Stenciled Antique Maple Floor

I'm so excited to show you my floor that I'm going to post the picture right off the bat. This is the front entrance in the stone house that we are renovating.

Here it is after it was sanded and repaired. It is maple, and original to the house.

In this picture you can see the original sanded floor at the left, then the area that has 2 coats of stain, and closest to the camera you can see what it looked like after 1 coat of stain.

Two coats.

I have seen this stenciled floor many times on the web and I love it!

 I made a stencil with my Silhouette Cameo. It is large, 24", so I had to make it in two pieces.

I decided to cover it on both sides with clear vinyl to help hold everything together.

I then cut out the design with an utility knife. I realized that the Silhouette changed things a little bit and it was no longer a one piece stencil, so I had to tape part of it back together again. Later I realized that it had changed more than I realized and had to add more tape to cover parts that I had cut out. I would not have gotten the look I wanted had I not done this.

 Here we go! The first painting is always the scariest, what if I mess this up? What if I paint it too heavy? What if I lay the pattern out wrong?

I started a little bit off the edge because I have to add one more board to the beginning of the hallway.

Here's how it looked after getting several of the designs done.

A work in progress!

Here it is, all done! Well, all done for today because at this point I could hardly get up off the floor. I pulled a muscle in my back on Saturday and this project just about did me in! I need to put a couple of coats of varnish on it.

This is the view from the kitchen to the front entrance.

 Here it is from the livingroom to the foot of the stairs.

So far, with the people that have seen it, the women love it, and the men don't! Ha ha, luckily the men weren't around when I was doing it, and now it's too late to change it.

My posts have been few and far between, but don't think that's because I haven't been busy, I definitely have.

My son Budd is trying to get his house ready to put on the market, so we've taken a break from the stone house to help him.

Upstairs has been finished for a few years, but he hadn't gotten around to finishing the basement. He got it framed and dry walled. Then it was time for flooring. The spot where he and Johnny are standing is right where the bar will be going.

Just like the magic of television, the floor is all done. Doesn't it look great?

Jumping ahead by leaps and bounds, Budd and Johnny built a short 2X6 wall for the bar, and they started the cupboard where the bar sink will be. I started putting up the faux barn wood boards.

All of the wood in this project was reclaimed.  I'm pretty proud of that. Budd scavenged some scraps from his friends garbage pile, and of course Johnny and I never throw out a piece of wood.

Another view. Doesn't it look nice with the floor? 

For the barn wood I used a variety of salvaged wood, that top piece with the nice grain is actually a plywood scrap.

 I love how the pot lights shine down on it.

Here's a look at my work site. Yup a tailgate.  Busy staining and painting boards to get that look I wanted. I salvaged these nice wide boards from the windows at the stone house.

A nice sunny day for working outside.

Finally it was time to work on the face frame for the cupboard. All the information I need is on that piece of paper. I picked up the cupboard doors at the Restore for $5 each, I bought four, but plans changed when Budd remembered he wanted to put a mini fridge in the cabinet.

Here's the process for making barn wood. The piece on the left is the backsplash and the one of the right is the front of the counter top.

Rub some black stain randomly. 

Go over it with some light stain, which lightens the black stain.

Then I dry brushed some white, and rubbed it in. I went back with a little smudge of black stain here and there until I had the look I wanted.

Once the cupboard was all put together, Budd cut a hole in the counter and installed a bar sink. The bar top was leftover from his kitchen when he changed the cupboard plan and it wasn't needed.  The bar sink he had for a while, I think from a friend.

The pictures aren't the best, but I love the finished product!

He plans to put a couple of bar stools on this side of the bar, so people can sit and watch TV on the opposite wall. It will also leave space for a couch on the other side.

 

Here we are after a long day, it's almost finished at this point, you would think we would be smiling :)

So what do you think of our project?