Patio DIY • Painted Floor Tiles
Happy Spring my vintage vultures!
I've been busy laboring away at these new tile floors! I kid. They're totally painted but you already knew that.
We built our patio last September (you can read about it here) and after six months, the white concrete floors got really grimy. I wanted to have the jute rugs out all year round but with all the rain we get here in New Orleans, that wasn't an option. So I decided to Dab-It-Yourself by painting floor tiles using a stencil. Doesn't it look like a million bucks?
Here are some before photos. Our patio is 300 sqft. If we actually tiled this baby, it would've cost about $5000 just for the tiles alone from Granada Tiles. That's more than the cost of building this patio! What I really wanted was a tumbling block pattern but I couldn't find any company offering that particular stencil design and I wasn't about to make my own either. This project took me two full days and it was a real test of my patience. I'm an Aries through and through. Whew! But you know what, it reminded me of inking and pulling prints in the printmaking studios. The outcome is so rewarding though.
Stenciling was pretty straight forward. I got these Moroccan tile stencils. It required two coats of paint so while I waited for one to dry before the second pass, I'd start on another one.
What added to more squatting and sweating was wiping the back of the stencils for every pass to prevent the floors from getting messed up from extra paint. I did a quick wipe with a rag on top of a piece of cardboard. On another piece of cardboard were two trays for the paints to make it easy to slide it back and forth. I used a 4" roller. When all the painting was finished, I applied four coats of clear matte natural paver sealer. It has a milky look when you first pour it onto the concrete but it dries completely clear without bubbling. I was able to squeeze four coats (1 hour dry in between) from two gallons. It was starting to look more semi-gloss than matte though after all those coats, but it still looks great. I'll keep you posted after the paint cures for about a month. Fingers crossed my paint job doesn't get ruined from all the harsh elements here.
I love the subtle color variations. It looks very hand painted (and it was!). You'll notice that my edges and lines aren't super straight or crisp. The concrete floor was old, porous and bumpy so it was hard to achieve that. Spacing was off here and there but I wasn't trying to be super perfectionistic about it. Honestly, you can't really tell. Embrace those happy flaws! It's very — how do you say — wabi-sabi? Lol. I love it and it totally transforms the space. It has a modern Mediterranean feel to it now.
I moved the dining table onto the bricks, which you can't tell from here, and I actually really like it. Now the right side of the patio is sitting empty. Perfect for yoga or to practice some choreography (I watch way too many dance videos). I picked up a couple of olive trees. And aren't those Boston ferns bananas?! I've never seen them so plump before! We are installing drip irrigation for them so they don't die in the upcoming summer heat. Ferns live for humidity and New Orleans definitely has plenty of it. I still need to fill the space with more plants. Maybe hang a mirror in the middle? Hanging chair is from Justina Blakeney's Selamat collection. Love how the rattan warms up the space. The sofa sectional is from West Elm. For paint, I used Sherwin William porch and floor enamel paint. The blues are Adriatic Sea and In The Navy.
So who's ready to party and sip some mezcal mules with me in our patio?!