DIY Painted Particle Board Floor (Mmmm, Teal)

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have caught a peek of a project that's been keeping me busy.  A local computer shop is moving from their current retail and tech space to a smaller spot in need of some TLC.  It's downtown, with excellent parking (a rare combination!), so things like missing baseboards and particle board floors were overlooked.

At first I was a little intimidated by the amount of work to do, especially because the budget is miniscule and I'm being paid in tacos (that's not a euphemism for cash).  But I'm always up for a DIY challenge!  The first step was to fill in the hundreds of wall holes with putty, and then sand and prime them in preparation for painting the walls a warm grey (PPG's Aria).  I wanted as light a colour as possible to make the space feel bright and clean, but I knew white would quickly become covered in grubby fingerprints.  Just painting the walls one neutral colour (and not painting around the furniture like the last tenants) improved the space. 

The former tenants had put down what looks like some kind of oriented strand board (or engineered wood particle board), which had become badly stained from water damage and general foot traffic.

Putting something cheap over the particle board, like a peel and stick tile or even click laminate, wasn't an option because it's not 100% level (it's an older building, which exacerbates the wonky installation).  I decided paint would be an easy and inexpensive fix.  A local paint shop suggested a simple primer + floor enamel combo because professional-grade epoxy finishes would crack given the uneven floor.  Plus, without a top coat, a floor enamel can easily be re-touched, and it's not very slippery during wet or snowy months.

I started by giving the floor a good clean: multiple sweepings and then a deep clean with a shop vac.  Next came the primer coat.  I used Kilz Max primer, which is now my favorite primer.

A large brush was used to apply primer along edge of the room (I didn't want to touch the freshly painted walls with my roller), and then the primer was rolled on.  A handle extender was very handy.  I started at one end and painted my way out of the room, making sure everything I needed (car keys!) was accessible at my exit point.  It was dry to the touch in 1/2 and hour and ready for re-coating in one hour, but I let it dry overnight.

The primer was fabulous: it covered nicely and, as promised, dried very quickly.  Not all primers are created equal - and not all are suitable for floors - but this one did an excellent job of concealing water damage and stains and provided a very good base for the floor enamel.  I had the primer tinted as dark a green as they could manage, which helped get the floor to a deep teal.  This process is very similar to what we did for our painted laundry room floor, except we skipped primer then. 



The next morning, I applied the paint in the same fashion: starting with the edges and then using a roller and working my way out of the room.  Like with painting walls, I painted "W"'s to ensure I got paint into the uneven surface.  I took my time and often checked to make sure there were no bare spots.  I worked slowly, with a very saturated roller to ensure full coverage.  The manufacturer's instructions indicated that the floor could be walked on in 24 hours but I let it dry for 48 hours.  The gentleman who helped me at the paint store informed me that paint doesn't actually cure until about the one month mark, but that a couple of days should be fine.

This photo is the most accurate representation of the colour

This is the porch and floor enamel I used:

The enamel had great coverage, but I think the primer did the heavy lifting.  So little of this paint soaked into the floor thanks to the excellent primer.  I needed about a quart or two less of paint than primer.  

The floor turned out lovely.  After I was done I quickly snapped some photos with my phone from outside, and the door wasn't open but a minute before a passerby complimented the colour choice.  With freshly painted walls and floor, the space looks much more attractive.

You can still see the seams a bit, but they are more pronounced in these photos than in real life, thanks to the texture of the particle board and the slight sheen of the paint.   Given the muted teal colour and texture, the floor has a vintage feel, like 1950s laminate counters. 

All of the photos above were taken with my camera phone, which captured the colour somewhat true to life - but a bit more vibrant and green.  My regular camera, on the other hand, refuses to capture teal or turquoise - no matter what I do - and so it photographed the floor more blue.  The truth lies somewhere in the middle.  Ultimately, the colour (PPG's "Time for Teal") is a pretty, silvery, muted teal - much like the colour of blue spruce.  I had a few criteria for choosing the colour: I wanted something cheery because there will be little colour elsewhere, but I also wanted something that would hide dirt.  I also needed to be a colour that wouldn't disguise rogue screws, and that would pair well with the espresso brown furniture that will be moving in.  Plus I like teal; teal is always the answer.

Unfortunately, when I went to help deliver some furniture yesterday (after the floor had been given two days to dry), we found it was still tacky in some places.  I think that 24 hours is quite an optimistic time frame, especially if the conditions aren't ideal (like too much humidity), so in the future I would wait longer - maybe even wait a week.  After the furniture is all in, I will give the space a good sweep and touch up the floors.  Luckily, this system lends itself to easy re-coating.

The shop owner is thrilled so far and, as the makeover continues, we are getting compliments from folks passing by and peering in the windows.  I'll keep posting updates on instagram (like this sneak peek of some of the furniture) as we inch toward a finished space.

Basement Update: How to Paint a Concrete Laundry Room Floor Turquoise

Nothing like a looming MLS listing to light a suitably sized fire under our butts when it comes to projects.  We prioritized our to-do list and because the rest of the house has been updated over the years and looks quite spiffy, we tackled the dragged-on-for-eighteen-months basement makeover first.  People have built houses in the time it has taken to paint and tidy our basement!  Our house is to be listed as a partially finished basement because about one third of it is taken up by a walled off, unfinished storage room with a door, but a "partially finished basement" doesn't mean we can literally leave our projects partially finished (darn).  We started on the floor right away, knowing it would take a week to fully cure.

Here's how we painted our concrete laundry room floor a cheery shade of aqua!

The secret is in the right supplies:

We used Sherwin Williams Porch and Floor enamel in satin, which I bought un-tinted during a sweet 50% off sale.  After we narrowed down floor colours, I combed through my hoard of turquoise paint chips to find a shade that looked right in the window-less laundry room and Valspar's "Dive in"(CI 249) took the cake.  It's vibrant and not too green but not too blue - the perfect turquoise.  In the photos it looks pale, but in reality it's richer than even my turquoise chair makeover. 



How to apply porch and floor enamel: 

First we vacuumed and washed the poured concrete floor (the old carpet that was there wasn't glued down at all - whew).  We let the wet floors dry overnight.  Then we moved the washer and dryer to the middle of the room and painted behind them.  The enamel cured quickly, so we pushed them back and then did the rest.

A paintbrush was needed for the edges, but then a roller made for concrete floors made light work of the rest of the room.  Although we walked on it later that day, we planned to wait a full week to return the laundry hampers and other stuff to the room.  A few days later though, I noticed one coat wasn't enough (some patches of the original grey peeked through) so we swept it quickly and applied another coat.  We had to start the clock again and wait another full week, so it was a good thing we started as soon as we bought the lake house!

This was a smelly job but only took an hour or so to apply the first application and only twenty minutes for the second coat.  So far, it still looks perfect!  This isn't meant for garage floors (shame) but it works well for our purposes.  The gallon we bought was twice what we needed.

Handy Hubby was such a cutie during the painting process.  We painted the walls together but then he painted the floor while I worked on making the rest of the basement livable.  I tried to snag a few good photos of him, but he likes to remain as anonymous as possible.  He jumped out of most photos, or looked really, really pained.

The fruits of his labor are what you're here to see anyway!  With the walls freshly painted the same colour as the rest of the basement (including the stairwell), the new floors make a formerly grungy space look fresh and cheery. 

The walls, floor and light fixtures are all looking sharp but let's be honest: our washing machine and dryer are work horses, not show ponies, and the paintbrush-rinsing-sink (it serves no other purpose), water heater and mess of plumbing and wires really seem to pop out now.  I asked Hubs to paint the rusty legs of the old sink and that was a super quick fix that made it look less sad, but there's a bigger, better, beautiful solution my Mom and I cooked up . . .

UPDATE: See how we hid the unsightly washer, dryer and hot water tank with a pretty set of curtains made from old bedding by clicking here.  You can also see more of the basement here and here.

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