You walk on the floor, and you look down to the plain old dull concrete floor. You are even embarrassed to bring your friends home because of the tedious floor texture, or I guess no consistency at all. Wait! Put a stop to your sad thoughts because I think I have the perfect solution for you.
Turn your uninspiring concrete floors into attractive stone textured floors in no time! Wondering the difficulties on how to paint concrete floors to look like stone? Well, leave it on me!
Also, if you think if it will go with the home decor, furnishings, equipment, and accessories, let me help you clear your mind. Adding an exciting decor factor can undoubtedly make your boring home more eventful. So, no doubt that a faux or stone textured floor will complement your home decor like red and green.
Table of Contents
Things to Remember
Now, before you enthusiastically hope into making stone artworks on your floor, keep these points in mind-
- You cannot give off a stone look to the concrete floor with a single color.
- The texture goes like neutral primary background color with a darker-hued color as tiny flecks or patches on it.
- You’ll be needing quite a lot of scrap materials to bring on the texture properly, and of course, then there’s effort and patience. So, do keep ample time for the whole DIY
- We all know there are gaps and pores on concrete floors, which makes them quite uneven. So, you can’t expect the best outcomes if you don’t go for specialized concrete stains for the floor.
Let’s move it!
Materials You’ll Need –
- A primary concrete stain for the background and bold, darker, or contradicting shades for the patches.
- Painter’s tape
- Brush or roller for applying the background solid color
- Degreaser
- Scrub brush
- Chemical stripper
- Floor buffer
- Chalk, concrete stamp, or any outlining equipment
- Latex paint to mix with the concrete paint
- Sea sponge, grocery bag, tissue paper, etc., for bringing a realistic stony texture.
- Feather duster
- Urethane concrete sealer or varnish.
Read more: Best Paint for Concrete Driveway
How to Paint Concrete to Look Like Stone Procedure:
1. Take your degreaser scrubber and get on your cleaning up mission. Scrub off the oil and grease with the degreaser and make sure you have gotten rid of a slippery floor. There must be molds, dirt, and spills on the floor; rinse and clean them thoroughly with soapy water. Take off any remaining dust on the floor; also, don’t forget to air-dry any damp or moist area.
2. If there’s any pre-existing paint on the floor, you’ll need some chemical stripper to remove it. Take your floor buffer or maybe a good mop with a scrub pad fitted onto it or a floor cleanser soaking it, respectively. Now, buffer or mop off the remaining paint or sealant. You might need to use scrubbers and remove the corner paints by hand.
3. Now that your floor is clean off the dirt, oil, and paint, it’s time to get rid of the cleansers as well. If anything is sticking to the surface, use your scraper to scrape it off. The floor is clean but wet, so dry it up with a wet vacuum or air dry it for three days
4. Take the painter’s tape or painter’s sheet to cover up the walls and other areas you don’t want to paint. You wouldn’t like the paint splashes here and there, would you?
5. Now, for the essential painting part. Apply two coats of concrete stain on the floor. Do remember to give plenty of drying time between the coats. So this is the background stain for your faux or stone textured floor. Adding a primer before the paint would be a wise step for durability and protection. Give a day or 2 for the paint to dry completely.
6. If you are a professional artist, you wouldn’t probably need to draw outlines. But if you’re a newbie or unsure of your skills and don’t want to mess up, then take out your chalk, concrete stamps, or stencils to draw the outlines. When using concrete stamps, remember that it has a more extensive outer line resulting in smaller stones but no worry if it’s not the desired size. You can change the shape or size by painting over it.
7. Now, for the fun part. You want to bring a realistic texture so, pick at least three colors of a color palette from light to dark to make the stones. For this, mix latex paint with the original concrete paint.
8. Take your brush and paint your stones with a lighter shade, add a darker shade to the edges and blend it in to give the shadow texture. Use your scrape materials like a sea sponge or grocery bag to dab on another stony shade for a graphic look. Play with the colors and materials a little till you reach your desired look.
9. Now that you are done with the painting, let the paint dry for two days at least. No need to use an artificial drying technique as it may spoil the whole look and colors.
10. After the paint is all done and dry, finish off the DIY by brushing on the urethane concrete sealer, clear paint, or varnish. Don’t forget the edges. Paint them with more delicate brushes. More time for drying, and then apply the second coat of sealant.
How to Paint Concrete Floors to Look Like Marble
Imagine you have visitors, and they are praising the home design, especially the floor. How good will you feel?
Giving different faces like marble, stone, flagstone, and others to a concrete floor is such a fantastic task. Likewise, many home or office owners don’t know how to paint concrete to look like marble and others.
Turning the boring concrete into marble is a very simple task. You can use marble contact paper or epoxy kit to paint concrete for a marble-like look. Follow these below steps to paint concrete patio, room floors:
First Step
The first step would be a selection of colors and desirable marble texture. You can search online for texture ideas. Usually, experts suggest picking up white marble or black marble.
Second Step
Prepare the floor for further activities on the unattractive concrete floor. Use soapy water to clean the surface or concrete cleaner. It will help you remove all dirt, dust, grease from the floor.
For stubborn marks, you can use floor cleaning products available at the stores. After washing the area, take time to dry the whole area.
Now, you can fill any tiny holes visible on the surface. Many pre-mixed concrete patches are out there to hide the imperfections. After doing these works, cover the area to avoid paint splatter with a drop cloth.
Third Step
Take a painter’s tape and cover each corner. Mask the area you do not want the paint to interfere with the tape. You may put on rubber gloves for your health safety.
Fourth Step
Apply the concrete primer and let it dry. It enables the strong adhesion of paint to the surface.
Fifth Step
It’s time to apply the acrylic texture. You can use marble texture spray paint to get the desired pattern.
Sixth Step
After you get the marble pattern with the acrylic texture, you can apply an epoxy coat. You can find many epoxy kits online. These are actually the materials to create Epoxy and use as a coat.
Create a mixture of resin and hardener included in the epoxy kit. You can find the mixing instructions available with the product.
Start applying the mixture thoroughly (3oz per square foot). It will take around 40-50 minutes to set the Epoxy on concrete.
Experts recommend using a propane torch or a heat gun to remove the bubbles in the mixture. You can sweep the torch head, keeping a 3” distance from the floor. Take 24 hours to dry the color resin coat.
Final Step
Once the color coat is fully dry, apply the clear mixed Epoxy. Again, it would help if you waited for drying it.
Sand the surface lightly by taking 220-grit sandpaper. It helps to create a “toothy” or “tiny rocky” surface where you apply clear mixed Epoxy.
Then, double coat the clear resin on the sanded surface. Clean all the loose flakes with a paper towel.
Lastly, finish the job by applying another layer of clear epoxy paint. Here is the suggestion of using a notch to make the painted concrete smooth. Sometimes you don’t need any troweling for specific products.
Thus, you get your favorite marble texture on a concrete floor.
How to Paint Concrete Floors to Look Like Wood
Wood-look flooring has become extremely popular. But the cost of installing it can be more than most people are willing to pay.
Suppose you want the look of wood without spending a small fortune. Then, you can change the appearance of plain old concrete or tile floors. Anyone can paint their floor to look like wood with just a little bit of know-how and a lot of patience.
First Step
You need special prep before beginning to paint your concrete floors to look like wood. It’s time to remove any existing wax or dirt. It helps the paint to adhere well to the surface. Fix all the chipped, scratched, or uneven areas to apply the topcoat properly. Also, the high or low spots will be invisible after the paint is dry.
Second Step
Next, you’ll need to clean your entire floor thoroughly. You can use a commercial cleaner and follow that with a solution of TSP. You may find it in most renovation shops.
Another method of cleaning the concrete floor is available. Some experts suggest using etching products on the surface. You can take a sprayer to spray the item and a stiff bristle brush to spread the etch well.
After applying the cleaner or etch, you can wash the area with clean water. Alternatively, you use a pressure washer to clean all the junk.
Third Step
This step is not a mandatory one if your surface looks even and clean. If not so, you can squeeze the project area.
You can thoroughly sand the concrete floor to ensure the topcoat is smooth and even. Take a help of medium grit (around 100) sandpaper for this. If you want to add texture, choose coarse-grit (60 or 80) sandpaper.
Fourth step
While using sandpaper, be careful if you are not damaging the surface unconcerned. Apply the primer on the stained surface and tint it. Avoiding the overdo of priming, you can seal the concrete floor and gain an even finish.
Fifth Step
It’s time to mark the lines and tape them off. It enables a perfect wood-like look on the concrete floor. Draw the first straight line with the help of a scale and pencil. Draw all the long lines while maintaining a specific distance between two lines. Next, you can draw small lines horizontally (consider long lines are vertical). As a result, while the area will look like wood boards.
Sixth Step
Take a painter’s tape and start taping out the marked lines. You can pick ¼” width tape. Cut the tape using a craft knife and use it on the floors.
Seventh Step
This is one crucial step. You can paint the topcoat on the concrete floor one section at a time. I suggest you using a paintbrush for edging the marked areas. Also, apply the paint with a sponge roller.
Then, you can add wood grains texture with a hand broom. Some areas will be hard to use sponge roller. In such a case, use a chip paintbrush.
Final Step
After painting the whole floor, remove all the tapes. I suggest you removing the tapes before the paint dries fully. Be careful that some edges will come off. Wait for at least 24 hours to dry the paint fully. Lastly, you will get the desirable concrete stained to look like wood.
When you are done with the whole DIY project, give it about a week before starting using the floor regularly. Voila! Your masterpiece of a faux stone floor is all ready to awestruck your friends and colleagues!