DIY: Painted Kitchen Floor for $50!

So happy that everyone has been enjoying the new kitchen floors!

Here is a little DIY on how to achieve the same look. It really wasn't hard. Me and Jon actually agreed that it was one of the easiest projects we have ever done.

Step 1: Prep the floor.

Because our sweet Bear had chewed through part of the floor we went around with wood filler and fixed any holes. We had done this the week prior to painting just due to time constraints. You can do it closer to painting if needed. We sanded everything down Friday evening.

Step 2: Clean up. You can swiffer or mop your floor a couple of hours before painting it. The floor will need to dry so it can not be done right before painting. An easy clean up right before painting and after sanding wood filler spots (we had crazy dog hair as well) would be a good sweep.

We also did a quick vacuum job: I told Jon to look happy, but I don't think painting floors on a Friday night was his idea of fun!

STEP 3: Tape it up. We had a bunch of moulding in the kitchen so we needed to tape. Please remember if you use painters tape to remove it while the paint is still wet. If not the paint will stick to the tape and while it won't bleed through it will remove a bit of paint when you take the paint off. If you have a steady hand I recommend free handing all trim.

STEP 4: Supplies. Take out your supplies, because you are about to start painting!

After all of my research of painting floors the most recommended product was Valspar Oil-Based Porch and Floor paint. Well due to green laws NY state no longer sells oil-based paint. So I hit a dead end on that front. I thought about marine grade paint, but wasn't certain if they could custom color and wasn't too thrilled with the long drying time. Windsor Smith came to the rescue in the form of a recommendation in an old In Style article.

Enter Break-through. Break-through is low- VOCs and is one of the strongest paints out there. It turns tacky in about 30 mins from application and within 2 hours you can recoat. Once it is fully dries it has the strength and tough-ness of baked enamel! It only costs $44.99 for one gallon and it can be custom colored!

Along with that you will also need an extension pole for the roller. Plus you need to purchase a 1/4" nap roller for a smooth finish.

Step 5: Paint! Remember to stir the paint. It is recommended to be shaken for 3-5 mins prior to opening the can. Jon was still super happy! Don't you love his faces? He thinks he is being funny so I always threaten to post the pictures. Enjoy sweetheart! :)

The coverage on this paint is amazing! One thing to note is that because it is so quick drying you need to be fast with cutting and rolling. If you cut the entire room and then go with the roller afterwards the tacky paint in the cut area will lift and glob up on the roller. If this happens sometimes a second coat will fix it or you will have to let it fully dry and then sand that section and re-paint.

I swear this isn't one of those projects where I say "we" and it was mainly Jon that did it. I helped during the entire project. Here is my paint stained butt to prove it! :)



Painting took about an hour and a half. Here is the room after one coat:

Step 6: Re-coat: We headed to bed after the first coat so around 1 am and then re-coated it at 7 am. This went super quickly and we finished in about 35 mins.

We then left for the weekend and came home to this:


I love it! So far it's been great. I was terrified of the dogs being on it, but they haven't scratched it at all. I've also cleaned it with a swiffer and nothing happened. We moved in the appliances last night and all went smoothly with that as well! So for $50 (we had the other supplies already) we got a completely new look for our kitchen.

The paint color is actually a jade green. I got it custom colored in Spruce Green by Benjamin Moore. This was the original color of the walls. Those got repainted in Glass of Milk from Martha Stewart and my favorite shade of green went on the floors instead.
Enjoy!