DIY Wood Alternative, Paper Flooring! Leather flooring look…
This party link could not be passed up for it’s utter coolness. This is I think a great alternative for a need without spending a bunch of money, and if it gets you through then I think that is perfect. So, this post comes from Jami at An Oregon Cottage check out what she has to say:
As promised, here is a video tutorial that shows all the steps needed to create a do-it-yourself floor using brown kraft paper and glue like the one we did for both our son’s room makeover and our daughter’s recent room makeover. It’s a great alternative to wood floors and creates a cool leather look.
Brian and I are unanimous in our love of wood flooring and ourhatred disgust dislike of carpet. Bear with me a minute as I get on a little soap box about wall-to-wall carpet. Carpet is:
- expensive
- not an easy DIY project (more money for labor)
- hard to clean (pets? children?…hello?)
- “filter is full after 5 years” (exact quote from a carpet professional- translation: there’s no amount of cleaning that’s going to get it clean)
- dusty, dirty edges even with regular vacuuming
- an unchangeable color
- not great for certain allergies
- and, since we moved rurally, shows all of the dirt, mud and other dark things that routinely come in on people’s shoes…
OK, I’m down from the box and obviously you can guess where we stand. And while I know plenty of people who love their wall-to-wall, this video is for those like us who’d like to get rid of it, either because you can’t afford new or because you, too, don’t like carpet.
Needless to say, we are slowly getting rid of the carpet that came with the house we are living in and we are down to two rooms left: the master bedroom and the sunken living room. They will probably get some sort of wood, but for the kid’s rooms, we used this decoupage torn-paper technique that we’d used in our other house with great success.
It’s easy, inexpensive and creates a (sort of) leather-look with minimal effort. It’s coated with polyurethane so it wears well, although I wouldn’t recommend it for high traffic areas. How inexpensive? A 12′ x 11′ room cost just $65 total, or about .50 a square foot, which is super for new flooring.
Here’s what it looks like in our daughter’s room:
I love seeing this from the hallway now instead of the brown, stained carpeting. It looks a lot airier, too, and makes the room seem bigger.
Now we can get any color of carpeting we like and when it’s old and stained we can just buy a new one (and since this was just $25, it’s not a huge investment).
Here you can better see what the floor looks like. The pieces of torn kraft paper all came from the same roll, but they dry light and dark (I don’t know why), which I think creates a more interesting look than if it was all one color.
The best part for a kids room? Nice and airy under the bed- no “cleaning up” by pushing everything under there!
Interested in replicating this flooring option in your house? This tutorial video shows you all the steps and tools you’ll need.
And please let us know if you use the technique- we’d love to hear (and see!) how it turned out for you!
You’ll also like this brown paper PLANK DIY flooring!
Cassity Kmetzsch started Remodelaholic after graduating from Utah State University with a degree in Interior Design. Remodelaholic is the place to share her love for knocking out walls, and building everything back up again to not only add function but beauty to her home. Together with her husband Justin, they have remodeled 6 homes and are working on a seventh. She is a mother of four amazing girls. Making a house a home is her favorite hobby.
>I've done this many times on walls in friends' homes as well as my own. I always love the finished product, but have never thought to do it on the floor!
My question is how well would this work on a concrete floor? All of the floors in our house are concrete and there's a good deal of black glue under the linoleum.
>What the heck! Ideas rolling now! What an interesting idea. Thanks for sharing.
>I've seen this done on walls many times, but *never* on a floor!!! Amazing work!
>This is very interesting and looks great. I just made up my mind to stain the cement floor in my MB but I like the way this looks. Well, I still have plenty of time to consider it because I just started working on the ceiling and walls…
~ Tracy
>I've see this technique on walls but never on floors. Great idea!
>These floors are amazing!!! Thanks for the tutorial. Love & blessings from NC!
>Hi,
Have you heard of anyone doing this on concrete yet? I would love to do this on concrete. And what about the white paper idea, would that work? I would love to hear what you have to say!
>Dandelion, I have a friend who has done this in their home on concrete. Not sure what you are asking about the white?? Sorry! But good luck!
I was just wondering if you could share where you buy the paper to do this amazing project. I have a friend who is interested. I know this is a old entry, but I do hope you are able to answer. She’s an amazing do-it-yourself-er sooooooo….if she could figure out where to buy the paper, she’s sooo all over this. GGGgrin!
She said in the video that the paper comes in a big roll in the paint department from Lowe’s or Home Depot. I’m sure you could also find it on Amazon, or any hardware store that sells paint. 🙂
You can buy the paper at Home Depot on the painting section. It comes in a roll of 140 fee ty fo r about $15
Great video! I know you mentioned that it is holding up well for you, but I’m curious how difficult you think it would be to tear up if you wanted to resurface the floor later. Or would you simply float the next floor over it? Also, do you happen to have family pets? My wife and I love the look of this but we do have 2 medium sized dogs so we’re unsure it could withstand their nails. What do you think?
where is the tutorial video on the paper bag floor/
Hi Pat, I’ve fixed the post so the video is there now as it should be — thanks for letting us know!