We have lived in our current house for a little over a year. There are so many things that we love about this house - the character, the details, the space, the yard, the location, etc. Our previous house was over 100 years old and was a true fixer-upper. While we loved that house, it was constant work and we were ready to move into a house that didn't require so much of our time. This house was built in the 60s and has been really well taken care of during it's lifetime. We are only the third owners, and by far, the youngest. Structurally, the house is in great shape, but the interior decoration left a lot to be desired. In most cases, it was nothing a little paint couldn't fix.
One area that was especially outdated and just plain ugly, was the kitchen. When we moved into our house, this is what the kitchen looked like:
Where should I begin? The wallpaper? The tile? The giant track lighting? I was seven months pregnant when we moved in, but don't think that stopped me from ripping down that hideous wallpaper the day after we arrived. Once we were settled, we had the cabinets and walls painted and replaced the hardware and the light fixtures. All of this was a huge improvement, but the floor was still an eyesore.
One Monday morning as my husband was getting ready to go to work I said, "I wonder what is underneath the tile in the kitchen. Maybe we could just pull up a tile or two and see what is underneath." You are probably thinking that my husband must have looked at me like I am crazy but after knowing me for 8 years, he is used to these sort of statements. So, we pulled up a piece or two in a slightly hidden location and found an ugly subfloor underneath. That is what I assumed was under there, but I just wanted to see. My husband went on to work and I put Riley down for her nap. By the time he came home that evening, I had pulled up all of the tile and we had a dirty, ugly subfloor in our kitchen.
"Don't worry," I said. "I have a plan and it won't even cost us much money." I informed him that my plan was to paint the subfloor - then he looked at me like I must be crazy. But, he promised to let me give it a try and said he would reserve judgement until he saw the finished project.
I spent the next week chiseling mortar and grout, patching holes in the floor, sanding and priming. Finally, it was time to paint. At this point, even I was starting to have doubts, but I figured I had come this far, so I might as well see it through to the end. After several coats of paint, endless touch-ups and two coats of polyurethane, we finally have our finished kitchen floor.
Riley loves it!
Some of you may be wondering why I painted the subfloor instead of installing a "real" floor. Basically, our kitchen is still a long way off from where we want it to be but we aren't ready to do a complete renovation yet. So, this floor is meant to be a temporary fix. It is much more comfortable on my feet and it is a thousand times better looking than the old tile. Once we are ready to fully renovate the kitchen, we will install a more typical floor. That being said, we both LOVE this floor so we may end up painting the floor again. What do you think? Have any of you ever painted a floor?
Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 12:09PM 
