Painting Your Floors

Overtime everyone can get a little bored of their wood floors. Well, instead of going through all of the expense of replacing old wood floors, why not paint them instead? Painting your floors—particularly wood floors—takes a bit more effort than throwing some paint around and calling it a day. Follow these instructions to ensure that you do a complete and thorough job, and don't accidentally ruin the wood that you are really trying to paint instead.

1. Decide your coloring. Before you can begin painting you will need to know what color, or colors, you will be using. Remember that the coloring you choose will have a huge impact on the overall look of the room. This means that you need to pick a color that will go along with the rest of your decor. Also, if you are going to be using more than one color make sure that they complement each other, in addition to the rest of the house.
2. Clean and sand. Once you have picked out the color, you need to get the floor ready for painting. To do this, you will need to clean and sand the floor. Simply sweep off the floor as much as you can, and then use a floor sander to remove any finish or paint that may be on the floor already. This will also help ensure that you have a nice smooth floor, get rid of any nicks in the wood, and allow the new paint to adhere to the flooring. After sanding, make sure to clean up all traces of the wood dust before you paint. Keep in mind that you will have to remove all furniture or other items from your floors in order to sand and clean it.
3. Prep the area. After you have sanded the floor, and finished cleaning it, you can then begin preparing the area. This means that you need to protect anything that you don't want to get paint on it. For example you will want to tape off any power outlets, trim, or other items that you don't want to get paint on.
4. Lay the base coat. Whenever you paint a wood floor you will want to first lay down a base coat. Typically this base coat will work as the blank canvas that you will build off of. When you are painting the base coat start from the outside and work your way inside. Ideally you will want to use a regular paint brush for the exterior, and a roller for the rest of the floor. Allow the paint to dry, and then lightly sand any rough patches if necessary. You can also apply a second coat to help ensure that there the base is even across the entire floor.
5. Create your pattern. Once you have finished with the base coat, you will then want to wait overnight to allow the paint to completely dry. In the morning, you will then continue on. If you are going to be painting a design or pattern, begin drawing it onto the floor using a pencil. Be careful as you do this to ensure that you are accurate, and that you transfer the pattern exactly as you want. Geometric patterns are particularly easy to draw and transfer.
6. Tape the pattern. With the rough pattern drawn on the floor, you can now begin to prepare it for the actual painting. The best way to do this is by simply laying out some painting tape along the design. Be careful that you keep the tape as close as possible to the pencil design. Use a razor blade to help with any rounded edges or straight edges that you may have, just make sure that you don't cut too deep or you will score the wood.
7. Paint the first coat. Begin painting the design (and the rest of the floor) according to your wishes. Be as careful as possible that you stay within any lines of the design that you have down so that you don't have to try and do any touch up work. Allow the paint to completely dry.
8. 8 Inspect and repeat. Take a look at the dried floor and see if there are any areas that you can touch up on. Once you have done that go ahead and apply the secondary coating of paint and allow everything to dry completely. Inspect the work that you have done again, and repeat the process of painting as necessary.
9. Remove tape. When you are satisfied with the paint that you have already applied, begin removing the painting tape on the floor. This will allow you to take a closer look at the work that you have done, and touch up any areas as necessary (though you will want to be particularly careful when you are doing this). As you are removing the tape be sure that you are as careful as you possibly can so that you don't ruin any of the work that you have already done.
10. Apply the finishing. All of this painting is a lot of work, so why not take an extra step and help protect the work you have done. The best way to do this is by "painting" on some polyurethane over everything. Allow the protective coating to dry completely and you should be finished.

With the finishing coat applied to the flooring, allow the paint to completely dry before you walk on it. While the paint is drying, be sure that you also clean all the painting equipment that you used (that stuff is expensive after all). When the paint has finished drying, you can then begin cleaning up. This means that you will need to remove any remaining painting tape, as well as cleaning up any spilled paint or other problem areas.