I asked all you people for any questions you might have in regards to painting floors white because that’s something we love to do around here. You delivered with all your curiosity in tow so here are my answers based on the experiences we’ve had!
So read along, see the pictures of our past white floors and watch the video tutorial of our most recent floor painting project. Then you can decide for yourself if you’re brave enough to do the same! As for us, we’ve discovered how much we love the look and can’t stop, won’t stop.
Q. How do you paint floors white?
A. I got this question multiple times, which amused me. Well….here is the tutorial, which shall hopefully answer that.
Q. How do you keep them clean?
A. White floors are about as practical as they look. We don’t recommend painting floors white in a room that gets high traffic… Except we did in our home office, sooooo, always a fan of breaking the rules when it comes to home design. Heh.
White floors work for me because I’m not a perfectionist & happen to like the look of a nicely worn white floor.
I just scrub my white floors with a bucket & a rag, while using a regular floor cleaner.
Q. How do you get the cracks so defined?
A. Every floor will look different when paint is applied based on the wood that was used in that room. We have mostly worked with older homes that already had flooring in them. And when painting over those floors, we loved how the story of the home shone through with the character & age of the floors.
Q. How do you prevent splinters?
A. The crew sands down the floors before doing anything. They then vacuum & clean it really well before we begin painting.
Q. Does it scratch easily?
A. White floors do show marks easier than regular floors obviously. However, if you don’t mind cleaning, they’re pretty simple to clean up.
Q. What type of paint do you typically use?
A. We have found that Valspar interior/exterior porch and floor paint from Lowe’s is the best option.
Q. Do you apply a top coat?
A. We use a water based polyurethane from Lowe’s to finish it off.
Careful with this! If you apply too much it turns the floor yellow right away! I take a paintbrush & lightly apply this as the final coat. This poly preserves the paint & makes it easier to wipe up.
If ya don’t have the time or make the time to watch the tutorial video (I’ll try not to be offended. Sniff.), here are the steps I covered….
- Caulk the big holes or gaps in the floor.
- Vacuum (or mop…or scrub) the floor so that you won’t be painting over dust and dirt.
- Apply primer and first coat of paint.
- Bring along a buddy to help.
- Don’t allow muddy boots to trek through in the middle of the process!
- Finish with the remaining coats of paint (and top coat of polyurethane).
- Enjoy the final product!
If I were a photographer, I would ABSOLUTELY have a white room in my home. The photos that come out of rooms like this are seamless, bright & just overall dreamy. Granted, keeping them clean is sometimes a part-time job, but is it worth it? You bet. At least we think so.
So now you have all the info and a funky video to go along with it. If ya decide to do this in your home, you better send us some great pictures! We’d love to see!
I’ll sign off for now before I get all motivated to paint some other random space in our home. Believe me, I’ll hear about it from Chris if I do.
Happy painting once again!
Claude
