Stained Concrete: Do it yourself on the cheap

I'll start by saying that we purchased this house for the yard, not the interior flooring. And it's a good thing because the yard and the flooring have become one in the same over the last five years.

I despise carpet.

Not your carpet. I'm sure yours is wonderful.

And doesn't hide any dirt or allergens just under the surface where you can't see until you can see and then you realize just how nasty a rug your babies are inhaling and in our case, sucking on.

That being said Hubs and I have analyzed and over analyzed how and with what to replace the carpet. There were other dynamics,......... like matching the adjoining kitchen tile.

Or not.

And the other adjoining foyer hardwood.

Which was cheap.

And reddish.


The bigger story here is that we want to make changes in lots of places which will involve new flooring in other rooms too. but first in line was the family room and disposing of the death carpet. So, we decided on concrete because

1. Our family is sort of hard on things. And concrete is hard right back.

2. Concrete is cheap. And by cheap I mean, it was already down there..... under the rug of death.

3. And we can certainly cover over it in years to come if we ever decide to sell off one of our kids to pay for old world wide plank flooring



The day after Thanksgiving, while I shopped... with my mom and sis and Sweet Girl and MJ..... Hubs and the rest pulled up the death rug and disposed of it properly and quietly.

I'm sure to have burned it would have created a Haz Mat disturbance that would have no doubt robbed our region of holiday cheer. So they did not burn it.

Here is our family room freshly bald. 

Did I mention that we chose this month to recover our furniture?  It made sense since  it had to be off the floor for a few days. And badly needed to be recovered.

Merry Christmas to me from Hubs. That guy is pretty special.

This is the important step. The taping off and the scrubbing of the concrete. If you're using newly poured concrete..... you are among the blessed. If you're not- rent a floor machine and when you think you've got it clean - do it again just because. 

The imperfections and paint and glue and things you don't want to see - kind of blend in to the concrete when you're scrubbing it because it all appears to be the same shade. You don't see that you've missed it until you are staining it. Glue doesn't stain. Neither does paint.

Trust me.

We did a little re-sanding and re-staining. It was sort of like late night dating..... without the romance and the good food.

So here is a look the first coats of stain. I freaked a little. but it does have a chalky light residue after it's been stained. The sealing step is what really brings out the color. I guess its an exercise in faith. You have to have faith in your chemicals. 

After staining we mopped and "vac -ed" several times to get all the residue up. They call it flooding the floor. I call it "we're not supposed to be doing this indoors". But it was kind of fun. And very effective. 

The sealer seals. Imagine that. SO you want the floor to be really clean and just how you like it before you seal. 

So, after about three times of flooding and mopping and vaccuming up- this is what we are left with - pre-seal.

Still freaking a little.

Hubs is not.
Does that guy ever freak? Seriously.
No, except the time I told him Sweet Girl had "started".  which was untrue.

 I am ashamed of that. But it was funny.

And with the sealer, came the sound of angels, and my shoulders finally relaxing for the first time. We chose a black stain but then diluted it half and half which made the finished product very dark with some lighter shades of brown coming through. 

I'm really pleased with it. We had a lot of browns going on in the room and I didn't want to add another random brown to the mix - so we went with almost black. SOunds goth. But it's not. 

It's mahhhhvveelous.

We used this company out of Georgia. They were super helpful. Returned calls and texts -mid-process to encourage us and even told us things we could purchase here locally to save money. All in all the floor costs about 65 cents a square foot. Give or take a mega floor machine rental. WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT OVERLOOK!

And then we painted. You can still see our old shade of gold at the top near the trim. It's high time to be done with the mustard. Sherwin Williams calls this new color Oyster Bay. Be advised - it does not look like this color on the card. Not at all.

Another lesson in trust.

I call it perfect. Just what I needed. Calming, Serene, Clean..... for now.

 I couldn't find a picture of my old couch to show - but it was a large floral print in autumn tones,...... golds, rusts, green, cream. Great couch but we've worn her out and the colors were faded at best and at worst...... well...... floral.

Hubs doesn't quite dig flowers that are bigger than his head. It's like a little rule.

Last SUnday night after almost three weeks with no furniture - we got her back.  I'd say it's a coffee color chenille. So soft and comfy. And yes, I put a rug down on top of that concrete. Just for my toes in the morning.

 ANd Mj's skull.

I cleaned up a little to take this picture. I'm sending it to the fabric company so they can give our upholstery guy some props and some good business.

THIS IS MORE LIKE IT. 

IN THE SPIRIT OF HONESTY

We are grateful for the change. ANd glad it's put back together in time for Christmas.