DIY Painted Linoleum Floors
I'm not complaining when I say this, but I don't know what to do with all of the space in this house. I told my husband the other night that I would be excited to sell it one day and move into a smaller one. He looked at me like I was crazy. I was then informed that he had always dreamed of an even bigger home!
Currently, our home is about 3,000 square feet. And to me, that is HUGE! I grew up in a three bedroom ranch where we stacked a working tv on top of a broken tv, my dresser was at one point crafted out of an old amp box, and most of what we had was found, thrifted or handed down. I always just sort of worked with what I had, which wasn't much.
Trying to fill the space of this house is so foreign to me and because of my roots, I'm not quick to go out and spend a ton of money doing it. I'm slowly working my way through our home, room by room filling it with things we love and tweaking it here and there, but my thriftiness has not dissipated much!
Most recently I decided to tackle the mudroom. Between our garage and first floor living space is this tiny little room that we've sort of just been using as a makeshift storage space. It looked like crap to be honest, which is sad because it's literally the first room we walk into after a long day at work. And we just passed right through, leaving our shoes on and completely neglecting it. It should be used as an actual mudroom! It needed a pretty bench to sit when we put our shoes on, a place to hang coats, and a place to store a wet umbrella. A real mudroom!
On Pinterest I was coming across pictures of mudrooms with gorgeous built-ins, coatracks and intricate shelving. Needless to say, I knew something was missing in our mudroom before it would ever resemble the beautiful ones I saw online, but I wasn't sure what it was.
And then I realized.
It was the floor.
Oh god, the floor! How could I have overlooked this major detail for so long?
I immediately did some research. Plenty of tutorials on painted tile, but not much on linoleum. I decided to take what I knew and run with it. And the results couldn't have been better!
This project was extremely simple, especially for the small amount of space I was making over. I could have done this project from start to finish in one day. I did not because well, life. But even if you were doing this in a large space, it is still a simple project and will not take an overwhelming amount of time. It involves only a few steps and minimal supplies.
Supplies
Hand sander and 80 grit sandpaper
Broom/vaccuum
Cleaner (Krud Kutter or Windex - both work.)
Bullseye Zinsser 1-2-3 Primer (I used the color white.)
Stencil (Mine is from Michael's and cost me $10.00) You can find them on Etsy as well.
Painter's Tape
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (I used the color Graphite.)
Foam roller, paint brush, paint tray
Minwax Polycrilic Protective Finish (Make sure you get the crystal clear finish. I also got mine in a clear semi gloss finish.)
Steps
Sand your floor with your hand sander and 80 grit sandpaper. This step is optional, but I chose to sand my linoleum because I wanted to make sure the primer adhered as much as possible)
Sweep your dust up and vacuum it. Make sure you remove as much as possible from the floors, walls and anywhere else it has landed. You don't want it falling into your paint later.
Clean the floor with Krud Kutter, Windex, Simple Green or any other cleaner/degreaser.
Paint your floor. I used a paint brush to cut the edges and a roller to apply it to the rest, The Bullseye Zinsser 1-2-3 Primer has a varnish in it and dries fairly quickly, about 1 hour between coats. I did 3 coats on my floor.
Stencil your floor. I used the painters tape to secure the stencil and Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in graphite. The linoleum has perforated squares and I made sure to choose a stencil that fit perfectly inside the squares. It was easy to keep my pattern and to move quickly through this process because of that. I also used an Annie Sloan foam roller and tray to roll the paint out directly onto the stencil. Be sure not to use too much pressure during this step as the paint will bleed under the stencil and look splotchy when you remove it.
Seal your floor. The Minwax Polycrilic Protective finish needs about two hours dry time and I rolled out two coats.
Shoutout to Delightful Digs in Virginia Beach for being a wonderful, helpful and friendly Annie Sloan supplier. The girls who work in this gorgeous store are always full of tips and tricks and they're always excited to hear about what project I'm doing next. If you're in the Virginia Beach area, check out the store. It has the cutest gifts, jewelry, and house decor.
A great online retailer for Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint is The Purple Painted Lady. They are an overall great resource for all you chalk painters out there.
If you plan to do this project somewhere in your home, leave me a comment.
And if you’d like to see a full tutorial, check out the video below.