Painted Floors

 Here we are, knee deep in our kitchen renovation and we're SO EXCITED!

It seems like this has been going on forever.  Progress was slow, sometimes stopped for months at a time.  We either had money and no time or time and no money.  

But now it's happening....for real!  

IT'S HAPPENING!!!  

Our little Florida cottage was built in 1924, and most of the house is original...

except the kitchen.  The original owners renovated in the 70's and maybe again in the 80's and were big fans of linoleum. Like really big fans.

 We scraped...and scraped...and scraped.  It took forever.

F O R E V E R

 But we did it! And now we're here, with freshly painted floors.  Scraping was the hard part.  

The rest was actually fun and rewarding.

Check it.

before

 After the great linoleum scraping disaster of 2013-2014, and before we sanded,

we used this sander deglosser.  

It really helped clean the floor so our sandpaper wouldn't get too gunky. 

Have a pile of old rags; you'll use a lot.

squeaky clean

Kevin and I each had a sander and got to work.  It took a few hours to sand through this mess but it wasn't bad.  We knew we were painting the floors, so we just wanted them paint-ready. 

 They didn't have to be perfect.  

If we were staining to match the rest of the house, we would've rented a floor sander and took them down until there were no imperfections. 

After sanding we vacuumed the floor and wiped it down with a damp sponge.

We used Sherwin Williams Porch & Floor Enamel and it worked great.  

It went on smoothly, dried quickly, and has held up nicely so far. 

My only complaint: It's hard to clean.  The paint is almost flat, so it needs more than a Swiffer Wet Jet to get the job done.  Scuffs are hard to get out, too...

even with a magic eraser.  So I scrub it by hand, got strict on a no shoes policy, and I'm looking for a large kitchen rug.

I like these little 6" shed resistant rollers.  They're so much easier to handle than a regular sized roller.

ol trusty

I cut in around the perimeter of the hall and kitchen before rolling...just like you would do when painting a wall.

I started at the back of the hall and worked my way into the kitchen.  I kept my roller evenly coated but not too thick.  Less is more...you can always add paint. 

The transition between dining room and kitchen was tricky until I stopped overthinking it.  

I taped off a line with frog tape and painted it.  

Came out perfect!

(after the first coat I noticed tiny holes (nails, staples?) that I didn't notice before) 

I waited a couple hours for the first coat to dry before I painted the second.  

I was surprised how quickly it dried; it wasn't tacky at all.

The entire painting process only took a few hours.

I realize these aren't dazzling 'after' photos of our painted floor but this is it regardless.  

Our Dade County Pine is almost 100 years old.  It's been suffocated by layers of leveler and linoleum. It's been scraped and gouged and nicked.  

It's pretty beat up, weathered, and worn....but we love it just the same.

More kitchen pics coming soon!

-xo