Magraw Project

Completed August 2009

Another floor added to my collection! I must say, this may sound strange, but I love doing floors, painted, stained, wood, concrete, textured, tile, you name it. Anyway, I took a old wooden floor that had originally been stained with a semi-transpared diamond pattern and painted a similar pattern once the floor had been prepped. The reason for painting instead of re-staining was the floor would probably not take another sanding down to the bare wood, which would have been necessary. Here is the floor as we started.

After a thorough cleaning - twice, sanding to remove anything loose, I applied a very thinned down oil primer (Zinsser Cover Stain).

I let the floor dry thoroughly for two days and then applied two coats of the base color. We used Muralo Quik-Tred in a cream color.

Here is the way diamond floors get taped. It takes quite a long time, depending on the size of the floor area, how small the squares are and what you have to go around in the room. The proper tape is important. The best I have found is Scotch-Blue Painter's Tape for Delicate Surfaces. It has an orange interior label.

The alternating color was at first two bright of a green so I took the base color and mixed it 3 to 1. I applied two coats and let it dry to two days. I removed the tape right after the second coat was applied as the paint can film over the tape and pull off the paint when it is dry.

Here are the final results before the clear coat was applied. I used Minwax Poly Acrylic - two coats.

Once interesting thing about the green color is that it matched perfectly with the decorative cabinet that already existed. I was going for a color that complimented it but not clash as well as not compete with the adobe walls which were the strong point in the room.