Painted Floor

I spent Sunday afternoon cleaning up a layer of sheetrock dust in the basement.  The walls are up and the treadmill has moved down there, but things were just a little too dusty to use regularly.   I vacuumed and mopped the floor and wiped down all surfaces.   As I was finishing and ready to head back up stairs, I decided to do something about the gross linoleum flooring at the door to the basement.  This is also where you enter the house via the garage, so I come in this way everyday.

As you can see,  it’s completely unwelcoming.   The previous owners painted this stairway/entryway in some sort of sponge effect with green paint. That paint technique combined with poor lighting really just made it a seem like a dungeon.     A few months ago, I primed the doors and wall with primer but hadn’t done anything else until this past weekend.

I wanted to make it look better but I wanted it to be quick and easy so I pulled out the Behr Porch & Floor paint we used to paint the basement floor.   Yes, it’s white and that will show dirt, but I just had to change it.  When the inspiration strikes, I must act.    I painted the linoleum with a small roller, giving it two coats.  Then I taped off a square to add a little interest.  I  followed the embedded pattern lines in the linoleum, but that wasn’t such a great a idea because it wasn’t cut/installed straight but I rolled with it anyway. If it bothers me later, I can always just paint over it!

I used the gray porch paint (used outside on our deck) to fill in the square.  Once that dried, I rolled a coat of polyurethane over the floor for protection.

There’s still more work to be done in this stairway but the floor looks a lot better and it only took about 30 minutes of effort.   I tackled that shelving and the two doors next.   See more details in this post.

Have you ever painted over linoleum or any other type of flooring?
-J