my beautiful diy cement floor

Finally, with the boys help, I’m finished the cement flooring in the living areas!

Ever since moving into our new house, I have been trying to find the perfect flooring material for the upstairs living-room area – something that looks great with the marble flooring I installed elsewhere and that works with ambiance and style… something that has that tactile organic (and functional) vibe.
While mulling, I painted the plywood sub-floor a creamy white with flowing paisleys (pictured below)…such a fun project with a lovely ethereal effect.

Now, finally, I have my solution…distressed concrete floors.   I love design with concrete elements – it lends a texture and feeling that is both organic and industrial – and works so well in so many genres…it reminds me of old French farmhouses and converted barn spaces.

I had a few option for installing the concrete floors – most of which kept me perplexed and worrying:  pouring a slab (ugh…so many particulars and work – added support, relief lines to contain/direct cracks); alternately, a troweled feather finish cement topping, as I had just used on my bathroom countertop (picture below) which I love (again, soooooo much work for a whole floor!!!)…

or, (as I amazingly discovered by chance after chatting with my creatively awesome brother) a finished/smooth cement board product, similar to Hardiboard.  I found this on Craig’s List for an great price – somewhat marred and stained, so, as usual in these project, needing creative adapting (…I added a stain/paint finish to further distress and ‘fix’ the staining)

The original boards were challenging 80lb  4’x10’ flexible (but brittle) sheets…too hard for me to work with, so I cut them in half to more manageable 5’x4’ tiles.

It was tough work to get the knack of how to deal with such large and flexible sheets but much easier once I figured out to place wedges on the edges (to keep each sheet the same level), weights on the corner (and some centers) to flatten the concaves/convexes, and construction adhesive rather than thinset…and the boys gave me lots of help!

using tiles to weigh and anchor the edges while the adhesive dries

using construction adhesive

  adding stain to the cement sheet to address the marks and scratches on the cement tiles

stenciling the accent tiles...also cut from the larger cement sheets

....and the finished flooring...so beautiful!

I love love love the finished effect of the cement - its textural, neutral and easy to care for...a perfect pairing for the marble and functional for our casual farmhouse living.

have a beautiful week!

xo

shelley