I love to paint floors. I once painted, sponged and stenciled my whole entire kitchen floor when I was 9 months pregnant and only days away from meeting baby Nicholas--who is now 9!
It was cobble stones with moss and fern fronds scattered among the path. I began with a solid coat of white, water based primer. The stone shapes were made by randomly cutting large sponges to represent different shapes and sizes. Using plain old acrylic craft paint, I squeezed several colors (to give the cobble stones a more natural effect) in swirls on a newspaper so I could dab the sponge on the painted newspaper like a palette, being careful not to get the sponge to soupy. Then I "laid the path" or "patio" as it seemed to resemble. The ferns were added here and there with a stencil and moss was a fill in, as needed, using the blunt stencil brush, pouncing by hand .
We walked on that for many years. The greatest (or maybe not so great) part was that it really camouflaged the dirt!! That is gone now --the floor is stripped back to the original confetti 1950's tiles--and some day I may do another painted kitchen floor. The kids say they really miss the cobble stones!!
I'll find a picture of that some day and then show you.
I almost forgot to take the BEFORE photos when I recently began to give
my bathroom floor a makeover. You can see at the far left, in the first 2 photos below, that I had already begun the solid white primer coat when I suddenly remembered to grab the camera!
Please excuse the ugly spot where the heating vent cover was temporarily removed for the painting task.
Several years ago I had originally painted the bathroom floor a faux brick design in brown and rust shades (which you see above) using the same idea basically as with the cobble stones.
After some plumbing repairs were needed, we had to replace some tiles around the toilet so I patched it in with more peel and stick vinyl tiles. Those are the pink and white ones you see to the right of the photo. That made the decision to repaint the floor an easy one. I could have tried to match the colors of the faux bricks and finish it off, but I figured that would be pretty gosh darn hard to accomplish, especially since I didn't remember the names of all the colors I had purchased way back when I first did the bricks.
You can see the first coat of white water based primer over the bricks, below. Wouldn't that be a quite blinding site first thing in the morning when the light was switched on? ...way too much white!!
Much better!! I was going to do large black squares parallel to the the cabinet. I decided 2 inch diagonal squares would be more fun.
Nicholas says it is very "1950's 'swell' !!" I had to laugh at that, cuz it turns out he does listen to his crazy mom use old fashioned slang terms after all. I used a plain old household sponge cut 2x2 inch square and acrylic craft paint. I always put lots of layers of clear water based acrylic sealer over the painted floor when it is good and dry. I have made the mistake in the past of doing it before it was thoroughly dry--BIG mistake to get impatient!
Now I will show you around the decor that I have had in the bathroom for the end of Summer. It is time to redo the theme for Fall and so I took photos to remember this Vintage Beach Theme, and to show it to you.
I love the early 20th century photos of the beach wear and the fun they had at the seashore!!
Lots of these are from France. People I do not know but have adopted.
I use old metal flower frogs to stand the photos. They have nice patina but don't poke yourself on them. Oouch!!
At least these swimsuits are not like the earlier ones that women had to endure-- the heavy wool long dresses complete with hats and stockings!!!! Had I lived back then I would get so hot and discouraged getting ready for a dip in the cooling water I would have probably said , "why bother?"
This book is a reproduction and has really unique and fun pop ups and mechanical moving page elements. I adore books like this.
Don't you love to imagine what their lives were all about when you look at old photos of mystery people? I love to make up names for them.
This is a shadow box I created with beach glass, shells, a dragonfly and butterfly all found at my Dad's Lake Erie house. I scattered snippets of vintage yellowed definitions cut from a dictionary. They all have beach or insect themes. The background paper has metallic outlines of dragonflies.
The swimming days are gone for 2009 in my neck of the woods of Northern-most Ohio. The neighbors have all closed up their pools until next May. The kids' swim suits have all been packed away along with their shorts and sleeveless shirts. I can never imagine myself living anywhere there is not a definite season change 4 times a year! Now on to my 2 favorite seasons, Fall and Winter!!
blanketed in wet colored leaves!
It is high on a hill and the wind whistles through the trees and across the old weathered tombstones. In between the wind's sounds there is nothing but "dead silence", sorry couldn't resist.
