With so many experts saying so many things about what you should or shouldn’t do with your home, it can become difficult to know which are the best choices to make for you. However, what if you decided to go a completely different way? You can when you paint your floors.
Yes, it sounds like an easy decision to make. But really, your floors are one of the most expensive elements in your home, and so changing them is a big deal. However, if your wood floors are showing signs of wear or have been refinished many times over several years, a change might be in order.
Give Floors a Nautical Feel with Stripes
If your home has a room where the family goes to relax, such as a conservatory, this can be a great location to experiment with your painting skills. Stripes can add seaworthy style, especially when in navy and white. For a lighter look and feel, try alternating thick white stripes with grey ones. This style can work well in any room of your home.
Love Shabby Chic? Apply it to your Floors
If you can’t get enough of shabby chic, why not give that distressed look to your engineered wood floors? This requires a bit more work than just painting them, but the effects will be impressive. First, you must lightly sand your floorboards. Then, lightly roll on a layer of paint, leaving it to dry for a minimum of 24 hours. Then, bring the sander back out and run it with the grain lightly over your floorboards until a bit of wood shows underneath. To preserve the look, seal the floor with wax or lacquer.
The White and Dark of It
If you’re a novice floor painter, white is the colour for you. Not only is it the most worry-free colour to paint your floors, but it also makes a room much brighter, breezier happier space. Another great benefit of painting your floors white is that allows you to get creative and colourful with the other elements of the room. With walls and floor in white, you can explore your colourful side with boldly-hued accessories.
If your tastes lean more to the dramatic, then a darkly-painted floor may be your solution. Dark, rich colours on floors will add lots of contrast where walls are more lightly coloured. As well, using darker colours in high traffic areas like the kitchen will hide unsightly dirt and scratches.
Paint-on Tiles
Although this may take some time and experience to get right, another great way to add instant style to your floors is to give the illusion of tiles. You’ll save money and can let your creative side loose. Depending on how much time you have, the sky’s the limit to the kinds of patterns you can paint on your floor. Believe it or not, one of the simplest patterns to paint is the geometric chequerboard. You can accomplish this in avant-garde fashion by using two unusual colours, for example, raspberry and lemon.
The best thing about painting your floors is that it is inexpensive, no matter how many times you choose to do it. However, to ensure that your floor painting experience is a positive one, it may help to conduct some research beforehand. Then, test out your painting skills on an old piece of wood or in another rarely-used room. This will ensure you’re as prepared as possible to paint.