Diy - Painted Designs on Floor

Thanks so much for your comments on my last post. You made me laugh so much! I thought I was the only one going through sleepless nights, but I'm certainly not alone; many of us must endure our husband's nightly musical concerts. 😩

But OK, let's continue with this snoring room makeover!

The picture below shows how the room looked after changing the color of the walls. 

The next step was dealing with the yucky carpet!  I think 14 years of good use was enough; I don't think I couldn't have cleaned it to a decent condition.

So, I decided to get rid of it. I was hoping for a better-looking sub-floor, but no, I inherited OSB; all the wood chip pieces make it look messy. :/

Once the carpet was out, gripper strips were all around the room. Removing them is easy with a pry bar.

Pliers are the perfect tool to remove the staples.

I didn't want to spend much money on this room makeover; this room would serve as a guinea pig for what I wanted to do with all the floors in the rooms upstairs. I know I want them all with hardwood floors, but again, at this moment, it is impossible; I don't have that money.

I thought of trying something economical that looks like hardwood floors; given that this is a small room,  similar to the plywood floors HERE, they look great! 

For my room, I needed at least four sheets of plywood, which would have cost about $200. Still, that's too much money for something I might be getting rid of in a couple of years.

Not happy to spend that kind of money on those floors I took the decision of painting the sub-floor.
Using my Sonicrafter I created small grooves, trying to create the look of floor planks. I didn't go too deep.
The holes were covered with wood filler, and everything was sanded pretty well.

Then, I went around the house searching for paint. I had only a quart of the color I liked, so my floors only got one coat of paint, and it is not floor paint, it was just regular wall paint.

The extra grooves don't show much, as shown in the picture below.

It looks whiteish in this pic but is more like a taupe color. It was too plain, and the heavy texture of the wood chips was the most noticeable aspect of this subfloor.

I was thinking of painting some stripes, but even with simple stripes, the eye would catch the wood chip pattern first.

Then, while walking through my dining room, the Mohawk rug I had in there gave me the inspiration to go and paint some of the designs the rug has.
Using tracing paper, three of the designs were copied and transferred on contact paper, using an X-acto knife the designs were cut out.

Peeling off the plastic material from the paper for the first time feels kind of crazy; it tends to roll, and it looks very messy. 

The great thing about Contact paper is that it sticks, but you can separate it without damaging it. Once that battle is over, the templates will look like this on the floor.

I used regular white acrylic paint to fill the designs with a sponge brush.

Peeling off the Contact paper and placing it on a new spot was not a problem from the second time on. It didn't roll anymore, and it adhered nicely every time.

The design I had the most trouble with was the leaf. Mostly thin lines, it always required more time to set it in place. 

The stencil I liked the most was the circle's flower, an easy pattern to cut out and paint.

A small brush was used to delineate all around two of the figures.

In the end, the eye didn't turn any longer to the wood chip pattern but to the flower designs. :)

The final part was to seal it off, and for that, I used Rust-Oleum Ultimate Polyurethane in a satin finish. 

The other container is the color I used to paint the entire floor. A small amount of white paint was added, but it was too dark for my liking.

The polyurethane gives it a nice sheen, and it feels smooth with texture without feeling rough.

Since I used everything I had on hand, it cost around $10, the price for the quart of polyurethane. And I am counting on it to keep the paint in place.

Of course, I don't recommend the materials I used, especially for a high-traffic floor. In my case, we don't use this room much, and this is a temporary solution.

I'll keep you updated on how it wears.

Thanks for stopping by!

UPDATE: After 10 years of living with this painted design on the floor, I have to tell you that it has held up very well. The only part that received distressing marks was the area where the office chair was positioned. The chair wheels made their mark there.

We finally had the budget to upgrade the entire level with hardwood floors, and you can check that makeover right HERE!



More about this room:
You can see how the room looked before right HERE.
Check the direction I want to give to this room HERE.
DIY Daybed from Box Spring HERE.
Old Lamps revamped
Office chair makeover
Old window memo board
Diy Round Mirror
Tripod Side Table
Table Makeover
Blackout curtains
Full room REVEAL