Paint a Marble Floor on Concrete
(a faux finish that will not wear off)
© Stephie McCarthy
Watch how to paint marble on a concrete floor
on our HomeTalk page.
Coming soon!
We've just had our concrete floor done in marble tiles.
It went a long way toward covering up a drab finish.
Of course, at our house it's paint made to look like tile!
And … it's durable. It won't come off with normal wear.
Here's the floor before … (below)
How to Prep a Concrete Floor for Paint and Stain
Prep your concrete floor with vinegar FIRST. We washed
ours twice. Once we let the vinegar dry on the floor. The
next day, we washed and wiped the floor at the same time
using baby wipes. Use a scrub brush if you've got
year's of dirt to remove.
C O L O R S
We used 5 water-based colors that harmonized together.
• Behr concrete dye in Jungle Moss from HomeDepot
(8 oz/100 square feet)
• Waverly Chalk Paint in Moss from Walmart
(3 Tbs.)
• Waverly Chalk Paint in Truffle from Walmart
(3 Tbs.)
• Kilz Complete Coat Tropical Foliage from Walmart
(4 oz/100 square feet)
You'll need very little paint since complete coverage
is not necessary. Let the personality of your concrete
show through for realistic textures.
We also made a stain using 1 Tb. of green
and 1 Tb. of black primer with a cup of water.
This "paint stain" is used to add layers over the
initial staining and streaking.
The two products used to make the "paint stain"
Paint stain is semi-transparent so that it will tone down
any 'busy' tiles while letting the textures show through.
We used a small stool on which to sit to save our knees!
One hundred square feet took about 18 hours, allowing
the paint to dry overnight … across 3 days of work.
Above you'll see the pencil lines we drew to lay out the faux tile.
Two coats of stain make for very realistic marble
as long as you color within the lines.
We added streaks with the chalk paint and the
paint stain. We
painted the grout later in brown chalk.
In the foreground above, you can see a tile that is
made with a couple of coats of stain. In the background are
tiles that have additional layers made with chalk paint
and the "paint stain."
If a tile looks good with just stain,
such much the better. Most of ours needed a little more
'heft', so we layed on chalk and paint stain until
each tile had the personality of real tile.
The grout was painted using the brown chalk paint
and a 5/8th round tapered brush, then really
began to look REAL. The first time we stepped on it,
we felt as if I were walking on real tile, hoping the mastic
was dry and the tiles wouldn't come loose!
A realistic faux finish will fool your brain!
We sealed the surface with a great water-based
product
which you can order from Amazon.
This is a professional grade finish.
Any good sealer will work. We used a matte finish,
but semi-gloss would also be very nice. We used a
mini-roller with a flat surface and it was
beautiful in no time at all!
Here are the brushes we prefer for
painting on concrete:
Watch how to paint marble on a concrete floor
on our HomeTalk page.
Coming soon!
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