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The 80’s called and they want their parquet wood floor back.  

I’ve seen painted floors online and thought they were so creative.  Why not – if you already hate the floor, and you want to replace it someday anyway.  Why not paint it??  That’s the story with this floor. 

Oak parquet runs through the entry way and powder room of the front of our home and I despise it.  It glows orange, and there is just no way to hide that much floor.  Someday we’d like to replace it with real hardwoods, but we aren’t ready for that project yet, so in the meantime I came up with a more creative solution.  

I thought I’d try to paint it, and stencil it – I figured I could pretty easily make it look like Moroccan tile which is very popular in design these days.  

This post contains affiliate links to help you find the products I’m using for this project.  Use of these links pays me a small commission.  To see my full disclosure policy, click here. 


Supplies you’ll need for this project:

(By the way – if you add up all these supplies, it brings you in at around $60 – for new flooring!!)

pole sander

120 grit sandpaper

-50/50 mix Denatured Alcohol and water 

2″ painters tape

Behr Porch and Floor Paint (color: Flat Top)

Moroccan Tile Floor Stencil

foam roller

-paint tray

General Finishes Milk Paint (color: 50/50 mix of Snow White & Antique White Milk Paint)

-small paint brush 

-white pencil


Want to see the process??

Here’s what the floors looked like to start with.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

First give your floor a good vacuuming.  

The floors were more worn in some places than others, and while they weren’t super shiny – they weren’t dull either.  So I grabbed a pole sander with 120 grit sandpaper and gave them a good sanding.  Sand until they are nice and scuffed up.  Put your back into it – it’s a good little workout! 

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

{Also, this is a great project for kids to help with! My kids were able to help with sanding and painting, it’s hard to make a mess when you are painting the floor!}

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

Once the floor is nice and scuffed up, clean it with 50/50 mix of denatured alcohol and water.  I mix this in a spray bottle and spray it all over, then wipe it down with paper towels.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

Now that the floor is good and clean, tape off your baseboards.  I just spent the last 6 months of my life painting walls and trim and no way do I want to have to do it again – so tape that baby up!  I am messy, so I used 2″ painters tape for the perimeter.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

Run a credit card over the tape to make sure it sticks really well and doesn’t allow bleed through onto your trim.  (Don’t tell Target, I used my Redcard).

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

Then it’s time to paint!  I chose Behr Porch and Floor Paint in Flat Top.  It’s the darkest gray they had before black, and it dries a little darker than it goes on.  I actually painted the floor with a brush which sounds crazy but it really didn’t take long.  A roller would also make the job nice and quick.  

After the first coat, I let the floor dry to the touch then did a second coat.  It covered really well, and dries very quickly.  The back of the can says you can walk on it 1 hour after it’s dry. 

I let the second coat dry overnight before I started stenciling.  I wanted it to be nice and cured before I added another layer.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

Now for the stencil.  I found this awesome Etsy shop that cuts custom stencils.  I picked a tile pattern I liked, measured my floor (I chose to make each “tile” 4 parquet squares).  This stencil turned out to be 12″ square.  The floor tiles are 10 mil thick, so they hold up to multiple washings.  

The easiest way I know to stencil with the least amount of bleed-through is to use a foam roller.  And the biggest trick is DO NOT APPLY TOO MUCH PAINT!! 

For the stencil, I’m using General Finishes Milk Paint (50/50 mix of Snow White and Antique White Milk Paint).  

Start in the back corner of the room and start planning your “tiles” out from there.  Skip around doing every other tile so you don’t smear your stencil (I was so excited I forgot to take a photo of this step).  

I probably did about 10 stencils, then while the paint dried I washed off my stencil with warm water.  Once the first stencils are dry you can come back and fill in the empty spaces.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

Working in the powder room, there were several “partial” tiles.  I had small pieces of painters tape around the stencil, taped it in place then used the roller to smush it against the baseboard.  That’s a technical term for get it in there as much as you can.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

For the really tiny tiles, I used a white pencil to trace the part of the stencil that would go there, then filled in with a small paint brush.  

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

Once you have it all filled in, you really don’t notice the edges.  If you get any bleed-through or smudged sections you can always go back in and touch up the pattern with a small paint brush. 

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

Check out the difference here – Moroccan Tile vs. oak parquet.  Which do you prefer??

 

 https://rootsandwingsfurniture.com/blog/paintedfloor

UPDATE: The floor is finished!!  Check out this post to see the entryway flooring all finished! I LOVE it! 

I did a quick Facebook video on my floor and got a ton of questions – I thought I’d answer them here for you…

FAQ:

Can you paint on tile? linoleum? 

When I was researching this project, there were several articles about painting over tile.  Google it and you’ll find them.  It looked like they primed the tile before using the floor paint, and it worked!  

I’ve never stenciled a floor before. Where should I start with the stencil so that it looks even? Should I start in the middle and work my way out so that any partial sections of the stencil will be along the edges of the floor?

No. Start in the back corner of the room, my floor had the squares already there for me so I just worked off of those.  If you didn’t have a grid you were working off of, I’d still say start in one corner (the most obvious one) and work your way out.  It would be super helpful for you to pencil yourself a grid if you don’t already have one.  

How are you doing with rugs, do you keep them without patterns to not take the focus from the floor?

I’m not sure yet… I have a couple of rugs in this space, and I think I will keep them as neutral as possible so not to detract from the pattern.  I’ll keep you updated on this one… 

How do you clean it?

The floor paint can says once the paint is cured (30 days) you can clean with a mild soap and water.  I plan to vacuum the floor, just like any other hard surface then use a hard wood floor spray or all-purpose cleaner and a dust mop to clean it.  

Do you need to topcoat it?

Everyone is freaking out that I didn’t topcoat it.  Here’s why: I chose an all over, busy pattern on purpose – if we get a few scuffs or scratches you really won’t notice them.  Also the cement tile that is so popular now lends itself to the worn, distressed look.  So also if the paint wears a bit, I’m okay with that!  The floor paint itself doesn’t need a topcoat – this is an indoor outdoor paint product and is some tough stuff.  I chose General Finishes Milk Paint as the stencil paint for the same reason, it’s rated indoor/outdoor and once cured, will hold up well.  

I’ll do an update post in a few months and we’ll see how it holds up!  It may be a risky decision, but remember this painted floor is a giant band-aid until we save up our pennies for new flooring in this space.  

Phew that was a lot of words, are you still with me?? 

Thanks for checking out this project, more on the way, 

Jenni