It’s been a minute since I posted a DIY project! So, I’m really excited to finally reveal our bathroom stenciled floor!  I had heard about stenciling floors, seen pictures, but when when I saw a stenciled floor in real life, I was like – DONE. I NEED to try that! I thought our first floor, small bathroom was the perfect place to start and experiment.

Like most DIY projects, it wasn’t smooth sailing. I want to share what I learned stenciling our floors and what I will do differently next time (because there will be a next time!). Here’s 8 things you need to know about stenciling floors.

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Like I said, I planned on this DIY floor being more experimental. I didn’t take too many photos as I went, thinking that I will take more on my second run once I know what I am doing so I can share how to do it with all of you! But I realized, hey, the stuff I learned in this experiment was pretty dang useful.  I did a lot of reading about about “how to stencil” and I still ran into these hiccups while stenciling my floors. I hope you guys find this helpful! Oh, I forgot to mention I bought my stencils from cuttingedgestencils.com.

1. Stenciling floors takes longer than you think.

Like, much, much longer. I had planned on this project taking me about 1-2 weekends with several hours of painting each day. WRONG. It was a much, much slower process than I realized. From waiting for coats to dry in between, having to clean the stencil, then touch ups, it seemed to never end. I also found it difficult to just pick up and do after work in the evenings. It wasn’t like painting a wall, where you can RIP into, pick up the roller and MOVE. You have to be much slower with the small roller, a lot more gentle, more patient, and the time it takes to pick up and reposition the stencil perfectly… it’s just slow.

2. Use a Small Foam Roller.

Foam is the key! I initially bought a small roller, like the same type I would use for a wall but mini version. But I found that this held too much paint and caused too much bleeding underneath the stencil. The foam roller held much less paint and was much easier to work with.

3. Buy the right paint.

Yeaaaah… this was quite the headache. Probably the biggest stumbling point of this DIY. I figured “Since I am painting floors, I will use floor paint!” Weelllll, yes and no. You are supposed to use primer and floor paint for the first base coat. But floor paint and the stencil do not agree with each other. I repeat: DOES. NOT. WORK.  Floor paint is so thick, so it built up a thick layer on my stencil, which caused it to curl as it dried, which caused bleeding paint underneath the stencil. It was a viscous cycle.

I have done my research and talked to a friend who had more success then me, and these sources say to use regular craft paint or chalk paint. Then you seal the craft paint with a water based polyurethane. By the time I figured this out I was over half-way done with the bathroom so I decided to just keep pushing through. But next time, I will definitely buy the right paint!

4. Don’t add to much spray adhesive to the back, and wait about a minute before putting it on the floor.

Eek. I wish I had been more patient. If I put the stencil on the floor immediately after spraying the stencil with adhesive (I used this one by Krylon), it left behind stickiness. You know, like if you peel a label or sticker off a jar and it’s sticky? Kinda like that. Thankfully, a bit of goo-gone and a rag did the trick at removing the stickiness once the paint had dried.

Related: 8 Painting Tips to Save Time and Money

5. Consider your colors carefully.

I chose a white base with dark pattern. I wanted that modern, sharp look. I really love it! It works great in this small place. But next time, I am going to choose different colors and here’s why. 1) The white base shows up every fleck and piece of dirt and dog hair. And 2) The errors or bleeding paint with dark paint was very obvious. This made touch ups quite the chore.

I am a bit of a perfectionist so this was painfully slow. I spent hours touching up every “tile” stencil. Again, I love it now and it looks great. But for a larger space or high traffic space, I’d choose a darker base color that will mask (not snow-white) and two colors that are more similar so the errors aren’t so obvious.

6. Remove the baseboards if possible.

I didn’t think of this, but James thankfully did! He removed the baseboards and even the toilet (we were replacing it anyway) so I could stencil close to the edge. When we put the baseboards back on, we now have a nice, clean line.

7. Buy two stencils.

I’m glad I listened to the advice of those who went before me on this one. It’s nice to have two stencils so 1) it will move faster and you can work in a pyramid type shape and 2) you can cut down one of the stencils to fit in those odd -places or half-tiles on the edges.

Related: Removing Wallpaper With Items in Your Pantry

8. Clean your stencils.

At the end of the day, I soaked my stencils in hot water, soap, and a little goo-gone in a cookie tray and then used a plastic scraper (the one on the end of my dish brush) to gently remove the dried paint. After they were scrapped and cleaned, I wiped them down with a clean rag. A fresh, clean stencil definitely made for easier rolling and less bleed of the paint. Again, I may not have had to clean them so much if I had been using the right paint. I guess we will see next time!

Ready to see the final reveal? Here’s the before…

And the AFTER!

 

Psst! Like these photos taken with our Go Pro Hero 5 Black?  We love it! Check it out here!

What do you think! We love it so much!! It was a labor of love, but we are so happy.

So, would I stencil my floors again? Yes, absolutely. I really, really like how they turned out and I do plan on doing our master bathroom upstairs next! Im anxious to see how it will go with the right paint this time… stay tuned to find out!

Got another painting project in mind? Don’t miss our 8 PaintingTips to Save Time and Money.

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*This post contains affiliate links. That means, I may receive a commission for some of the links in this post- at no cost to you. See our Disclaimer page for details*