You may have noticed that my last blog post was from March. I took a little hiatus from blogging the last several months to update my home,  It wasn't originally in my plans, it just happened. Let me tell you my story...

So, my husband and I have lived in our home over 20 years. We raised two daughters and countless pets in this house and frankly, it was getting worn down. Last winter I updated window treatments and repainted my living/dining room using Benjamin Moore Oxford White. But, the house still looked blah. I realized it was the 20 year old carpet that was my nemesis.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the wall to wall carpet back in the day, when we moved in. It was fresh and new and trendy. But after 20 plus years...well, it was past its prime!

Yeah, it has had its day! My old carpet.

We live outside of Houston and houses here are built on concrete slabs. I was thinking of either having engineered wood or laminate flooring. But I decided, instead, to paint my concrete floors!  I have seen other homes with concrete floors and I always liked them. So, why not? Plus, I save money, which always pleases the hubby!

I decided that the living/dining room, master bedroom and hallway be painted concrete. We recarpeted the three smaller bedrooms. I also painted all four bedrooms and hallway. This included painting ceilings and baseboards.

So, how did I do all this? Bit by bit! There's a lot of prep work involved. Removing the carpet is the easy part. Once the carpet and pad are removed, I'd pull up all the carpet tacks, plug up the holes from the tacks with concrete putty. Then I sanded the floor with my Bosch orbital hand sander. Wear a mask! There was a lot of paint and dried plaster on the floors that needed to be removed.

Ugly concrete and take a look at the dirt I found under carpet!

A side note- If you want a smooth flawless concrete floor, you would need to rent a concrete floor grinder. I didn't want to do this. It would mean closing off parts of the house due to dust and debris. It was bad enough with my little sander! Plus, my floors weren't perfect anyway. It would take a lot of time and money to get them to be flawless. I just wanted an inexpensive way to get rid of my carpet!

After sanding, then I would vacuum and mop the floors using TSP and water. I would mop a second time using only water. Dry overnight. Next step is priming/sealing the floor. I used Behr Concrete and Masonry Bonding Primer from Home Depot. I used a roller with a long handle. Dry overnight.

Last step is painting and you finally cover up that ugly floor! My concrete floors were ugly and spotty from paint stains from when the ceiling beams were stained. Again, I used a Behr product, their Porch and Patio Paint. I chose Dark Walnut. I rolled on two coats. You could seal it with a clear top coat if you want, but I didn't.

Seeing progress! Getting excited about my new floors

Side note- If you want a very durable finish, chose the epoxy paints instead. But again, I wanted something fairly easy and water based. So far, my floors are holding up well. If you put heavy furniture on the floor before it is totally cured, it might remove the paint. I just touch up the areas.

I'm really happy with the result. Plus, an added benefit to all this carpet removal and painting rooms is that it caused us to really go through all our stuff. We did a lot of purging! Not only did we get rid of a lot of little stuff, we donated a piano and large TV entertainment center. I moved my big pine hutch to my studiohouse and replaced it with a painted pine sideboard.

I now enjoy decorating my home again. It's updated, clean and easier to maintain. I feel like it reflects where I am in designing. Bit more minimalist.

New pillows coming soon! Sofa looks a bit sad.

Decorating Simply

The project is not completely done. I need to sew pillows, put up more artwork on the dining room wall, paint some furniture for my foyer, etc. But the hard part is over. I hope this blog post will inspire you to update your home if you feel that you are in a decor rut like I was. With a little elbow grease, decluttering and a lot of paint it can be done!

Till next time!

Cindy