I’m finally to the point in my painted studio floor project where I feel like I’m making good progress. I’m having to work in sections, and the section I’m working on right now is about 19.5 feet by 14 feet. So once this area is painted, and I give it about 24 hours to dry, I’ll cover it, move everything to this side of the room, and then work on the back section of this room, which is 19.5 feet by 7.5 feet, plus the back entry, half bathroom, and storage room.
This weekend, I finally got to the painting. After all of the prep work (sanding, sanding, and more sanding, plus wood filling, sanding again, priming, and more sanding), I was ready to get to the fun part. The painting! I did one coat of primer, and two coats of porch and floor paint. I decided to do the gray color as the base color, and then I’ll go back and do the white checkerboard design over the gray.
So this is the darker color of the two. This is as dark as the floor will get. And I was amazed at how clean and bright this light gray even looked against the original floor. I knew the white would look really clean and bright against it, but I wasn’t expecting the light gray to be such a contrast.
Today, I’ll be ready to start taping off the design and painting the white checkerboard pattern on the floor. This will be the fun part seeing the floor go from a plain solid color to a fun design.
But there’s a small problem. I’ll be ready to start taping and painting this afternoon, and yet, I still haven’t quite decided exactly how I want to do the floor. I know I want a checkerboard floor. That part of the plan is solidified in my mind, and I won’t be doubting it or changing my mind. But what I’m still not set on is whether or not I want a border around the wall (I really think I do), and if I do a border, does the border just follow the wall? Or does the border follow the wall and the cabinets?
Here’s what the floor would look like if I just do a simple checkerboard design in the entire area. It seems a little busy to me, although in reality, it probably wouldn’t be since the actual white and gray that I’m using are much more subtle than the colors I used on this picture. And obviously, the pink areas are where my cabinets will go. This probably isn’t exactly to scale.
I really like the idea of a border, though. And I like the idea of using the two colors to make the different areas distinct. And ever since deciding on a checkerboard floor, I’ve had it in my mind that a border would follow the walls and the cabinets, like this…
But now I’m second-guessing. Perhaps the border shouldn’t follow the cabinets, but should only follow the wall. The problem with that is that on the entire front wall of the room (the wall with the two windows and the wallpaper), the border would be lost completely if the border follows the wall.
So I could make the border follow the cabinets on that wall, since the cabinets will be wall-to-wall with no spaces, and then in the rest of the room, the border would follow the wall. That means I would lose some of the border under the cabinets on the side wall, but it would make the whole floor design feel more symmetrical.
*Sigh* I just don’t know. The good thing is that I can go ahead and start on the checkerboard design, since I’ll be starting in the center of the room, and then see if I get clarity as I progress. But feel free to let me know your opinion on these floor design option.
EDIT:
On the picture showing the border following the walls and the cabinets, the area around the side door on the right looked very small and squished. So I went into the studio, measured, and taped off what that area would actually look like with a border following the front cabinets, the wall around the door, and the side cabinets. In the actual room, there’s far more space in that area for the design to “breathe”.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
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