More Concrete Floors

Cami's is finally back in her room and I wanted to show you her concrete floors. I showed the step by step process of how to rip out the carpet and paint concrete floors in this earlier post and in this post about my family room floors.

I was inspired by this Natalie's Beach House in the City blog post about stripes.  If you haven't checked out her blog yet you are in for a treat.  Her house is gorgeous and she and her husband are not afraid to tackle big DIY projects.

Cami's carpet looked like this.  It was ten years old.

YUCK!

It was stained and spotted.

It had runs and pulls that just got bigger.

The floor prep work (the hard part) consisted of ripping out the old carpet, grinding the floor with a concrete grinder to remove the carpet glue, dry wall texture, paint, and Sharpie marker that the builder had hid under the carpet. Next came the tedious task of cleaning up the concrete dust.  I taped off all the doors to the room and it still managed to escape into the rest of the house. 

The painting part is easy.  I used the same Benjamin Moore Porch and Floor Paint as my family room and living room floors.  I had the paint store mix the color to match the trim in the room.  It's a Frazee color, White Shadow.  I tried to use the same color as the family room, but it looked yellow next to the intensity of the blue?  Three coats of White Shadow later and It was ready for some stripes.

The stripes go in the same direction as the grout line of the tile floor outside Cami's room.

I painted the stripes on the diagonal to make the small room look bigger. 

 I used my favorite painter's tape, Frog Tape.

The stripes are 18" wide and 36" apart.  They continue all the way into the closet.
I mixed the White Shadow base with some paint tints.  It's kind of a beige gray.  It will go with any color when Cami gets tired of the blue walls and wants a change.

Two coats for the stripes and almost done.

Clean up the tape and time for the sealer.

Three coats of polyurethane and then it needed time to cure.
 It's dry to the touch in a couple of hours but not move in ready.

In the mean time I installed some Billy Bookcases from Ikea.  I walked around in my socks and had my husband help me lift the bookcases into place after I finished building them so the floor wouldn't get scratched. I secured the bookcases to the wall with brackets for safety and hung Cami's bulletin board on the wall between the bookcases.
I painted an old black table white and it will fit perfectly in the center of this unit to create a work space for homework and art projects.

Can you see the bottom of the new light fixture in this picture below?  I'll show you the light in a later post.

Next I added some horse wall art to the opposite wall. 

To see that project go here.

Thanks for checking it out!

I'm linking this the Remodelaholic.

Fireplace Makeover #2 It's Finally Finished

I FINALLY finished the fireplace.  This is the second part of the fireplace makeover.  To see the tile removal and drywall repair click here.  This was part of a larger project, my family room makeover.

Here is the Before.

No mantle and the builder put the floor tile around the fireplace.  See how the larger tile at the top makes the fireplace look like it's falling forward?  I've never liked my fireplace.  I painted the picture above it when we first moved in ten years ago to draw the eye away from the black hole below.

Here is the After.

 I removed the old tile, repaired the drywall, painted the walls and the concrete floor, made a new mantle, and added a new tile surround.



My dad was the Foreman on the mantle making part of the project.  I'm lucky to have my parents live about ten minutes from my house.  My dad has all the cool tools, saws, and expertise for woodworking like this. 

We started with the table saw.  We used this to make the MDF boxes for the mantle and legs.

We used this 12" compound miter saw to cut the molding.  I made the cuts, but there is no way I could have figured this out without my dad showing me what to do.  I just haven't done it enough yet, but I'm learning.

I glued all the joints with wood glue.

I used a staple gun to make the boxes and attach the molding.  More cool dad tools.

My mom brought us lunch.  Cutting wood makes me hungry. Yum! 

Thanks Mom.

We made these guide boxes to cut the big molding.  It makes cutting the angles much easier.  Make them the width of your largest piece of molding.

Here is the box with the the first piece of molding attached.

We attached the horizontal mantle to a 2x4 attached to the wall.  I diagrammed where the studs were when I was repairing the drywall.  This made it easier to secure the 2x4 soundly to the wall.

The 2x4 was a hair too long and I had to hammer the left side of the mantle down on to get it level.  The fit was a little too snug, but I fixed it.  Here it is before leveling.

Next we added the legs.  I used liquid nails to secure the legs to the wall.



Here is a detailed picture of the molding I used to create the mantle.  It's hard to see where the molding begins and ends once it's painted out.  It looks like all one piece.  This was a work in progress.  I didn't add the last the bottom piece of chair rail until after the mantle and legs were attached to the wall. 

All these moldings were under $2 a foot so everything was very economical.  They were all purchased at Home Depot. 

Once the mantle was attached I filled all the staple gun holes with wood filler and sanded it smooth.  I had to repeat this step several times to get the flawless finish I wanted. 

I wish this technique worked on my wrinkles.

I added some skinny picture rail molding to the legs.  I just glued it on with Liquid Nails.  Then I primed it with Zinnser water base primer.

I painted it with two coats of Frazee, White Shadow.  All the trim, doors, molding, and base boards in my house are painted this color.

Close up of the molding detail.

On to tile.  I borrowed a wet tile saw from my cousin Margaret's husband Andy.  He's an amazing contractor.  To see some of his work click here. 

 

I was a little intimidated to use one of these.  BUT IT IS SO EASY!  Really,  it's easier than operating a sewing machine.  My daughter Casey took to it right away and wanted to help.  Wear ear protection, it's very loud. 

I set it up in the SCARY, MESSY garage.  We don't have basements in San Diego.  Basements don't hold up to well in earthquakes.  We have earthquakes. 

 

Here's the first cut.

It took me a Sunday afternoon to complete the tiling.  Just apply Thin Set to the wall with a notched trowel and set the cut tile.  

I haven't been in a tile store in a while.  It's pretty incredible the choices and options out there.  I chose a natural stone mosaic rhomboid tile because it's timeless, classic, neutral, in-stock, and under $10 a square foot.  The lady that helped me at Encinita's Tile gave me the contractors discount for being nice.  Well I am the contractor at this job site.  I guess some of the people that she works with are not nice?  I don't know, but it made my day!

Here's where I started.

Here it is ready to grout. 

I used sanded grout and the color I used was Haystack.  Mix it with water and follow the box directions.

Use a rubber trowel to grout and mush it between the tiles.

Wear gloves, it's messy, but fun.

Sponge off all the excess grout.  Rinse and squeeze out your sponge often.  Change your bucket water often.  Make sure your sponge isn't to wet.  You don't want to clean your new grout out from between the tiles.

After two hours wipe your tile down again to remove any grout residue

I added a small quarter round piece of molding to the inside edge of the mantle.  The tile grout wasn't as clean as I wanted it to look on the edges.  I painted the molding to coordinate with the tile with the same paint I used to create the concrete floor stripes.

I still need to seal the grout.  I also need to figure out how to decorate a mantel?  I haven't had a mantle in my house since I lived with my parents back in 1989. 

I'll wait to build a fire until after I seal the tile or the smoke might stain the grout.

I'll put candles in it for the summer.

Thanks for checking it out.

Painting Stripes on Concrete Floors

I painted the concrete floors in my family room as part of a family room makeover project. To see the step by step concrete project click here. To see the rest of the family room makeover click here. I love how the floors turned out except for one problem. The light color shows every speck of grass and dirt my dog brings into the house. Concrete floors are easy to maintain, but I really don't have time to sweep every day. I can barely keep up with the laundry and other house cleaning as it is. I usually have a load of clean clothes waiting to be folded on my couch.

This is Roscoe.

She is a sweetie, but she brings a lot of dirt into the house. She likes to roll in the grass and play in the garden. When we first bought this house we had no landscaping, just dirt. We had Roscoe and our girls were 1 and 4 years old. When I picked out our floor tile and carpet I told the the lady helping us that I wanted "dirt" colored tile and carpet for that very reason. She gave me a weird look? She probably never had a client request dirt colored tile before?

Here is the "finished" concrete floor. Many of my projects go this way. I think I'm done but after living with them for awhile I realize they need something more?

I though about doing an allover Moroccan stencil, but I thought it would limit my carpet options? Also these type of stencils are EVERYWHERE right now so does that mean they are on the way out soon? Then my favorite magazine came a week after I finished the floors. Here is my inspiration.

I was inspired by this picture of a floor. Not the cover, although it's beautiful. It's hard to see? It's tile with an inlaid wood grid pattern. Very classic and timeless.



This wouldn't limit my carpet options.


I bought a roll of Frogtape and got started. Frogtape is one of my new favorite things. You can learn about my new love here.

Sweep the floors of any dust before you start so you get good tape adhesion.

After moving the furniture out of the room again (It's a good workout) I made a grid pattern with string to determine where my stripes would be. I left the armour in the room and worked around it. It's really heavy and Mr. Muscles(my husband) was at work.


The focal point of the room will be the fireplace once the mantel is completed. I started here at the center of the fireplace. A chalk line would probably work for this part of the project, but the string worked great too. I used blue tape for the string. I wasn't taking anymore chances with the orange tape pulling up the floor paint.



I made sure the intersections were square.



Lining the stripes up with my existing tile grout lines adjacent to the concrete floor made the project easier. I made the boxes six feet big or four tiles big. The string line layout gave me a good sense of what the finished project would look like. I think I would have wasted tape if I hadn't first laid out the string. At $10 a roll I didn't want to waste any of it.



Once I determined where my lines would go I started taping. I laid a piece of chair rail molding on top of the string to determine a consistent width of stripe.




I cut out the intersecting tape with a box cutter and a ruler.

At this point I'm loving the green! Green is one of my favorite colors. Can I just leave it like this? My office used to be painted a bright green color before my daughter took it over as her room. This tape reminds me of that color. I miss having an office.

I guess the tape wouldn't last very long so on to paint.
This is the same paint I mixed up for my floor border.

Once your done taping the rest of the project is fast and easy. I painted two coats of this color.
Here it is almost dry.

Then I did a dry brush technique of a lighter glaze over the top.

Here's what it looked like before removing the tape.

Look how good the Frogtape works. A perfectly clean edge.

I'm loving the grid of stripes.

Do I have to put the furniture back or can we just turn it into a dance floor or a broom hockey court?

I added a gray square to the stripe intersections.

I added a circle onto the square at each intersection.

The eye is drawn to the stripes now instead of every little fleck of dust. I will still need to sweep often, but not everyday.

The fireplace mantle is the next project. I went and looked at molding with my dad yesterday.

I still like the double stripe look of the green tape so maybe after living with it this way for awhile I' ll add another stripe to the grid?

I need to add a couple coats of acrylic polyurethane too, but we are having friends over for dinner so that will have to wait. More furniture moving!

Thanks for checking it out!