DIY Vinyl Floor Stencil

Today I have a fun new project to share with everyone.  I got this pretty lil thing done last weekend but I had a couple spots to touch up.  Between a sick kid and snow days it took me a while to get around to the last (and easiest) step. 

Remember my Chevron Closet Makeover?  Well the last thing to finish in there was the floor.  I wanted to do something fun, cheap and pretty.  So I set out to find a great big stencil for the floor!

...unfortunately I found nothing even close to what I had envisioned, nothing close to big enough and nothing in my price range even if I had liked something.  Now what?

If you're one of my Facebook friends you may remember a post a couple weeks ago about the best ever $15 find, an overhead projector!  I got a few comments from friends about why on earth I would need such a thing and telling me this was another unneeded item to add to my "hoard".  :)  What hoard??? 

As it turns out there were hundreds of clip art images to choose from for my floor design.  Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

I printed it off and traced it with a Sharpie onto a clear sheet protector I had laying around.   Evan and I work next to a printing company and last summer we were told some large rolls of vinyl were being thrown out.  So after work we headed to the dumpster to find this: 

 

Indeed a HUGE brand new roll of sticky white vinyl.  Evan was even on board with this pick!

 

So I taped a 5 foot section to the wall and turned on my projector.

 

I traced the image then cut it out.

 

 

I had previously painted the floor brown where my vinyl floor stencil would go.  Then I peeled off the backing and stuck 'er down.

 

 







After that I painted the entire floor white right over the vinyl.  I had to give it two coats to get the coverage I wanted.

 

 

While the paint was still wet I began peeling up the sticky vinyl.  In hindsight, I should have let the brown paint underneath dry over night but I was so excited I only waited a few hours.  Because of this the vinyl peeled up a small amount of the brown paint in spots.  Note taken.

 

 

Needless to say I had to touch up a few spots with a small brush. 

Here it is all finished.  I'm pretty excited about how it turned out, it's exactly what I wanted!

 

 

 

So what do you think?  Yay or nay? 

 







Hand Painted Wood Floor

The Sanctuary

Hi friends!  Im so excited to start a blog I could squeal...seriously.  My husband Evan and I got married this June and are so happy to be officially moved into our first home.  I have a 5 yr old daughter Taylor and we also recently added a new member to the family...

                                                                          

                                                           Lily

Isn't she SOOOO cute?  We think so too.

Now down to business.  For my first blog post im going to show you the changes we've made in our new homes sanctuary (aka-the bedroom). 

When we moved in it looked like this:

Yes, that is maroon and tan (very filthy tan) paint and green carpet.  It also had this terrible green and maroon and gold wallpaper boarder.  Clearly it was the first thing to go since you dont see it in the above photos!



After I pulled up the carpet I found very dirty, worn and staple infested plank wood flooring.  Not the kind of flooring you can refinish, the old sub-floor kind.  Thankfully my wonderful friend Becky helped me pull out each and every one.  We were blessed to have her little girl Nevaeh there to help supervise.   It was painted with layers of green, orange, brown and white paint.

I set out to make it look beautiful and well, more me.  (oops I mean US!)  I loved the color we had in our apartment and I already had all of the accessories to match as well as a chair I recently reupholstered so paint was easy.  The color is called Turquoise Jewel.  Since I'm all about deals I purchased some white paint off of craigslist for $3 a gallon.  Since our local Menards does color tinting for free I marched in there to have mine mixed. 

To my surprise you cant just mix ANY color from a gallon of ANY white paint.  We had to improvise a little bit and the poor young man behind the counter ended up pulling fist fulls of paint out before mixing to *hopefully* get the right color, or at least one close.  It took some adding, and some subtracting of paint but after 3 tries we got one I was happy with.  Needless to say this is definitely a custom color that cannot be re-created.  He was sure to tell me my 1 gallon was all I was going to have.  Thankfully it was enough. 

A few weeks before we moved I found this great photo on pinterest and knew right away I would use it on the floor. 

via

I found a great post a couple days before I started from Brooke at All Things Thrifty.  The woman is a goddess, I swear.  I have learned volumes from her. 

I knew I didn't want such a large pattern on our floor and since our wood wasnt beautiful like it is in the inspiration photo I painted it all brown first.  I used Dutchboy porch and floor paint in Cocoa Bean and the same floor paint in white for the stripes. 

I didnt take photos of the process (boo-I forgot) but basically I just made a simple template out of .99 cent foam board.  I put two coats of my rich brown paint on the floor then I traced the pattern over and over with white crayon.   I went back with a small craft brush and hand painted the pattern on the floor.  I had some help from my friend Jill with this very, very TEDIOUS task. 

                                                           whoo-la!

We absolutely love it.  The we got our furniture moved in.  *Notice my beautiful chair?*  Furniture post, I promise!



 I should really invest in a better camera, or some photography classes.  It might help if the floor was actually clean.  We tore out plaster and lathe down stairs and it was fu not fun.  The dust is EVERYWHERE and I cant rid our house of it.  I was told before we started that I would be cleaning up dust daily for the next 6 months.  True story. 

Thanks for joining me, it's been swell!