How to Paint a Concrete Floor

Concrete floors are great for durability, but not… how you say… beautiful. So when I saw Bekah’s newly painted mudroom floor, I was so excited to share it with you. It’s amazing the difference that some paint and elbow grease can make!

Paint a variety of patterns on your concrete floors, both indoors and out:

Stripes by Better Homes and Gardens and Anythingology

Stenciled by Young House Love and Ashley Ann Photography on Design Sponge

Faux Painted Wood by Twenty Six Fifty Eight and Lin’s Artwork on HomeTalk

Faux Slate Tile by Simply Stone Haven and Faux Bois by Vintage Revivals

Properly inspired? Bekah has the full tutorial on how to paint a concrete floor:

How to Paint a Concrete Floor

by Bekah of Country Mouse Tales

Hi! My name is Bekah, and you can find me over at Country Mouse Tales, where I write about our life in a little cottage on a hill.  I am thrilled to share my painted mudroom floor here today!

We moved into our home in April, and have since been busy trying to love it back to life.  One area that needed a LOT of love was our mudroom.  The layout of our house is such that you actually enter through the back, so anyone coming to visit sees the mudroom before they see any other part of the house.  When we moved in, our mudroom was definitely saying “do not enter”.  You can find some true “before” pictures on my blog, but for the sake of this post, let’s start with the bare concrete floor. 

Our first step was giving it a good scrub down, followed by etching.  If you are working with concrete, you need to etch it to give the paint something to kind of grab on to, no one wants to put all of that work in only to have the paint start flaking immediately!

I used a long handled shop broom to scrub the floor, that way I didn’t have to kneel down in the cleaner while I scrubbed it.  Directions vary from product to product, so follow the directions for the one you chose.  We used Valspar Fast Prep, which is a premixed degreaser and etcher in one.  After allowing our floors to completely dry out, I went ahead and put a coat of pure white porch/concrete paint on all of the surfaces.

I didn’t bother with a paint tray for this, I just poured it out as I went, then rolled it smooth.  After that, it was once again a matter of waiting.  I’m impatient, and I was excited to see the end result, so this was the hardest part for me! After two solid days (I should have given it more time, I ended up causing myself more work), I started in on my lines.  I drew mine with a pencil, a level, and a tape measure.  I started on the far wall, and measured the starting lines for the points of my diamonds.  My diamonds are 22 inches long, so I marked each spot.  After that it was simply a matter of measuring and drawing.  I won’t lie – this is tedious.  Now, on to the taping.  I used Frogtape for delicate surfaces, and I put my tape on the outside edge of all of the diamonds that I was planning on painting.  I used a putty knife held at an angle to give myself a good clean edge when I tore my tape off.

I used a foam roller to get a nice even coat of my grey paint (the color is New Concrete by Valspar).  I gave my diamonds two coats each, and used a paint brush to do the edges.  While my paint was still wet, I started pulling off the tape.  Now…remember how I said I should have let my white paint cure longer? This is why.

Learn from my mistake! I went back with a paint brush and touched up all of my edges with paint, and in the end the outcome is wonderful, but it would have been easier if I had just been patient and waited in the first place.

Our little cottage is still very much a work in progress, but thank you for letting me share some of the progress with you today!

Published: June 29, 2013Filed Under: Guest Bloggers Tagged: Concrete, Flooring, Painting

About Cass

Cassity started Remodelaholic with her husband, Justin, to share their love for knocking out walls together. Since then, Remodelaholic has become a great community and resource for all those wanting to know how to make their builder-grade home BEAUTIFUL on a budget!