Crafts and DIY

Faux Fancy

I recently took on the biggest DIY ever! I hand painted an 800 square foot concrete floor and made it look like wood! Most of you know that this past June we moved into our new home and the carpet HAD TO GO!! It stunk and we decided to pull it up. Luckily in our daughters room there was beautiful wood floor so all we had to do was seal it. Unfortunately on our lower level it was all grey uky concrete. The ideas were more carpet (but with 3 small kids seemed stupid) wood floor (after buying a house seemed uhhhh expensive) and paint (which seemed ghetto). But wait a minute I thought...we can faux paint it to look like wood!! OH yeah and by we I meant me, my husband pays the bills and I do the house work and make bills for him to pay 8D
Ok so here we go, we started off with ripping out the carpet, ugh yuk disgusting!! Tip for home buying bring a black light and shine it on the carpet...seriously! After taking out the tack board that was attached to the concrete via huge nail we had to patch the holes, when I see we I mean my hubster. Then we sanded all the rough spots to ensure a smooth floor. At this point I start looking around and thinking if I am going to paint the floor we may as well paint the walls duhhhh (but this is a post about the floors so I digress)! So we went form dark walls and light flooring to dark flooring and light walls, just the way uh ha uh ha I like it! UH HA. Then I vacuumed and mopped the floor until it was sparkling clean clean clean. The plaint will NOT stick if there is dirt on the floor.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here are all the tools you will need from start to finish for the floor

Concrete Paint in a yellow hue of your choice (amount depends on SQFT) I used soft butter

Semi Gloss Brown paint hue of your choice I used Glidden Breakfast Blend

Faux Glaze

Polyerithain to seal the finished floor

As far as the paint colors go I strongly suggest getting sample colors of the yellow and brown to ensure you like the color it makes. A great idea would be to get a piece of plywood and practincing the technique from start to finish to ensure you are comfortable with the wood graining technique. 

1 paint brush (to get paint right up against walls)

1 paint brush (for dry brushing wood look)

1 Martha Stewart wood graining brush (found mine at Home Depot) 

1 wood graining tool (found my Martha Stewart version at Home Depot)

2 large paint rollers (1 for the base coat, 1 for the the sealer) 

1 Small detail roller ( for your brown paint mixture and making a plank illusion) 

A roller extension stick (a broom stick will work)

Now the technique is pretty simple just time consuming. Paint the whole base with two coats and allow to dry properly 24 hours is optimal. 

Next you are going to paint "plank by plank" you will start with mixing your brown paint and your glaze according to the brand of glaze you bought. The glaze additive as opposed to just paint is going to add depth and color to your wood look. Using your detail roller create a plank by painting in one direction and not altering the pressure you are applying to the roller. Now it is going to look like one long solid plank of brown. Now you can take the Martha Stewart brush and LIGHTLY brush the paint staying inside the "plank" you have created, this will make the look of the little lines you see in wood. Next step is to use your wood graining tool buy dragging and rocking it from top to bottom of the faux plank. Finally use the dry paint bush to lightly go over the plank while to paint is still damp to give it a more natural look. 

I will tell you I tried doing this with pinstripping tape to make the planks look distinct and it looked terrible and was Way Way time cosuming so that was a big bummer but it was a great lesson for me. I'm telling you this in case you get the same idea...stop turn around and just follow the instructions above. 

Now start with your next plank getting the paint right up next to the previous plank, this is what is going to give your floor a more natural planking look. Make each plank longer or shorter than the one it is next to. Repeat over and over until your floor is done. Can you do it with out creating and painting individual planks? Yes but it will NOT look as good. Trust me, it is much more time consuming but necessary for a true faux look full of depth and texture. 

  

Allow the entire floor to dry 24-48 hours before sealing with poly. Oh yeah and the poly stinks to high heaven so wear a mask and if taping off the room is possible to save the air in the rest of the house by all means do it! Give it two thick coats and allow to dry according the manufacturers directions. Do not attempt to clean with harsh chemicals the first 30 days. After  that I still recommend using a light cleaner or dish soap when mopping. I am so happy with the look of my floor and I can not tell you how many compliments we have gotten on the look of our floor!! Happy Painting DIYers

Colors before I started were definitely not my style.

The concrete we had to work with post carpet removal and patching.

Half way there, getting ready to clean floor and paint it. 

Concrete after it was painted with CONCRETE Paint, Don't try to save money here and use regular house paint. BIG NO NO! Soft Butta Baby

Plank by Plank people!

We also opted to paint the base boards so we took them off since we were painting the floors and walls and painted them while they were off. 

Door used to be forest green now vintage teal. All the house paint I used was Glidden, it is great durable paint that you can get with primer already apart of the paint giving it a nice thick coat. This door is a great example because it was a dark forest green and only needed on coat to cover with this amazing shade of teal. 

TAHDAHHHHH! Family room finished and we L. O. V. E. it!

DIY Valentines For Kids 

2/14/2012

This year my awesomely artsy 5 year old decided she wanted to make her own valentines for her class mates. She thought it would be more fun and special...smart girl! So we settled on flowers made of construction paper shaped into hearts and tootsie pops. The project was super simple and very cute, just cut the paper into small heart shapes (you will need 4 for each flower) and glue them together we also cute out some green leaves just "to make sure the kids know they are flowers". Once glued together poke a whole in the middle and stick a tootsie pop through the center and Voila...a cute little flower!  Warning you may need a sharp object for the final step do adult help is definitely needed.