How To Paint A Floor
Our recent sunroom floor staining debacle led us away from semi-transparent floor finishes (which are fabulous for raw concrete but don’t work as well over previously stained concrete) and towards solid floor treatments that are yummy and glossy and opaque. We quickly learned that oil-based porch and floor paint was the best candidate for the room (since latex based floor paints can’t bond to a previously stained concrete surface) and at Lowe’s we happily discovered Valspar’s High Performance Oil-Based Porch & Floor Paint in a perfect chocolate brown color called Brownstone. We’d been longing for a rich brown tone to tie into the adjoining room’s hardwood flooring, and Brownstone was a match made in floor paint heaven. Since the stuff is “extremely durable and resists scuffing while retaining its high gloss appearance”, it was the perfect solution for our high traffic sunroom. And not only is it great for concrete floors, it can also be used on wood floors and primed metal so it’s definitely something to keep in mind for any of the floors in your home that have seen better days.
So without further ado, we bring you the simple five step tutorial to painting your floor:
Step 1: Ensure that the floor is squeaky clean. This can be accomplished by thoroughly vacuuming and then going over your floor with a mildly soapy wet rag and waiting for the floor to dry completely before moving onto the next step. Additionally, if you’re painting a wood floor, any splintered or rough parts should be sanded or patched before moving on to the painting process.
* John sheepishly asked that I add a disclaimer that he doesn’t usually look this mismatched and clashy. We had just returned from a swim at the river so he quickly donned the closest t-shirt and hat for a speedy floor clean-up before hitting the shower. Really, he was actually embarrassed. Isn’t that cute?
Step 2: Edge the perimeter of the entire floor (about 4 inches or so) with a good quality brush that won’t leave any bristles behind. Oil based paint is deliciously glossy, which can makes things like errant paintbrush bristles stuck to the floor more obvious than a matte floor finish would.
Step 3: Use a paint roller with an extended pole attachment to coat the entire floor with one coat of paint. Roll in long even strokes and make a “w” pattern on the floor with the roller to eliminate any obvious paint globs from the side of the roller. Don’t forget to be smart about painting yourself out of the room as oil paint takes a looong time to dry before you can walk on it again.
Step 4: If you’re lucky, one coat of paint will do the trick. In our sunroom it would have except that we missed a couple of teeny slivers of the floor and wanted to go over the whole thing again for good measure and a uniform finish. You must wait at least a full 24 hours before applying a second coat, and even after 24 hours you may notice that your first coat isn’t completely dry (you may see subtle footprints as you walk across the floor) but you can proceed with your second coat since it’ll gloss over everything and leave it looking shiny and perfect again.
Step 5: Wait at least 6 full days to walk on your new floor. It may feel like torture, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. And after almost a week of avoiding the space, you’ll be super excited to move in all of your furniture and make yourself at home. It should be noted that oil-paint is especially toxic and super stiiinky, so keeping a ceiling fan going and the windows open for the full 6 days is a smart idea (which means implementing that plan before the second coat since you won’t have access to the room afterwards).
So there you have it, a simple five step process to fantastic new flooring. Here’s ours looking all glossy and fabulous (like melted chocolate, I tell ya). We love the rich, uniform tone and the luxe sheen, and we’ve both noticed that the room looks a whole lot more “finished” with the newly painted floor.
We also love how it ties in with the dark brown window sashes around the entire room, and makes our white furniture pop even more than it did against our old orangey-gold floor.
And perhaps the most exciting thing of all is how the newly painted sunroom floor so perfectly ties into our existing hardwood floor in the adjoining laundry nook and den. It’s an almost seamless transition which makes the sunroom seem a lot more cohesive (it no longer screams “add-on”) thanks to the uniform floor color and super luxe sheen.
We hope our fast and furious floor painting tutorial has been of help. And of course feel free to send us your floor painting before and afters (we eat that stuff for breakfast). Happy rolling!
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Comments
Definitely go for it! It’ll look lush, lovely and rich- for a lot less money and work. Plus you can check out this old Reader Redesign where the homeowner painted her bedroom floors chocolate for an amazing result: http://www.younghouselove.com/2008/09/reader-redesign-craving-chocolate/
Hope it helps!
xo,
s
WOW! This is gorgeous! We are in Texas and have considered painting/staining our living room floor. The carpet has got to go and it would be convenient if we could just paint the concrete underneathe. However, this may be a question for a Texas realtor, but do you find that painting concrete makes for good resale value over re-carpeting?
Thanks a bunch!
Hey Jen,
It’s definitely a question you could ask a realtor but we would venture to guess that anything you can do to your unfinished concrete to make it look more finished, warm and cozy would be a good thing. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
My husband and I saw your site and love this idea for our family room, which was a garage about 6 months ago. We were wondering if you would have primed your floors if they had not been previously stained? Also what type of cleaner did you use?
Thank You.
Hey Jennifer,
Nope, concrete is super porous so just go straight to painting after sweeping/vacuuming and wiping everything down with mild soap and water (and waiting for it to dry of course). Oh and be sure to use porch and floor paint which is meant to stand up to foot traffic. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Love your blog! You’ve inspired me to tackle my basement. Please tell me if I’m getting myself into a lot of work but here’s what I’m thinking. I have two bedrooms and a 3/4 bathroom in the basement along with what will eventually be a large family room. I’m thinking of painting the floors in the bedrooms and the family room a medium brown (haven’t looked at colors yet!) then going back over it with a lighter brown then hitting it with a wood grain tool to attempt to make it look like the hardwood that is throughout the main floor. The bathroom would probably start out a light gray with “grout lines” painted in later. Do you think this would work?
Sarah
Hey Sarah,
It probably would look nice but it would definitely be a lot of work! Perhaps trying the treatment in a closet or a corner of one of your rooms before going for it in a number of rooms all at once would make the most sense? We definitely think it may resemble the appearance of hardwood, but people probably won’t be fooled as the feeling of walking on concrete and wood is very different (people can even usually tell the difference between wood laminate flooring and hardwood flooring, so the comparison of concrete and wood will probably be obvious). If you’re just going for a similar look and don’t specifically plan on fooling people, it should definitely work though! Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Does tne paint come in a matte or semi-gloss finish do you klnow? We need it for our outdoor concrete porch that is covered by a roof in the front of our house.
SW
Good question! I believe it comes in both and we went with the semi-gloss for easy cleaning (the sheen does not make it slippery, which is definitely a good thing). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Hey guys,
We are wanting to do this in our den/living room that is an add-on (2 steps down on a concrete slab from the rest of the house that is pier and beam). The concrete is not previously treated, just raw with lots of marks/stains/paint drips. When we got the rest of the floor in our house refinished (original hardwood), we had our floor guy go ahead and sand the concrete too to get it smooth…we didn’t want to do carpet there since it opens up to the back patio/yard. Do we need to do an muratic acid wash prior to painting since it’s raw concrete or just vacuum/sweep and wash gently? Thanks!
Yup, it sounds like you’re good to go with a good vacuum/sweep. Good luck!
xo,
s
I am very excited by your actual design projects. I have gotten so many ideas from your website on what to do with my basement. We have new construction and the walls are constructed with this faux type of brick. So I was inspired by your living room, I primed the walls white so far, and will paint them the glidden color Wishes. I plan to do the floor like your sunroom floor. I have researched all these websites on how to paint concrete floors. People make it to difficult to keep up. Your website made it so simple.
I would like to know did you put any type of epoxy to protect the color on the sun room floor? And also, the paint Wishes is it flat, semi-gloss, high gloss?
Thanks for your website and inspiring home projects,
Hey Marisol,
We didn’t apply any epoxy since porch and floor paint is meant to hold up to foot traffic on it’s own (and layering anything might actually have made it less durable since it’s meant to be applied alone). As for Wishes, it’s by Glidden and it comes in a number of finishes (flat, semi-gloss, high gloss, etc) but for walls not in a wet environment (like a bathroom or kitchen) we always use flat paint (which hides the most imperfections). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
If you have bare concrete do you need to prime it before you apply this brown color to it as you did on your sunroom?
Nope, no need to prime (we didn’t prime ours and any bare concrete will happily suck up any paint or stain that you apply). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I’d like to repaint our basement floor to tide us over until we can refinish the basement. The floor we inherited is partially painted and that paint has chipped off in some spots. What would be the best way to prepare this floor before we begin repainting? Would we use the same type of paint etc. that you used in your sunroom?
Hey Susan,
Good question! So good in fact that we’re not sure. We would ask the paint professional at your home improvement store to suss things out. Good luck!
xo,
s
Your floor looks like it has color gradation, like its not a flat brown color. Is that just because of the concrete’s original texture? Or did you use several coats of paint in different colors? I’m starting this project in my own basement next week and just wanted to make sure I get results similar to yours. Thanks.
Hey Ruth,
After being painted (not stained, which does have a gradation) the floor is all one tone, so it’s just the camera playing tricks on you. No gradation at all since the paint is opaque. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Hey, I am about to move into an apartment with concrete floors. The realtor says that they are going to paint the floor before I move in and that I can help choose the color if I want. I’d rather go with a stain but I guess it had already been painted (a really ugly primer color) so they are just gonna re-paint it something better. Can you suggest a good color? This would be for the entire apartment. I want to make sure it’s something that would look good with any kind of color scheme… kinda hoping for something that can simulate the look of stained concrete or even hardwoods. Help?
Hey Lauren,
Try Valspar’s Brownstone. It’s a nice mocha color that we have in our sunroom and our basement and it matches the hardwoods throughout the rest of the house (and goes with just about anything). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Great! Yours looks beautiful, I just wasn’t sure if you recommended it for an entire apartment or not. :)
Another quick question- how do you clean it now? swiffer, vacuum, other?
Hey Lauren,
We just sweep dust and leaves and things into a pile and use the dustpan to pick stuff up. It’s really an easy-care surface. Hope it helps!.
xo,
s
I’m confused on your answers about priming before painting a concrete floor. You said that priming is not needed because cement is super porous. I thought this was exactly the reason why a person WOULD prime first? In other words, since the concrete is so porous and soaks up so much paint, isn’t the job of the primer to even this out and make the actual topcoat nice and even and make sure the entire surface is uniformly receptive to the topcoat instead of some areas being more and some less porous?
Hey Bob,
We’re just sharing the steps we took when we painted our floor and we didn’t prime so that’s our recommendation since our floor worked out so well. We easily got the job done (seamlessly and evenly) with one gallon of porch and floor paint (with tons leftover- in fact we later used the rest to paint the floor in our basement)- so buying a gallon of primer would have definitely been an added unnecessary expense in our case. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Thanks. Probably the companies that make paint would want you to prime, each and every time, but experience tells us that this is not always necessary. By the way, when doing research for my project I see that one brand says it is a self-priming product. In other words, the first coat is considered the primer and the second coat considered as the actual topcoat. The other brand recommends priming first with the traditional separate primer.
My second question is about oil vs. latex. You obviously had good luck with oil. One brand that I’m looking at (the kind that recommends using a separate primer first) doesn’t even make an oil product. I don’t like working with oil if I can help it because it’s a bit more difficult to clean up and not as easy as soap and water. Do you have any experiences with latex floor paint whereby you think that oil is that much better?
In our experience oil-based floor paint is far superior to latex (in durability and longevity) so that’s what we recommend. And as we mentioned we don’t think primer is necessary, so just going with an oil-based porch and floor paint like the Valspar brand we used would be what we suggest. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Hey there sooo I just bought a split level from 1960’s era. I want to rip up the carpet. I found hardwood floors underneath (but floors are arranged in wooden squares which are outdated) Can I paint that? Will you still see the squares? and should I paint the stairs too?
Hey Jackie,
If the wood flooring is actually tiled wood (called parquet) just painting it won’t hide the fact that it’s not all one plane (so you’ll still see seams where each wood square joins) but it will certainly look more uniform and flat as opposed to dimensional and gridlike. As for painting your stairs it’s really your call. Why don’t you think it through a while and see where you end up with everything? Stairs that match the floor can really add to the flow of a space but you don’t want to paint something if you’ll end up regretting it because it can be hard to strip things back to their original unpainted condition. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Sorry if this question has already been asked an answered, but how much paint per square foot should I plan on purchasing? I’m looking at about 730 square feet. Thanks!
Hey Lauren,
Every paint brand covers differently, but right on each gallon they’ll suggest how many square feet it should cover (just keen in mind if you’re doing two coats you’ll need it to cover around 1500 square feet and not 730). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Sorry for a million questions. I’m in a battle with my future landlord about these stupid floors. You say 6 days before the space is usable… is that due to dryness or toxic fumes or what? Basically the situation is the landlord had put off painting the floor (as it states in the lease) apparently hoping I’ll back out. Unfortunately we’re now at the point where he’s realizing I’m not backing out and my move-in date is Tuesday. So if he paints the floors Monday (fingers crossed), when can I expect to move in? Saturday?
Again, sorry for all the questions.
Hey Lauren,
We would really recommend reading the paint can that you (or your landlord) chooses. Varying brands call for different dying times and although it might be dry to walk on in two or three days you might not want to be moving or dragging heavy pieces of furniture in the space for at least a few more days until it has totally cured. To be 100% sure just read the paint can and see what it suggests and add a day or two to be safe if you can (if you can’t just do what you need to do and cross those fingers!). As for how necessary two coats are, one would have been good for our floor except we had a few spots that we missed with the first pass of paint so if someone is extremely thorough they might be able to get by with one even coat. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I painted my hardword floor white in my first house. It was a nice look. I just finished an addition on my house and now I’m ready to tackle the basement. I’m interested in the first process you did (semi-transparent) paint. The concrete floors are nice and flat, however the spackler(s) and the painter(s) dropped alot of stuff on them. I know the spackle will clean off easily. What can I use to clean off paint from the floors? Is it important to get all the paint off or will it add to the texture after I apply the semi-transparent stain? About the color of the semi-transparent paint. I have dark hardwood floors throughout my house and on the steps leading to the basement. I also want to stay away from golden tones. What color of semi-transparent stain would you recommend to have the same brown tones are in the hardwood floors.
Hey Mam,
Here’s a tutorial for staining your floor: http://www.younghouselove.com/2008/08/how-to-stain-a-concrete-floor/
Just check out the comments for answers to all your questions. As for how to get paint or stains off your concrete you’ll want to ask a paint pro at your local hardware store since we didn’t have to deal with that. Other than that it’s a very straightforward process. And when it comes to colors we’re not super familiar with the ones that are currently available so just bring home a few swatches from the home improvement store and hold them up to your flooring to see what you like best. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Hello,
We went to Loew’s today with the intention of buying the oil based paint for our concrete basement floor. It turns out that NJ has banned the oil based line because of its toxic nature! We didn’t end up getting anything because I know that the latex kind doesn’t comapre in durability. What do you recommend?
Thanks!
Alexis
Hey Alexis,
Yup, we knew this was coming! California actually started the ban a few months back and other states are following suit. What you’re looking for is a high quality “enamel based paint” which is still more durable and long-lasting than latex but not technically oil-based so it shouldn’t be outlawed. For floor paint just look for any sort of line that’s meant for high traffic areas (obviously stuff that’s meant for floors and not walls) and hopefully it’ll do just fine. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
First let me say that I LOVE your blog. I just bought my first house yesterday, and I am so excited to use some of your ideas. I have a basement laundry room that is drywalled and finished, but the concrete is completely untouched- its rough. I thought about painting the floor a nice color for a quick cheap fix to make the room look a little happier, but I don’t want to have to sand it and smooth it first. I think the rough texture may even help in a slippery room. Do you think I am getting into a mess or will it look completely sloppy and silly? Do you have any words of warning? I just don’t like plain rough concrete. I can probably put a rug down to distract from the concrete pits and grooves and unevenness. Whatcha think?
We would just go for it! Sanding a concrete floor or otherwise trying to smooth it with self-leveling compounds is a ton of work that can often result in more of a mess than the look of slightly textured painted concrete so we encourage you to paint it and see how polished it looks. Plus you’re right about it keeping the floors from being too slick. Good luck!
xo,
s
This is a similar question to the one above, but I’m about to paint our basement floor, which is concrete, there are some pretty large cracks in it and I’m wondering if you know of a filler type agent that we could put on it before we paint so it won’t show through.
thanks!
Yup, there’s concrete filler that comes in a tube and is totally paintable. Just visit your local home improvement store to pick some up.
xo,
s
Your rooms look so beautiful. What an inspiration.
I have a question…. What about painting over linoleum? At least that is what I think the floor is. It’s been there a long time. It was laid with tar so tearing it up is not a project I would like to tackle. I would love to paint it the color you used in your sunroom. I have to add that the tiles also have ridges, which I thought might be interesting when painted. What do you think? Is that possible? Also, we have a black sleigh bed so I am wondering if a darker color on the floor wouldn’t look very good with our bed. Light colors on the walls though. Your opinion is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
From what we have read and heard, there is no lasting way to paint linoleum since it can easily scuff and peel under normal foot traffic. You might want to visit your local home improvement store and see if the paint pros can recommend anything that we haven’t heard of though. Good luck!
xo,
s
I love your floor, my husband and I actually just refinished the hardwood in our house a dark brown color, but refinishing was back-breaking work, and we don’t have the energy to put all of that into our bedroom wood floor, although it needs serious help. We were thinking about painting the floor the same color you used in your sunroom, but I’m not sure if that will look good or not…It looks great on yours, but do you think it would look equally good on wood or would that be a major mistake?? We can’t really afford putting in carpet right now, and this seems like the most feasible solution.
Thanks for your inspirational blog,
Anne