How to Stencil Floors DIY Stenciled Hardwood Floors

Learn how to stencil your floors with this budget friendly DIY stenciled tile Floor tutorial. All you need are a few inexpensive tools, some paint, and a little bit of ingenuity.

When it came time to remodel the upstairs bathroom in our farmhouse I had a difficult decision to make. You see, when previous families lived in the house they had some plumbing work done in the bathroom. Rather than salvage and replace the hardwood floors however, they opted to pull out the flooring, make the needed repairs, and then replace it with plywood.

You heard me, PLYWOOD!

Blasphemy if you ask me, how can anyone, in good conscious, put plywood down in a 120 year old farmhouse?!

I knew something better had to be done, I just wasn’t sure what yet.

I threw around a lot of ideas, LVP? New wood flooring? Sheet vinyl? Tile? None of these seemed right to me. They were either too expensive, too missmatched, or just too much of a logistical nightmare.

So, like any good DIYer I took to pinterest, I scoured the pages hoping something would catch my eye.

And it did.

Hand painted flooring. The inspiration came from this posting from Marlon & Monkey

This project turned out so much better than I could have imagined and I love the character and charm that it added to our historical home. It was easy to accomplish in a weekend and I would say, one of the easiest projects I have ever done. Not to mention this DIY stenciled flooring really gives you a lot of bang for your buck!

Phase 1: Farmhouse Bathroom Remodel

Find the whole bathroom reveal here.

TIPS for How to Stencil Your Floor:

The first thing that you will need to do for a project like this is empty your room completely so that you have access to all of the existing flooring.
Next make sure you know what size stencil or “tiles” will work best in your space.
Last before beginning find the absolute center of your flooring and make sure the size of tile that you chose will fit well into the space without any awkward cut offs around the edges.

Materials Used For This Project:

Learn From My Mistakes

What paint to use for DIY stenciled floors:

Use the correct primer, Zinsser shellac based primer is the best, trust me, I used a 1,2,3 primer on this floor and even a little scuff scratched it. I’ve used shellac primer since and have never had this issue.

Where to buy stencils:

It might be worth investing in multiple stencils, I found that the farther I got along in the project, the more the paint caked on to the stencil which led to smudged edges on the paint. I got my stencils from Cutting Edge Stencils.

How to seal a stenciled floor:

I Highly recommend at least two coats of polycrylic to seal your stenciled floors.
When coating your floor with polycrylic , do not use a foam roller. I unfortunately did and it left a cloudy film look on my beautifully painted floor. I would recommend brushing on the polycrylic with a soft paint brush.
DO NOT use a polyurethane as it will yellow your paint colors.

How to Stencil Floors Instructions:

First, take some time to decide which stencil pattern and size you want. Once you pick one out get it ordered and start prepping your existing flooring.

I recommend emptying the space completely and taking a minute to assess your existing floor. If it has a high gloss, consider scuffing it up a bit or sanding it a little to give your paint something to stick to. (We did this in our space since it was such a small room).

Next, tape off the baseboards to prevent from getting paint on them.

One of the most important steps, clean your floors. You want your floors to be free of grease, dust, oil, etc. This will allow your primer to stick best.

Using White Primer and a Paint Foam Roller start at one corner of your room and paint the floors until all of your surface is covered. Once dry and cured, (see manufacturer’s label) use your Paint Foam Roller and Flat White Paint to completely coat coat the flooring.

Allow white paint to dry and cure according to the manufactures instructions.

How to Stencil Your Floors

Once the white paint is fully dry and cured, mark the center of your flooring by marking a plus sign and lay out your stencil in the 90 degree corner of the plus mark. Making sure that it is straight and parallel to the walls.

Tape the stencil using Painters Tape

Using your black paint and a foam roller, coat the foam roller in paint, then roll it on a paper towel to get any excess paint off.

Next lightly roll over the stencil until you completely cover the stentil. Repeat this step until you have a nice solid black coat of paint on the stencil. DO NOT APPLY TOO MUCH PRESSURE this will cause the paint to bleed under the stencil and make your lines super messy.

Once your stencil is fully coated carefully lift the stencil from the floor.

Carry on with this process until all of the flooring has been stenciled.

PRO TIPS for how to stencil floors:

Work your way toward the door so you don’t lock yourself into the room.

Be careful not to set your used stencil down on the white flooring as it can transfer black paint where you dont want it.

Follow all of the recommended steps that the stencil company says, they really are the stenciling experts!

Once I completed all of my full stencil tiles I was left with a white border. I was pretty happy with how the project was turning out at this point. I mean, the floors looked incredible I even considered leaving the white as a sort of border.

In the end, however, I decided the completed flooring would look best.

To stencil the partial tiles I actually cut the stencil in half to the width of the widest section I would need to paint. As I worked my way around the room I would just cut off pieces to make the stencil fit the space.

Eventually I was left with a very tiny stencil but a fully completed space.

The last step of this DIY stenciled tile floor was to seal it with 2-3 layers of polycrylic. I would recommend doing this with a soft bristle brush to avoid cloudiness.

Thats is!

Guys! Just look at how incredible this DIY stenciled tile floor turned out!

I am so happy with it, I really think that it added a ton of character to our small farmhouse bathroom. I would absolutely do it again.

If you were on the fence about trying this project in your home I would highly recommend it!

Have you tried it? Leave a comment below to let me know if you have or if you think you might what to in the future.