{"id":2558,"date":"2013-10-21T18:33:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T23:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/?p=2558"},"modified":"2013-10-23T00:40:36","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T05:40:36","slug":"floors-i-have-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/?p=2558","title":{"rendered":"Floors I Have Made"},"content":{"rendered":"

It started, as things often do, with the bathroom. Ours was and still is circa 1957. We had the bright yellow tiles that were the legacy of every apartment in our complex. After years of thinking, \u201cSomeday I will renovate,\u201d I realized that day was unlikely to ever come. But I decided I had to do something, so I put up some textured paintable \u201ctin ceiling tile\u201d wallpaper, with textured paintable \u201cstucco\u201d wallpaper on the ceiling, and I used colors that would make the yellow look intentional.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But what about the floor? It had gray, small, plain, concrete tiles. Neutral, but dull. They weren’t going anyplace, so whatever I was going to do would have to go above them, and I wanted something even a novice DIYer could handle. I didn’t think that vinyl planks, even colorful ones, would be an improvement. So I went for more wallpaper.<\/p>\n

The internet showed me that I was not insane. Wallpaper floors <\/a>are a thing. You just have to coat them with enough polyurethane. Think of your hardwood floors. What happens to untreated wood when it gets wet? What happens to your polished floor when it gets wet? You aren’t walking on wood. You are walking on hardened liquid plastic.<\/span><\/p>\n

I decided on a floral pattern with colors close the ones I’d used. I did not prep the floor in any way beyond a thorough cleaning. I used the \u201cprofessional\u201d standard wallpaper paste and Vermont Natural water-based polyurethane<\/a> \u2013 a green product manufactured from whey.<\/p>\n

<\/a>How’s it holding up? \u00a0After about a year and half, pretty well. I didn’t prep the surface at all, but pressed the paper down against the tile and into the grout. The seams show, but not too badly. I’ve had to re-glue some corners, but basically it works.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The next experiment was the kitchen — another example of authentic mid-century style. After playing with wallpaper on the cabinets and as a backdrop, I went for a white with black swirl wall paper pattern on the floor. (Floor not shown in picture.) After a few months, the floor began to look ragged around the edges. What went wrong? Both the bathroom and kitchen paper were made of vinyl although the kitchen seemed to be a lighter grade. There was certainly more foot traffic in the kitchen, but the main issue was our dog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>She was in her golden years and her nails grew quickly because she wasn’t dulling them by walking much, and regular clipping was way too stressful for her and us. That explained the scratches, but not the seams which were separating and coming up. It might have been the glue. While it was the same stuff that I used in the bathroom, it was against a different kind of surface. There were vinyl glue-on tiles below the paper. I’d use primer to help prepare, but I probably should have used special vinyl to vinyl wallpaper paste. Beyond that, I have another theory. I think I might have been better off with paper wallpaper rather than vinyl. It sounds counterintuitive, but the paper absorbs the polyurethane and becomes stronger \u2013 actually changing chemically, whereas with the vinyl, the polyurethane merely rests on top. Because of the dog, I put off doing anything until she’d crossed the rainbow bridge. Then I put it off, just because.<\/span><\/p>\n

Somewhere in my research, I discovered paper-mache. I read about \u201cpaper bag floors.\u201d I won’t go through the whole process but google images for \u201cpaper bag floors\u201d and you’ll see various examples. Briefly, you tear up many pieces of paper. You scrunch them up. You dip them in a glue-water mix, and you paste them on the floor. Very few people use actual paper bags. Most use Kraft brand paper or something like it. I decided it might be the perfect solution for our enclosed terrace which had a rough concrete surface painted gray by the previous cooperators.<\/p>\n

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We had a rug out there, but as it’s our cats favorite hang out and houses the litter pans and cat tree, the rug was hard to clean. The problem with the paper bag solution was that I wanted something lighter in color than what I was seeing on the web. Then I realized the packing paper in my Petco deliveries was a nice gold-brown shade. But I didn’t have enough of it. So I went shopping. At Home Depot, I found inexpensive $3.00 a roll, \u201cmasking\u201d paper over by the paint supplies. This came in brown, green and a reddish color. I took a roll of brown and a roll of green. Using the brown as a base, I put random shapes of the gold-yellow and green on top. This was one of those rare cases where the finished projects almost exactly matched my vision of it.<\/p>\n

While I’d recommend you go here<\/a> for basic instruction, these are tips based on my experience:<\/p>\n