Have you been wanting to dress your floor with a new look? This DIY project just might be the answer to it. And it doesn’t require flooring experience!
If you enjoy découpage, you’re sure to have fun with this brown paper bag flooring project. :)
Yes – it’s basically just découpage on a larger scale!
Aside from being easy, this flooring idea is also inexpensive. Spend almost nothing by simply collecting brown paper bags from your grocery shopping or from friends!
You can give it a more creative twist by using other types of paper, such as magazine pages or photocopied pictures. This would be perfect if you’re planning to do this DIY project in different rooms! You can use bright or colorful paper materials for the kids’ room, and the darker, more serious design for the adults’ room.
Does this floor design suit your taste? It’s so easy, you can learn how to do it yourself by following the step-by-step tutorial below!
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Materials:
- Paper Bags
- Polyurethane
- White Glue
- Water
- Carpenter’s Tape
Tools:
- Paintbrushes
Steps:
Prepare your surface: I did two bathroom floors. Fortunately, both were more along the lines of “water closets” so the space was fairly small.
On the “taupe” floor, I removed the peel and stick tiles completely.
On the checkerboard floor (also peel and stick) I couldn’t get the tiles to come loose, so I went over the top of them. Fortunately, they were not “textured” tiles and the process worked well.
So, you can remove the tiles or not. Then clean your surface. When all is dry, cover the floor in a coat of polyurethane. Now you are ready to begin the tedious part.
(Pro Tip: DO NOT polyurethane the paper, it turns the paper “crispy” and translucent, and you don’t want that, just trust me.)
Prepare your paper: If you have Tendinitis or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, enlist help. (I’m not kidding.)
- Rip your paper into small pieces. I tried to use the pieces that didn’t have any print or only had light print. (Be sure to put the print side down on your floor, unless you want it facing up.)
- Separate your pieces with straight edges from the pieces that are uneven edges.
- Put on a show, or a movie, or better yet hit that entire season on Netflix you’ve been meaning to catch up on. (You’ll be here awhile, unless you can sucker in some minions. If you have kids, even better. I’ve found that the cats and the dog really don’t cooperate well when given tasks.)
- Crumple every piece.
- Straighten every piece out and then crumple it again.
- Straighten every piece out and then crumple it one more time, just for good measure.
- Massage your hands, you deserve it!
Remember how to découpage? This is where the fun starts!
Tape off your floorboards, counters, anywhere you DON’T want to get messy.
Take your white glue and mix it 50/50 with water (tap is fine) and blend it well. Using a paintbrush, “paint” the back of your first piece of paper with the glue (découpage) mixture. Don’t start with the edge pieces, start with the “floating stones” first.
Place your paper where you want it on the floor and paint over the top of it with the découpage mixture.
Repeat until you have covered the floor, but don’t have any overlapping “stones” on the floor.
Wait for it to dry.
Once dry, give it a coat of polyurethane. Notice the “texture” the crumpling gives the “stones.”
(Pro Tip: Once again, DO NOT polyurethane the paper, it turns the paper “crispy” and translucent – you don’t want that.)
Let’s do the time warp again: So, that thing you did in the last step, without overlapping? Now that it’s dry, overlap it!
Don’t be shy with your glue mix!
Let it dry.
Make that floor “shine like the top of the Chrysler Building: Polyurethane your (now dry) paper floor. When that coat is dry, do it again.
And then… When that coat is dry, do it again.
And, maybe, just for good measure… When that coat is dry, do it again.
Maybe even one more time, especially if you’re doing this in a kitchen or bathroom.
Also, just ONE additional coat; well, trust me when I say, it really wouldn’t hurt anything. ;)
Thanks to Spyridoula Nemesis for this great project!
