Indoor Floor Painting
Our finished basement has served a multitude of purposes over the years. When we first moved in, it started as a catch-all space, then became a day care center, graduated into our homeschool room and currently serves as our “teen/workout/office” space. The original flooring was a dingy linoleum that was cold in the winter and slippery in the summer. Family friends gifted us carpeting (bright red!) from their home remodel which helped warm up the area while preventing slipping and sliding.
Then came the flood of 2017. A faulty valve in our basement toilet caused clean water (praise!) to flow throughout our basement for 8 hours during the night. The amount of damage the flood caused was huge but two big blessings came out of that disaster. The first being my mental-shift on what “things” actually held value enough to be held on to, which lit the fire that has now grown into Simplified Solutions. The second blessing was that the bright red carpet soaked the flood water up like a sponge. While it helped keep the water level down, it was completely ruined. We were in a position to start from scratch with the basement space because our insurance covered all of our lost contents and materials. We chose a beautiful, wood laminate flooring to replace the soggy bright red carpet and chose two large area rugs for warmth. My husband opted to do the installation because he is very meticulous and wanted to make sure all of the cuts were perfect. He labored over the flooring project for nearly 2 months while I replaced the essential furniture items that were lost in the flood. The entire renovation lasted 10 months as we waited on the insurance company and their time schedule. The space was perfect and all was right in the world.
Then came the flood of 2018. One of our main plumbing lines wasn’t properly vented which caused clean water (praise again!) to come up from the floor in the laundry room into the newly finished living area of the basement. Two big blessings came out of that disaster. The new and beautiful wood laminate flooring that my husband meticulously installed kept the water level down so that it didn’t climb up the drywall. The other blessing was that it happened in the daytime and we were able to act quickly and prevent the water from ruining the new furniture. With the new and beautiful wood laminate flooring ruined, we were faced with a huge decision. What type of flooring did we want to choose this time? Did we want to take another risk with carpet? Wood laminate was still an option but did my husband have time to install it with his new job responsibilities? The thought of ripping anymore flooring out of the basement for another unforeseen disaster seemed overwhelming.
I toiled for months over the task of picking new flooring while we lived with the original, dingy linoleum. I scoured Pinterest for ideas until I stumbled across pictures of painted floors. At the time, there weren’t a lot of products on the market that were specifically for high traffic floors and the bloggers who used “regular paint” weren’t happy with the long-term results. So, I waited. I almost gave up on the idea of painted floors until I reluctantly went to Home Depot to pick out carpet. I browsed the paint aisle while waiting for the carpet salesman when I happened upon Behr Porch and Patio Paint.
After talking to the gentleman in the Paint Center, I knew this product was going to be the answer to my prayers! He advised me to clean the floors really well, apply two coats of the Behr Porch and Patio Paint and I’d be good to go. That’s exactly what I did and I chose to do big stripes in two colors, Delicate Lace and Storm Cloud. For a few months, I loved the results. But then certain areas started to look a little scuffed and dirty, particularly high-traffic areas painted with Delicate Lace. I decided to touch-up those areas and go back over the entire floor with Rustoleum Parks Pro Finisher Crystal Clear Satin Water-Based Polyurethane for Floors. The results are AMAZING! I highly recommend this product and am thinking of using it in our laundry room in a very fun way (in a later post!)
What you’ll need:
Behr Porch and Patio Floor Paint (any Behr color of your choice)
Rustoleum Parks Pro Finisher Crystal Clear Satin Water-Based Polyurethane for Floors
How-to (stripes):
Sweep/vacuum the floor of all debris and wash well with Simple Green all-purpose cleaner
Align the painter’s tape along the outer edge of the lighter color’s stripe.
Cut-in the edges along the walls and along the tape edge with the nylon/polyester brush.
Using a paint roller, roll on the first coat of the lighter color. Let dry 4- 6 hours. Cut-in and roll on second coat.
Align painter’s tape along the outer edge of the darker color’s stripe.
Cut-in the edges along the walls and along the tape edge with the nylon/polyester brush.
Using a paint roller, roll on the first coat of the darker color. Let dry 4- 6 hours. Cut-in and roll on second coat.
Once the second coat has dried for 4-6 hours, apply the first coat of polyurethane.
Allow 2 hours for polyurethane to dry. Apply second coat.
How-to (no stripes);
Sweep/vacuum the floor of all debris and wash well with Simple Green all-purpose cleaner
Apply the painter’s tape along the baseboards.
Cut-in the edges along the walls with the nylon/polyester brush.
Using a paint roller, roll on the first coat of paint. Let dry 4- 6 hours. Cut-in and roll on second coat.
Once the second coat has dried for 4-6 hours, apply the first coat of polyurethane.
Allow 2 hours for polyurethane to dry. Apply second coat.
*Important tip! It is imperative to sweep/vacuum in between all coats of paint and polyurethane. Since you are working on a floor surface, gravity will allow hair, lint, and other debris to collect on the floor.
Happy Painting!