Cottage Renovation Update - Checkboard / Diamond Patterned Painted Floor

I took a staycation to work on some projects for the cottage. Like, tiling the kitchen, wallpapering the bathroom with wallpaper I designed :) - I'll post about that another time- and painting a checkerboard pattern on the living room floor. There was already a pattern on the floor which I wasn't a fan of, though in pictures, it might look nice, in person, it was not. Other than the wood wall Gene and I created for our house, this was one of the toughest projects I tackled in awhile.

Here's why: First, the room had to be emptied of all the construction materials and such, I then had to sand the floor on my hands and knees, so the new paint would stick to it (I used a 6" orbital sander), I then had to sweep and clean it before adding one coat of primer, let dry, then painted 2 coats of white porch paint, let dry between each coat, measure out the diamonds so I would have the size diamond I wanted and one full diamond upon entering the cottage, (I am not a math wiz, so this took me a bit to figure out) cut a template so I could trace the pattern on the floor. I then had to mask off the gray diamonds with pricey tape made especially for this type of project. I started to paint them in and while removing that pricey tape, the tape removed the paint as well - revealing the original black pattern, (glad I spent all that money on pricey painter's tape) so I decided to freehand the rest of the diamonds. I painted two coats of gray and added yet another coat of white to the white diamonds. Let dry. I then had to clean the floor before coating it with polyurethane. WHEW!

I'm pretty sure the original black pattern will come through at some point, but I think it'll look cool, well, I hope so.

Stay tuned for more cottage renovation updates! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. lindafacci@yahoo.com

Prepping the floor for the paint

Starting to prime, 2 coats of white paint

template, masking off pattern

The finished floor.