Disclaimer: I wrote this post before our sweet adoptive baby joined our family. I realized I had never posted it… so here goes nothing 🙂

So, I painted my floors…like five times, lol! If you’ve followed along in my Instagram stories you saw me paint, paint, and repaint. I seriously did the process four complete times. What!!! WHY, you ask? Here’s the scoop… I am for sure, a visual decorator. I really need to see something to know how it’s going to work. Sometimes, I can get by with internal visualization on projects (and a few misguided nail holes) but, the majority of the time I need to see it in person. The frustrating part about this, is that I usually have to try things a few different ways to find the right fit, especially if it’s a new look or technique…My guest bathroom floors were just such a project…

So, here’s what I started with:

Here’s the “before”:

Your standard vinyl… I used Zinsser Bulls Eye Primer – This was the primer I had on hand, and I loved it. I covered the entire floor, twice. This step is essential, especially on vinyl.

I then proceeded to use chalk paint as my base. I went with a chalky charcoal. I was inspired by accounts like the @rusticpallet and loved the color combo she chose. I then proceeded to use a chalk linen color as my stencil color. Here are the colors and paint I chose.

Here’s where it went wrong… first off, I was rolling my stencil. The problem with this approach was my stencil was a bit more complex then I knew and the color bled. At first, I saw no problem with that. I figured I could simply touch up the mistakes. However, when I started touching up, I wasn’t a fan of  the texture it created… Not to mention the color combo was not working for me… It felt so, so dark.

So, I decided (after sweet DM’s) to flip the color combo. So, I re-primed and began again. I painted the base linen and the stencil charcoal. I still attempted to roll the charcoal color on. The contrast was too bold for me and just didn’t fit what I was longing for… So, I left it for a few days… I was desperately hoping it would grow on me… Well, long story short, it didn’t.

So…

I decided to break all the rules and do it my way, and friends, I am so glad I did!

First, I abandoned the chalk paint. I sanded down all the work I had done… wept a little as I began to see my vinyl floors again. I eliminated all the texture and mistakes. I re-primed and then I took a bold turn…well, at least bold for this rule follower.

I pulled out my latex, Simply White paint and covered my primed floors. It took three coats until I was satisfied. Then I stood back and saw that it was good, my friends! I kinda wanted to snuggle with my new base color. I kept asking myself, ” why, why did you stray away from this sweet color?”

I then turned to my all time favorite milk paint. This paint never lets me down…

I love this line of paint so, so much!

I also abandoned my roller and got out my stipple brush.

I took my time and stenciled away. I then went with a matte Polyurethane (I linked a satin finish, you can only buy the matte at Lowe’s). I can wholeheartedly say that I am finally happy. I love it so much! I love the texture and the depth of color. My heart is so content…. Here are some “afters”!!