As of last night, the studio’s checkered floor was about half finished. Here’s what it looks like so far…
I am really happy with the results so far. The main room, which measures approximately 19.5 feet by 21 feet, is about 2/3 complete. So now I put protective paper over this finished area, moved the large carousel work table and other items to this side of the room, and then the rest of this room, the back door, the storage closet, and the bathroom.
The floor of this room is solid red oak, but since this is a studio that uses paints, resins, alcohol inks, etc., I wanted a floor that could be easily partially sanded or modified when water droplets were dropped on it. on the floor. Paint seemed like the obvious answer. Now let me explain how I did it.
I started by sanding the floor to give the previous finish some “teeth”. Hopefully this will make the paint and primer more durable than if you painted directly over a smooth waterborne polyurethane floor without sanding first.
Depending on your floor, you may not need to sand that much, but since I was trying to remove water damage and other floor imperfections, I probably sanded a little more than necessary (I’m human) Perfect theorist).
Then I applied two coats to the floor Zinsser BIN shellac base primer. This is only my second time using this product, but after getting used to the thin consistency, I was very pleased with how it performed the first time I used it (on my front porch ceiling), so I decided to stick with it. bottom. project too.
I then applied two coats of paint to the floor and used a 3/8 inch nap roller to reapply (these are the ones i use). Since the floor is a very large area, I used a standard roller rather than the one used to paint the walls. The paint I chose to use was Behr porch and patio floor paint with low gloss finish. I started with Benjamin Moore Classic Gray, which is a dark color, and had it matched with Behr paint.
I let it dry for about 36 hours while I assembled the cabinets and placed them along the front wall of my studio. I wanted to put the cabinets in place first because the windows in the wall aren’t perfectly symmetrical so the cabinets aren’t perfectly centered on the wall. And the checkerboard floor design wants to be centered in the cabinets rather than perfectly centered in the room and slightly offset from the cabinets.
So, once the cabinets are in place, use a tape measure and a pencil to measure and mark the center of the cabinet in the middle, then use the same measurements to run a straight ruler (square) to the rest of the floor. ) to keep marking. I drew a line perpendicular to the center point of the middle cabinet.
Then use a square pattern (I used leftover FLOR carpet tiles as a pattern, but you can also cut patterns out of cardboard, poster board, etc.) and mark two points along that line near the cabinet. lined up perfectly. and traced the square.
Then, using the other two points on the square as a guide, I measured and marked a line equidistant from the cabinet that runs parallel to it. Again, it was more important to me that the checkerboard design fit perfectly into the cabinet than it was perfectly centered in the room. Rooms are rarely perfectly square. So a slight misalignment of the design in another area is much less noticeable than a misalignment of the cabinet design on the main wall of the room.
Once you have drawn a line parallel to the front of the cabinet, continue the pattern on that parallel line using a square pattern (carpet tile).
Trace the squares along the center perpendicular line and all the squares along the parallel lines, then go back and easily fill the rest of the squares using the pattern.
After I traced all the squares, I used painter’s tape to mark all the squares I was going to paint a contrast color (bare polar bear) and started taping the squares I was going to paint. It’s not efficient to tape all the squares and try to paint them all at once. It’s much easier to tape and paint every other one, and when they’re dry, go back and tape and paint the rest.
Before painting, I had to remove the pencil marks first. Pencil marks will bleed into the paint, so erasing them instead of painting over them will save you a lot of headaches. Also, don’t try to erase with a pencil eraser or even a good quality art eraser. They just smudge the graphite on the paint and ruin it.I always use it to erase pencil marks magic eraser. It works very quickly and removes pencil marks easily. And as you can see here, I didn’t just remove the pencil marks in the middle of some squares…
However, I also removed the marks along the taped edges. That way, you can do it all in one step: remove pencil marks, polish the tape, and make sure it sticks well to the floor. You can see how well the Magic Eraser removed the same square mark in the photo above.
And I did one more step before painting the squares. Whether you are painting a checkered floor or painting stripes on a wall, before painting the contrast color (polar bear), seal the tape with the original color (classic gray) to ensure the contrast edge is perfect. I like to try to be By painting the floor first with classic gray and then sealing the tape with classic gray, even if the paint used to seal the tape seeps under the tape, it will simply blend in and restore the original color. It never melts. stand out. However, the tape will seal the edges when dry.
Marking, taping, erasing pencil marks and sealing tape are all time consuming tasks to paint a checkerboard floor. By the time all this is done, the actual painting will go very quickly. I applied the first coat of paint to the square and let it dry for about 40 minutes.
Then I applied a second coat. Immediately after the second coat, I removed the tape while the paint was still wet. You can see how the edges are perfectly crisp…
I let the first set of squares dry for about 24 hours, then taped the remaining contrast squares and repeated the same process. I removed the pencil marks and sealed the edges of the tape with the first color.
Then apply two coats of the contrast color and remove the tape while the second coat is still wet.
And there it is! A newly painted checkerboard floor in my studio. I know it’s a brand new painted floor and it hasn’t even fully cured (I think it takes about 30 days to fully cure) but I’m already very impressed with the durability of this paint. I have received
Cooper has been here too (I have a giant 100 lb dog that won’t let me touch his paws so I can’t clip his nails), but the floors held up to his insanity perfectly. .
I’m not going to clear coat the floor. Because it just complicates the touchup process and defeats the whole purpose and my reason for painting the floor in the first place. So, once you’ve removed the remaining pencil marks from this side of the room (the pencil marks that were hidden under the painter’s tape), you’re ready to apply the protective paper to this side of the room. Move some of my stuff over to this side and start working on the rest of the floor. It’s a slow process, but at least we’re making progress! To tell you the truth, painting a checkerboard floor is a time consuming process, but the difficulty level is very low. It was a fun and satisfying DIY project.
