Checkered Floor Tutorial

I love Swedish design, with painted wood floors and the light and airy whites, greys, and blues! It lends itself so well to the shabby chic style that is so popular now too. I decided I wanted to do a painted wood floor effect in my Orange Blossom that was inspired by that look, using a blue-grey color and a whitewash effect. Here is how I did it:

1. Instead of applying individual wood strips, I decided to score plank lines into the plywood for a wood floor effect. Since I wanted a rougher look, I carved pretty heavily in some places. If you look carefully at the picture below, you can see the lines I carved in. It you want a solidly painted two color floor, this is the time to apply the lighter color paint over the whole floor, then let it dry completely. It wanted a white washed look so I started with the plain wood.

2. Time to get out the painter's tape! I find it best to start with the center strip. Take a piece of painter's tape and apply it from one corner to the opposite corner. Just line up the edge of the tape with the point of the corner and you will have a perfectly straight and centered tape line.

3. Label another strip of the same tape to use as a spacer (see the picture below). Line it up exactly with the first piece and then put your second strip down, also touching the spacer. Keep moving the spacer and applying tape across the entire floor. Turn the wood and repeat the whole procedure going in the opposite direction. You now have a perfectly spaced tic-tac-toe board. Almost there!4. Now it's time to cut out the overlapping areas so that you will have a perfect checkerboard pattern! Everywhere the two strips of tape overlap will be cut out. Gently use a craft blade and just follow the edges of the tape... the nice straight lines are right there for you to "trace."
5. Now peel off those overlapping pieces of tape.6. It's a perfect checkerboard now! Make sure all of the remaining tape is still sealed down tight before you move to the next step: painting. I used French Blue (although it looks white in the picture below). Since I wanted the wood to still show though, I brushed it on lightly with a foam brush and wiped off any places where it looked too thick. Let it dry.
7. Time to peel tape again and you are done! I added a whitewash effect over the whole finished floor for the effect that I was going for. For a really aged effect, you can sand in front of doorways and in high traffic areas. Voila, complete!