- 2 min read

Painted floors and tiles ideas

If you love decorating your home but money is tight or you just want to take your creativity one step further, then painting over your existing floors or old tiles might be the way to go. This is not for the faint hearted - you actually need to be a hardcore DIY-er in my view to achieve a great result. One other popular way of updating tiles is stencilling.

Using stencils to update your floors

Stencil a thin sheet of card, plastic, or metal with a pattern or letters cut out of it, used to produce the cut design on the surface below by the application of ink or paint through the holes. Over the years it has acquired a strong fan base, thanks to chalk paint at first.

Stencils are not something new. In fact their use dates back over 37 thousand years as seen in Neanderthal cave art found in Spain where outlines of hand prints have been drawn on the cave wall theoretically by blowing finely crushed pigment around it one's hand. However, it was the Chinese who first developed a paper-based stencil, around 105 AD, and used the invention to advance their printing techniques. Soon, stencilling made the transition to cloth and colourful patterns were transferred onto garments.

In recent years stencils started being used on furniture as chalk paint became more popular. Annie Sloan published her "Decorative Stenciling and Stamping: A Practical Guide" and the brand rolled out a number of stencils that could be used on chairs, tables and wardrobes (and in fact, chalk paint has been used on fabrics too!). Upcycling furniture is at its most popular ever and so this form of art grew stronger.

Above and below: Photos by Annie Sloan

So some of the most incredible stencilled floors I have come across are shown below with links to their owners. I mean, prepared to be blown away with the after pics! Most of the designs you can find on ETSY and I have included links for you at the end of this article.

Greg Swisher and Janna Makaeva are professional decorative artists and the team behind Cutting Edge Stencils. They used them on walls, furniture and most importantly on tiles!