{ Basement Floor - FAUX wood }

I didn't necessarily plan to paint my Saturday away but that's what ended up going down and I am THRILLED to show you the result of my hard work! 

Last week I showed you that the walls had been sprayed and my inspiration for the basement. I wasn't really sure how exactly I wanted to paint the floors but I found this on Saturday morning and I was sold. I was looking for something easy to do but a little something more than just throwing paint down so doing a faux wood floor on the concrete was a perfect solution and I think I ROCKED it out perfectly! #PROUDMOMENT

Doesn't it look awesome?! Let me tell you, it looks even more awesome in person. I know I am bragging but seriously it was an all day project that turned out SO MUCH better than I was thinking it would. Plus it was a relatively easy project - other than the fact that it took ALL day but it wasn't that difficult to do.  I LOVE how it turned out! Check out the before and after below. 

All you need is paint, a paint brush, a paint roller, and a wood graining set (I got mine at Menards for under $4- see below). 

I got a gallon of black paint and I didn't even use the whole thing. You'll need white paint too but not very much at all so use whatever you have laying around the house or only pick up a small thing of it. 

First I vacuumed the whole room really well. Then I started at one end of the room by cutting in along the wall with the black paint. Then I painted a strip of black the width of the room. I had a separate bowl that I poured black paint into and then poured white paint directly on top of it and mixed it up a little. While the strip of black paint was still wet I took the paint brush with the mixed black and white paint and brushed it quickly and haphazardly onto the black strip. Then I took the largest wood graining tool and ran it along the strip to create the wood grain look in the paint. 

Once I had a few rows done, I took the paint brush and made a faint line between the rows and then did some vertical lines so that it resembled separate pieces of wood. 

After that it was just repeating the same process row by row until the job was done. 

Some of my lines aren't perfectly straight as you can see in the photo above but it really isn't that noticeable when looking into the room. My dad came over as I was finishing up and he thought we had put down tile in the basement until I told him it was paint, he literally had no clue! 

I painted all the way over just past the steps so that when looking down the stairs it looks seamless. For sure looks like we've got tile going on down there now! I'll probably do the rest of the basement someday but it's so full of stuff right now so that will have to wait for another day year lol. 

Just painting the walls, ceiling, and floor really took the room from blah to looking a lot more finished.

I plan to put a few coats of polyurethane down to protect the floor plus it will give it that nice shiny look too. 

The basement is really moving along now. Next up I will be painting the walls - which I realize I probably should have done before painting the floor but I guess that's what drop cloths are for right?! 

After painting the walls we will be ready for furniture. Finally I will have space to do my sewing and crafting! 

Do any of you that live close to me have an old wooden ladder laying around that you want to sell? I think I've found everything I want for down here but I'm still looking for a ladder like the one below. I NEED one. Can you help me out?

So what do you guys think? Pretty cool right?! I think so!

Here's a poll question for you...what do I do with the fireplace? Paint it? Leave it as is? Not sure exactly, because I don't think the brick looks all that bad but maybe it will look better painted...??? What would you do?

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