My DIY Painted Floors - Part 2 How I did it!
I nevertheless can't consider I turned into able to makeover my hard wooden flooring all by myself!
It's been a lot of work and a lot of trial and error, but now that they are finished I can say that it was all so worth it. I am really pleased at how my Beige-Washed Painted Wood Floors have turned out.
What a difference, Right?
Because I have a lot of information to share, I decided it would be best to break this blog post up into 3 parts. In PART 1 I shared about the long process it took to get my floor to where they are today. Have you read Part 1 yet? It's funny to think that in the beginning I was going with the darkest color of stain available and now in the end I choose the complete opposite. Light Paint!
Today, In Part 2 I desired to share a Step with the aid of Step of how I achieved this appearance.
But simply to make clear, I'm hesitant to name this submit a How-To due to the fact admittedly I'm no professional and If you were to ask everybody around they may most possibly let you know to lease a expert.
I additionally do now not need to take responsibility in case you do that out for your own houses and do no longer gain the equal effects.
I guess what I'm attempting to mention is that I'm brave in terms of DIY projects around our domestic. I just pass for it. I am additionally now not a perfectionist so these flooring are not perfect. And so if you do attempt to paint your own floors then I'll simply say, Good Luck! ??
STEP 1.
Sand Sand Sand
To prep timber floors for a white-wash paint or stain, you first have to sand the floors completely down to the raw unfinished timber. The proper sander with help you acquire this.
CHOOSE A SANDER: There are several different options of sanders to pick from. I'd suggest you go with the best sander available to you. If you need to, you can rent one from most any Home improvement store and they should be able to help you choose the best one for you. I just so happened to have a belt sander on hand and so that is what I used for our floors and it worked great. I wouldn't suggest going with anything smaller than a belt sander because as I shared in part one, I originally was hoping to sand my floors using a smaller hand sander, but the sander wasn't able to sand down to the raw wood as needed. In a bit I will talk about two other sanders that I used as well.
SANDPAPER: Choosing the right grid of sandpaper is equally as important as choosing which sander to use. I went with a heavy duty 36 grit sand paper for my belt and it made all of the difference. I'll also share in a bit the other grits of sandpaper I used at different stages of this project.
PROTECTION FROM DUST
Sanding timber floors is a completely dusty task to say the least. These objects pictured beneath are a Must-Have.
- Safety Mask
(I had a respirator mask on hand and discovered it to work first-rate at keeping dust out of my nose and mouth, however just a disposable safety mask will paintings too)
- Safety goggles or glasses
You are going to need to guard your eyes from the dust as well so make sure to have both goggles or glasses on.
- Hair bandanna
This bandanna/head wrap was a lifesaver at retaining dirt out of my hair
-Knee Pads
(not pictured) I did not have knee pads on hands and rather improvised by using using an antique chair cushion to kneel on. Whatever you use, you may absolutely want some thing.
Step 2.
Keep Sanding
Now, With the belt sander and 36 grit sand paper I changed into able to sand my wood flooring proper right down to the raw wood. However, it left my flooring with a difficult finish. So I needed to sand over the floors once more with a lighter sandpaper to get a pleasant smooth finished. For this step, I simply used my little hand sander and one hundred grit sandpaper.
Step 3.
Strip and Sand the outer edges.
My belt sander was unable to reach the outer edges of the room and so I had to come up with a way to get those edges completely sanded as well. That's where some varnish stripper came in useful. I heavily sprayed the stripper on the outer wood floors, left it on for about 24 hours and then scrapped it off with a putty knife.
I accompanied the commands at the again of the stripper, which stated to wear gloves and a face masks.
Also, I'm not sure if I would recommend this particular stripper to you, it worked okay, but it was a little hard to spray because the product itself is pretty thick. I'm sure that there are some other products out there that will work even better.
The stripper was only able to get the top layer off sealer off of my wood floors, so I still needed a way to get to the raw wood. So this is when I turned to my handy little mouse sander and some 60 grit sandpaper. It was teamwork here between the stripper and the mouse sander to get the outer edges sanded, It needed both items to get the job done.
Step 4
Clean up.
Like I already mentioned, sanding floors is super dusty. I was cleaning up dust for days. But right before you paint or stain your floors is the time when you really need to get all of the dust cleaned up.
You can use cheese fabric for this or I observed moist paper towels to paintings properly.
Step five.
How-to Beige-Wash floors
Now after gambling round with one of a kind paint combined with water I came up with a stunning Beige-Wash color that I was happy with. At first I attempted a white-Wash the usage of white paint, then I tried a Grey-Wash the usage of Grey paint, and I ended up loving the Beige-Wash shade the maximum.
It came out looking like a real driftwood color.
(See Part 1 for the other options I was choosing from and they reason why I chose paint over stain)
This Beige color is called Cedar Key by Benjamin Moore (although I had mine mixed with Valspar paint) in an eggshell finish.
Honestly, I just had this paint handy and it labored tremendous, but I'm certain you may still reap this look with a comparable beige shade.
So all you want to beige-wash your flooring is a few paint, a bowl of water, a paper plate, a paint stir stick and a large paint brush.
All I did was stir up my can of paint with the stir stick, laid the paint coated stir stick onto the paper plate and this little amount of paint on the stick was enough to cover a fairly large area of floor.
I then dipped my paintbrush into the bowl of water, tapped the wet brush onto some paint from the stir stick and began painting my floors. You really don't need to use very much paint at all. And in fact, you don't want to use very much paint. The whole point of mixing the paint with water is to create a light enough paint that allows all of the wood grain and floor boards to show through. If you just paint your floors you would end up loosing all of the character from the wood themselves.
I'd almost say it turned into approximately a 50/50 ratio
50% water 50% Paint.
I honestly simply performed around with the aggregate as I went alongside. If it turned into occurring too heavy I'd add greater water and if it changed into happening too watery, then I'd upload extra paint. This is some thing that you need to simply mess around with and then finally you'll discover yourself in a nice groove.
Now the paint-wash goes on lots darker before everything and appears way extraordinary while it dries. So preserve that during thoughts. This next photograph shows simply how specific the moist and dry paint look. The moist is in the middle and it's miles dry above and below.
I truely put on coats of the beige-wash due to the fact I liked the manner it regarded. One coat left me with greater wood tones and with two coats it covered up greater of these tones.
I Let the paint dry 24 house before adding the second coat And I also did another light sanding in-between coats using my hand sander and the 100 grit paper. The paint leaves a little bit of a chalky finish and so it just made sense to sand it first to make the floors smooth before adding my second coat.
After my 2d coat of beige-wash become on, I left it to dry for 24 hours. Then I Once again sanded the floors down with my hand sander and 100 grit to get a smooth surface.
Step 6
Seal Floors.
The last step is to add a sealer to the flooring and this absolutely is where the magic occurs. Seriously, making use of the sealer was my favored part of the whole procedure. It magically added out more warm tones and more wooden grain and simply just made the floors come alive.
I used a Minwax Polyurethane sealer in a semi-gloss completed.
I additionally did coats of the sealer. I let it dry for twenty-four hours in between coats and I also once again sanded with my one hundred grit sandpaper and hand sander in among coats of the sealer to preserve the floors clean.
So Much Sanding!
But So Worth it!
I am so glad with how my flooring turned out that I'm making plans on doing our living room and eating room floors subsequent. .... I simply want to get stimulated first ??
I'll be returned to percentage a PART 3 subsequent a good way to include plenty of After Pictures of the overall room.
Please let me know if you have any questions in a comment below or email them to me at thewickerhouse@yahoo.com or come find me on Facebook or Instagram
Also, if you liked latest post please percentage it or provide it a PIN so others can see it too.
Thank you!!!
??Emily
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