried painting our floor in our last house to save money. It was concrete and we did everything we were suppose to do. It did not hold up at all and we ended up moving the wood flooring project up. Maybe the wood sub-flooring is better.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done it but have had friends who have. I love the looks and would do it in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteWe did this in our first home too. Two rooms, both high traffic, one we painted one we sanded and stained. The stained one looked beautiful! The painted one showed major wear and tear in a short amount of time, looked awful! I highly recommend staining if you need to make due for a budget, but don't waste your time or money on the paint unless it's a room that gets little to no traffic (and absolutely no dog traffic!)
ReplyDeleteMy good friend has done it and several years later it still looks great!
ReplyDeleteI looked at her blog and I love the painted rugs on the floors! WOW! they look so real. You should try that...if you don't like it you could always paint over it.
Can't wait to see what you decided!
I haven't done this, but if your subfloors are concrete, you might want to look into acid-etching. You can get some very pretty looks doing that, too.
ReplyDeleteI first did this in my childhood bedroom at my parents house over 15 years ago (Checkerboard pattern-STILL holding up well!!) and more recently in my craft room (just plain color) and currently in the middle of painting faux hex tiles in my bathroom. I love paint because it is flexible to be EXACTLY what you want & it's CHEAP!! I always use porch paint (or even exterior) because it is the only paint designed to be walked on and in a heavy traffic area or my bathroom I use a clear sealant over top. This protects it and makes it easier to wash.
ReplyDeleteI say go for it and just make sure you let each coat dry the appropriate time (more time if it is humid out!!) and don't 'slide' furniture on it (might scratch it). But my parents have two cats and had a dog at the time I did mine & I also have a 2 year old & a dog and all my floors look great still!!
I found you via your slipcover party and darn I missed it! I say go for it, you can put a runner in the heavy traffic areas and do some touch up if it's needed.
ReplyDeleteCathy
I am right in the middle of prepping to paint our sub floor. I will be putting paint down the last weekend in March. We will be going out of town and want to let the porch paint cure before anything is moved on to it.
ReplyDeleteI get a lot of stink eyes when I mention that I am doing this, but I hate, Hate, HATE the carpet in the dining room, so anything is better in my mind.
I've been lurking for awhile, but I've finally decided to comment. I really enjoy reading your blog. :-)
ReplyDeleteI considered painting the floor in my kitchen to "hold me over" until I could do what I really wanted. It had this horrible 70's linoleum that was stained and torn and just plan nasty. But since it was ripped up and in such bad shape, I didn't figure it would really hold up to painting. Never really considered pulling the linoleum up, but I am not sure it would have been anything worth painting underneath. So instead, I found some decently priced tile ($1.50 a square foot or so), and my dad and I laid the tile ourselves. I would really rather have waited, but I really love my new tile, so I'm glad I have the new floor now! (And considering the room I was going to paint was the kitchen, which is extremely high traffic since I come in the kitchen door and the bathroom is off the kitchen, it was probably a much better decision!
I've done it and I love it. My posts are:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyhomestead.blogspot.com/2009/02/shiney-new-floor.html
http://tinyhomestead.blogspot.com/2009/02/update-kitchen-floor-still-shiny.html
I absolutely LOVE this idea! You should totally do it...if you make sure to seal it really well after to protect it then why not? I might be doing this sometime in the very near future on our living/dining/family room if our landlord lets us buy this house. Good luck and post LOTS of pics!!!
ReplyDeleteI did this last year. I loved them. I wish I had put a gazillion more coats of poly on them so they would have held up better though. You can see them here.
ReplyDeletehttp://mystackofplates.blogspot.com/2009/05/dealing-with-disgustion.html
My husband would not "go for" that - but I think it is a great idea. If it doesn't work in the first room, throw down some area rugs until you have saved for carpet or hardwoods.
ReplyDelete-Trish
LOVE painted floors... I painted the entry floor in this house and the bathroom and basement floors in our old house. They held up perfectly too. Our new house is so open it would take a month of Sundays to finish all of it.... which would have been fine when I was about 1/2 the age I am now. :-)
ReplyDeleteWarm blessings,
Spencer
There are lots of options available to you when it comes to improving the look of your home. For starters you could landscape the garden, get new doors and windows, fit cladding over broken and worn brickwork, give the exterior a fresh coat of paint, and smarten it up with new guttering and fascia boards.
ReplyDeleteSubfloor insulation