Painting & Stenciling Vinyl Flooring - The Pros & Cons

Updated 8.25.22

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This is the floor we put in the laundry room 8 years ago. It's just plain ugly! 

What were we thinking? Well, it blended well with our hardwoods. Not that we love our hardwoods... but it is what it is. I just couldn't live with this anymore!

I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out... I was pretty skeptical, but willing to take the risk.

Just a quick plug in here... If you want to watch me stenciling this floor and see the process, check out my Instagram. I have the process saved in my highlights! 😊

Here are my Pros & Cons for painting and stenciling a vinyl floor:

Pros:
1.  You don't have to tear up your floor!
2.  Much cheaper than replacing your floor!
3.  Fairly easy to do.
4.  You can customize it to your own colors.
5.  It doesn't take long to finish.

Cons:

1.  Lots of time spent on your knees!
2.  You have to be okay with it not being perfect.
3.  You can't walk on it while it's drying.
4.  Lots of time spent on your knees! (Oh! did I already mention that???)😜
5.  It's a risk and might not turn out like you expected.

I felt that the pros definitely outweighed the cons for me!

There was no way I was tearing up those floors.; It just wasn't in the budget.... well, unless, this turned out to be a disaster... But it didn't!! 🙌

One of my biggest concerns was putting the washer and dryer back into place... would it tear up and gouge the painted floor??? There was no way to know.... again another risk.

I'm working in my laundry/mudroom.... It's undergoing a makeover! Yay!!

If you want to see my new mudroom wall... It's gorgeous and I LOVE it! Check it out here, Farmhouse Mudroom Wall.

Here's the process I went through.

Clean that floor like you're going to eat on it! Next, tape it off. I wish I had done that first, I got the clue after I had primed it.

I used Zinnser's Bullseye 1-2-3 Primer. It's the best stuff! I rolled it on with a 4inch foam roller. It only took me about 15 minutes.

Then after that dried, another coat of primer.

That went just as quick.

I let that dry and cure overnight. I wanted to make sure this was going to stay put!

This room leads to the garage, so for the week that I was working on it, we had to use the side door to access the garage. Nobody was walking on my floor!! 😉

Okay, now, I'm going to tell you what I used to paint the floor. I would not recommend this paint. It seemed to work fine until I put the clear coat on... then we had issues... I'll cover that in a bit.

Home Depot was out of Rust-Oleum Chalked Paint in Charcoal. I should have ordered it...

Instead, I bought Kilz Chalk Style Paint, at Walmart. I rolled it on just like the primer. It seemed to work fine. I actually expected better coverage with the chalk paint. This is after one coat.

This is 2 coats.

Definitely better coverage. It's blotchy because I took this right after I finished and some of it was still wet.

Now for the stenciling! Stenciling is not for the faint of heart. It is not hard, but it isn't super easy. I've stenciled before, you can see how beautiful it came out in our Powder Room Makeover. There is a learning curve, knowing just how much paint to keep on that roller.... Seepage is the issue. You don't want to have too much paint or it seeps under the stencil and doesn't look very pretty...

This stencil was cheap and it doesn't have extra parts to line up with the previous stencil... you just have to kinda eyeball it. Which is fine!

I'm using the Kilz Chalk Style Paint in White, and a 4in foam roller. I would roll it in a bit of paint, then used a paper plate to roll off some of the excess and then roll onto the stencil.

You have to find that sweet spot of knowing how hard to press down while rolling. I usually, started off very lightly and then went over it again with more pressure. Of course, chalk paint drys pretty quickly, so you have to watch it. Because sure enough, it will start rolling OFF some of the paint if it's already drying...😣

After I stenciled one square, I would take off the stencil and place it face down on a towel to take off some of the paint, then use it again. The stencil will get heavy with paint and seepage becomes even more of an issue.

So when my knees needed a break, I would wash the stencil and start again.

I would also go back over areas that needed a bit of touch up with a small paint brush. I even 'free handed' a couple of areas in corners and such. For the most part no one will be able to tell.

The last step, once the floor was finished stenciling, is the clear coat. This is where I had an issue...

I used Minwax Polycrylic in semi gloss. I figured I'd brush on the clear coat to seal it. Well, that didn't go so well.... It started smearing!!!! What the heck? Nooooooo! I almost started to cry! All this work and it's going to smear? It's pretty clear in this next photo. I'm grateful that it's going to be hidden under a bench that's going there.

It was dry! I know that others have sealed their chalk paint with this sealer. I've used this sealer!

But I've never used Kilz paint before.... I should have stuck with what's the best! Rust-Oleum.

I can't give up now, I have this beautiful floor that MUST be sealed! So, I thought I'd try rolling it. It was a last ditch effort, I had to try something!

It WORKED!!! Thank you, Jesus! I was praying the whole time asking God for wisdom and to help me figure this out! And He did!!

I rolled on 5 coats of clear coat. Every 2 hours, I rolled on another coat. It only took 10 minutes per coat. It's done!

How about a before and after???

What a difference!! So, would I do it again? In a heartbeat! The pros definitely outweighed the cons. I just need to remind my knees of that! FYI... putting the washer and dryer in there didn't affect it at all! Not a scratch! 🙌

Here's an one you can pin for later~

Blessings,
Lori