Bathroom Floor Remade

Not quite art, or photography, but I’m happy with this result and wanted to share the past 4 days work in one blog post.

The plan is to remove our ceramic tile from the foyer and kitchen and paint the concrete floor.   No small undertaking especially when you’re not sure what you’re doing.   So we decided to do a bathroom first as a proof of concept and to find out how much of a pain it is.

Here is the yucky old lino floor:

I’ve already taken the toilet off the floor and for want of a better place to put it, it’s in the tub.  Where it will stay for the next 4 days.

Next was the process of ripping up the old floor.    This was more of a pin than I expected since it was pretty much stuck down and would only come up with some persuasion and a lot of elbow grease.

I found a tip that if you poor boiling water onto the edges of the lino it makes it easier to get off.   But still a pain in the neck.

 

And finally it was all up and revealed the concrete floor ready to be cleaned.   I scrubbed it hard with TSP and then mopped and vacuumed it ready for the paint.

Our original idea was to use acid stain.   I was slightly worried about the word acid and the fact you have to stop the acid reaction.  Not to mention all the warnings on the package.  Thoughts of the Alien movie came to mind with stain burning through my arms.    SO we decided to use paint instead.   But as a stain rather than a solid colour.

Off to Michaels we go and buy all the terracotta acrylic paint they had.   9 small bottles and 1 large one.    Gale’s arty knowledge of acrylic came into play and we watered down one small bottle to about 1:1.5   and I started to apply it to the floor.   Amazingly one tiny bottle covered the entire floor.    I ended up putting on 3 coats.

I can’t be sure which coat this was after.   You can see the texture of the concrete coming through the wash, which was exactly the effect we were going for.  I wanted it to end up looking like a stone floor.

 

To give it bit more WOW I decided to have a border.   Masking off about 5 inches all the way around, I used another bottle of acrylic mixed to about 1:1 and painting a border.

All done.   But it was very flat looking. I was also worried about how tough it was.   It needed glossing up and hardening.   Off I went to Lowes and asked their advice about what I could use on an acrylic artist paint.   “Nothing” said the guy.   Fine, I replied and trotted off to Sherwin Williams.    He also wasn’t sure, but sold me a paving sealer that he said should do the job.

This shows the border, texture and shine I got.   The imperfections of the concrete still show through, which was intentional.   The texture also helps with any slipping problems we may encounter.

So here it is all done.  There you have it, a terracotta stone floor made with nothing but three bottles of artistic acrylic, some sealant H&C paving sealer from Sherwin Williams and a few days spare.    Next we’re going to paint the vanity wood black and then maybe in a year or two tackle the kitchen floor.