How to Paint a Wood Floor

I have been painting the wood floors here at the acres. We decided to go with paint for several reasons. It brightens the room. It is easy to clean, the Gus bunnies gather into the corners and are easy to ketch with the vacuum and is easy to scrub and wipe up. Unlike carpeting it doesn't hold smells and doesn't stain easily. If it starts to look dingy simply repaint. We also feel that it stays true to the farmhouse look that we are going for. When we tore up the carpet there was already paint on the floor. People used to paint the edges of the floor and put a rug in the middle. Look in some of your trendy furniture catalogs, you will notice painted floors. Thanks mom for pointing that out! (she was hesitant two years ago when I told her my plan, she has since converted)

So how does one go about painting a floor? It isn't that hard. I'm sure there are several ways to go about doing it. This is just how we do it around here and what works for us.

First you need to make sure your floor is clean. You don't want to skimp on the prep work. Like any project it will make for a better finished product. Tap down any nails and pull up any staples. Sand the really rough spots and as it was in our case any glue off the floor.  Vacuum up all the dust and then wipe down the floor to get any dirt and dust that remains. You don't want your roller picking any of that up. We have five inch pine boards for flooring, so before we vacuumed we took a screw driver and scrapped the 100 years of dust and dirt that was packed in the cracks between them.

We end up with something like this.

Now that the floor is clean it's time to prime. I am a strong believer in priming. We have found that it works best to use an oil based primer, I like Zinsser 123 oil based. Oil based is the best at sealing the wood and locking in stains. We tried water based on one of our floors and had some stains bleed through. It looked like I split coffee all over the floor. We went over it again with oil based no stains came through with that. After that mishap we have used oil base and haven't had anything bleed through with one. 

As with painting any wall I edge it in with a paintbrush. I go along the baseboard with an angled brush and pull the paint in towards the center a few inches. Mr. B use a roller to paint the rest. (That's team work) Let the primer dry for at least three hours, overnight is the best. 

Then it's time to paint. Use a paint that is made specifically for floors. You don't want to use regular old wall paint. You will be walking on this, and you want to use something that will hold up to the heavy traffic and beating that a floor takes. I like Behr porch and floor paint. The friendly people and your paint store should be able to tint it to whatever color you like. I use a shade of whit on all my floors. I have also used a dark brown on my stair.

Just like the primer edge in around the baseboard with a paint brush and use a roller on the rest. You will want to do at least two coats. Remember you will be walking on this. You might need more depending on the color you use. I think I did three or four coats on the stairs with the dark brown. So when you are done you end up with something looking like this.

Some people put a coat of varnish on top of the paint. I opted out of this. I think it would make the floor to shinny(slippery) and it would show the scratch marks from someone's claws. 

(Mr. Gus) Like I said if it starts to look nasty and beat up, we can always freshen it up with a new coat. Our bathroom has been painted for two years, and we haven't had to do that yet. 

To recap you prep by sanding problem areas and give your floor a good cleaning. Give it one coat of oil base primer and two coats of paint. The whole process will take a weekend. After doing four rooms my only regret it that I wish I would have invested in a pair of knee pads.