Floor Stencil Sampling

I approached this whole paint-a-border-on-the-sunroom-floor thing with patience.

This is not common of me.

It took a while to select a floor stencil design to apply (unusually indecisive), and then I took my sweet time figuring out how to make a decent stencil; I was especially patient in waiting until springtime to start (considered bundling up and starting the job in the very cold 3-season room but talked myself out of sabotaging the job before it started). Instead of splurging on a spectrum of floor paint colors, knowing full well that this is just a trial in a room that doesn’t get loads of foot traffic anyways, I opted to use some paint that I had on hand (although, keep reading, I think it’s going to end up being pretty foot-friendly). In any case, I’m approaching this project for the purpose of being more for decor than function. Just trying it out and maybe I’ll find out that it works wonderfully and then you’ll know that you too, and you can save some dough.

I had originally been planning on using a grey-muted rainbow of colors (think: splash of assorted color that’s fun like an Orla Kiely pattern… oh, she’s so my favorite) but in the end, I changed my plan. I had been obsessing over this can of Behr 2-in-1 that I found in the Oops paint section a few months ago; I just want to squeeze the person who wasn’t happy with this quart of perfectly robin’s egg/sea foam green/Tiffany’s blue paint because it ended up only costing me $1. For reals. Squeeze. I’m that excited about this stranger’s unhappiness.

As I sat down with my new paint, I also reconsidered on the fly where the stencil is actually going to be applied. Instead of right on top of the light gray border like I had been planning all along, I shifted and decided to do the scalloped dots just inside the border. Here are the first few lines I did.

To correct some of the inevitable errors in my handmade stencil, I followed up on each circle by hand painting around the edge with a tiny brush. It didn’t take much, just needed a little extra touch-up to even the edges so they didn’t look jagged. I am happy to say that the 2-in-1 paint applied really well (read: no need for a second coat, whoop).

As I get started, I’m also realizing quickly that this is going to take a long time. Maybe weeks. Why? Come to find, I can only do one (maybe two) strips of scallops at once since the paint muddies up the cardboard stencil and I can’t wash it off as easily as I could if it was a plastic stencil model. Troubles, but I’ll stick with it. Learn from my woes, friends.

With that said, I haven’t even got along one full wall yet; although in the first corner that I worked on, I’ve spent some time evaluating how much I liked (or should I say, second-guessed) the robin’s egg blue color I chose. Maybe it’s a little too bright? It wasn’t setting with me well. Originally I was planning on a more muted gray-scale palette, and I might be reverting back to that plan in baby steps.

Before doing anything drastic, like completely eliminating my progress with a new coat of classic gray, I swooped in with a Light’n’Fit container of a new color blend (no, not Strawberry Banana; I just recycle yogurt containers into paint holders). The blend is a mix of the traditional gray floor paint (the darker color shown in the picture) and the robin’s egg blue oops paint, so it’s close, but a gently muted variation. I think it goes a nicely with the rest of the house palette. I painted in the centers of the existing dots – almost to the edge, but not quite, so that some of the original color shows itself. In this photo, the two dots on the right are edited with the new DIY paint color:

And here’s what it looks like with a whole strip softened grayscale-style:

If I estimate my projections correctly, this entire floor border project is going going to cost me less than a diner breakfast (and actually include breakfast of strawberry banana Light’n’Fit) at a total $1.57:

• $1 oops paint
• .50 Light’n’Fit yogurt
• .07 1″ foam brush which I keep washing and reusing, the ultimate of cheapness.
• $0 already owned gray paint

This is good for me. I’m on a little bit of a savings kick. I’ll explain that soon.

Onward I proceed. Slowly.