3. Rip up the paper
Iron Man 3 was on, so I ripped paper while that was playing. I won’t lie, my hands hurt! I may wear gloves if I do this again. I ripped pieces anywhere from 6 inches to 16 inches, then crumpled them up and laid them out flat again. Be sure to have 2 separate piles. One for edges and one without. You’ll place the pieces with edges around the perimeter of the room. It takes A LOT of paper, so when you think you finally have enough…rip up some more! Then, get a good night’s sleep because you are going to need it.
**Please note: There is a front and back side of the paper. Using dye or stain will help with making it more uniform. If you don’t use either, make sure you know which side is the front and which side is the back because one is more absorbent and it may appear splotchy depending on your paper. This is why the test boards are important.
4. Mix the glue/dye mixture
Put on disposable gloves (you’ll thank me later for this one). The ratio I used for each batch of glue/dye mixture was the following:
2 cups of warm water (I found that the glue dissolved better in warm water)
2 cups of glue
2 TBS of Rit Dye
Once I combined all of these, the dye turned the mixture purple. I would have 100% freaked out, but I had read to expect this, so I kept on going.
5. Start placing the paper
Begin in a far corner of the room and work your way out, through the doorway. Our dining room has 2 doors, so I just made sure I didn’t block myself out of any areas. I took each piece of paper, dunked it in the mixture long enough for it to get saturated, but not so much that it would fall apart. Pulled it through two fingers to get any excess off and placed it on the floor. Be sure to overlap each piece about an inch because it will dry and shrink!
After about an hour on the floor, my knees and back were killing me, so I went out in the garage and pulled out my rolling garden cart. It’s fantastic! You sit on it and it has wheels, so you just roll from side to side. I love it! I just had to make sure that I only rolled it on the exposed sub-floor and not any parts that had already been papered.
Are you ready for this? It took 8 hours of non-stop work. I did this all myself…take my advice, get a partner. For real, it will make the time and work go twice as fast.
Then I went to bed.
When I woke up the next morning and walked hobbled in to my dining room, I gasped. It was BEAUTIFUL!! The floor turned out so much better than I had ever imagined! I wanted to finish it up that day, but OMG I was so sore! I decided I would pull a Scarlett and worry about it tomorrow. I spent the majority of the day laying down and watching movies with my sweet kiddo.
WRONG… MISTAKE… ALARMS GOING OFF!!
The “patches” dried a completely different (lighter) color and where the glue/dye went past the edges, it turned super dark. I was crushed, I ruined it. I was so mortified that I didn’t even take any pictures. Hours of tedious labor, down the toilet. I tried darkening it very precisely with a paint brush, but no luck. Finally, I went to my toolbox and pulled out my box cutter, then proceeded to cut out all of the patches and original paper under those patches. I remixed and re-papered the patches and waited overnight. It was an improvement, but I still was not satisfied. My hubby (being the level-headed man he is) said, “let it sit for a couple of days, think about it and move on from there.” I love him. 🙂
6. Apply the polyurethane
After 2 days, I decided to go ahead and put the first coat of polyurethane on the floor. If the spots were lighter…then so be it. I was going to put a rug down anyway and no one would really notice. I read where a lot of people brush the poly on with a paint brush… there was no way I was getting back down on that floor! I used a sponge applicator made specifically for finishing floors (about $6 at Lowes) and just screwed it in to my broom handle. It was fast and it worked perfectly! Here’s the other thing, after the first coat of poly, it looked better! The spots were still visible, as you can see below, but it was definitely an improvement.
I waited a full 24 hours before putting the 2nd coat of poly on because, I had an idea that I thought would work. Now that I had one full coat of polyurethane on the floor and nothing was being absorbed by the paper, what if I added some of the leftover Rit dye to my next coat poly. And that’s exactly what I did, it blended all of the spots beautifully! I added a 3rd coat with more dye and the patches are now, not noticeable at all. The last two coats of polyurethane were dye-free, so that’s 5 total.
Tip: Looking back now, I should have taken the time to sand between my first and second coat of poly. There are a couple of places on the floor that are a bit uneven where a corner of the paper must have raised up.
7. Wait
I waited 7 days before I moved my furniture back in to the room and when I did, I didn’t move all of it back. I really like the open feel of the room. The dark floor and white board and batten made the room look much larger. This also gave me time to order a rug for the space.
After the last coat of polyurethane, I installed trim around the bottom of the board and batten. I also bought new 2″ white blinds today and am going to put those up tomorrow. Then I’ll be able to keep the panels open and it will show off the DIY Craftsman trim I installed around the window (it use to be all dark wood trim in this room).
All in all, I really like this floor. I’m so glad the carpet it gone. Would I do it again? Yes, but I would want company so I don’t lose my mind. I’d also NEVER patch spots with large pieces of paper, small is definitely the way to go.
Have you considered brown paper floors? What other flooring options have you used? As far as cost, this room is 12×12 and the total cost was less than $100! I still had a ton of paper left over, but I used all of the glue and the polyurethane (poly was about $50).
Check out the full tutorial at the link below!
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post! GO