Painting new or existing wooden floors is a fantastic way to give your home a make-over.
It’s inexpensive and offers the freedom to experiment giving you free reign to be as creative as you like.
In many cases painted wooden floors are easier to clean and can make changing colour schemes quick and affordable.
For our painted wooden floor project, we teamed up with Frenchic Paint and decided on ‘Wise Old Sage’ as our chosen colour.
Fail To Prepare, Prepare To Fail.
Preparation is key to every successful DIY project and with this in mind we would always recommend that you clean down any wooden surfaces with a good quality sugar soap and some warm water prior to coating with any type of paint.
After your wooden floor has been cleaned and left to dry, it’s time to give it a sanding down to produce a nice smooth surface.
Remember, always use your PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) when working in a dusty environment.
After sanding down your wooden floor you’re going to have to remove all that loose sawdust from the area you’ll be painting so that it doesn’t contaminate your newly painted floor.
Whilst brushing up any loose dust is a good start, we’d suggest using a vacuum cleaner just to guarantee your surfaces are completely clear of debris.
If the colour of your skirting boards is different to the colour you plan to paint your wooden floor then you're going to have to consider using tape to mask them off, especially if you don’t feel confident enough to ‘cut-in’ by hand with your brush.
Luckily for us, both our skirting boards and our wooden floor were to be painted the same colour so there was no need to use masking tape.
For our first coat, we did however dilute our paint with water by 10% to allow it to penetrate the soft wood flooring.
The first application of paint was added using a small four-inch radiator roller fitted with a foam head.
I worked along one plank at a time with the roller and then used my brush to simply feather out the paint. This helped provide a nice even finish.
One very important thing to consider when painting a wooden floor is how you are actually going to get out of the room once you’ve painted it. Now this may seem like simple common sense but you’d be surprised how easy it is to find yourself either unable to reach a space without walking over wet painted flooring or even worse, marooned in a corner with no mess-free way to get out.
So, remember to always paint your way towards your final exit point. In most cases this is going to be a single door.
With your first coat of paint applied to your wooden floor you’ll now need to allow at least four hours of drying time. We actually left our room to dry completely overnight.
After your first coat of paint is completely dry it’s important not to walk on it with heavy shoes or boots as you really don’t want to add any scuff marks to your floor before your floor painting project is even finished, so it’s advisable to limit yourself to wearing socks when applying the second coat.
Prior to adding your second and final coat of paint it’s a good idea to go over the wooden flooring with a bit of sandpaper. This is especially beneficial in areas of the wooden flooring that might contain knots or any other abnormalities. We used some P150 sandpaper for this purpose and found it perfect for giving us a lovely smooth surface to apply our second coat to.
As with the preparation of the first coat, it’s recommended to vacuum the surface after sanding and give a quick wipe down with your damp cloth again.
With our final coat, we used the paint directly from the tin without any need to dilute it this time.
Two coats of Frenchic Chalk and Mineral Furniture Paint should easily be enough to prepare your painted wooden flooring for any expected foot-traffic, but if you’re concerned that a more than average flow of feet will be passing across your floors then Frenchic have you covered for that too. Choose from either Frenchic’s ‘Tuff Top Coat’ for added protection with a matte finish, or their ‘Finishing Coat’ to achieve a satin finish.
It’s a good idea to follow a few simple rules once you’ve finished your second coat.
1. Try not to walk on the painted wooden flooring for four hours after painting and then only in socks for the week following.
2. Avoid getting the flooring wet for at least 1 week after painting.
3. Keep pets away from the newly painted flooring to prevent damage from sharp claws.
So that’s it, your painted wooden flooring is now finished and all that remains is to stand back and admire your handywork.
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