Faux Finish a floor? Teresa Harrison – Harrison Concepts, Burlington, ON Try changing your kitchen or foyer flooring to look like Terracotta tiles without actually laying new tile.

Our kitchen had the popular "builder" vinyl flooring in a grey square pattern and I wanted to do something to dress it up before my budget would allow for remodeling so I decided to apply a little paint and a careful brush.

I converted the existing vinyl kitchen floor by first applying a primer coat and allowing it to cure for 24 hrs.

Then I applied a base coat of a "putty" color using Para Paint (recommended). After allowing this coat to dry for a 24 hr period, the intended tiles were taped off into 12" x 12" squares using various widths of masking tape (primer tapes sold at most paint stores work very well).

Here’s what you do next: With a sponge, dab a selection of brown, orange, ochre and terracotta colored paint until you are satisfied with the texture and colour consistency. After this coating has dried, remove the tape guides (you may need to retouch the gutters created by the tape masking). This is the artistic step – whatever you paint will be your work of art – at least until you can afford proper tiles. Finally, apply a number of layers of polyurethane to protect your new “faux” Terracotta tiles.

This worked very well for us so I ended up applying the same technique to our foyer and bathroom floors. The polyurethane really worked well protecting the floor from everyday use.

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Teresa Harrison (Harrison Concepts Interior Decorators) is a certified Interior Decorator (CDECA), and faux finisher who enjoys converting existing rooms into the French Country style on shoe-string budgets.

Before trying any project we recommend that you consult an experienced faux finisher/artist.