alfie surreal: Domestic Bliss Squared: Floor Update (DIY Home Improvement!)

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Domestic Bliss Squared: Floor Update (DIY Home Improvement!)

I love doing crafty things and cooking, but I LOVE home improvement projects! ?I'm always on the lookout for interesting and easy updates that only need *minimal* help from my husband!

One thing I would love to change in my house are my floors. ?The bathroom has this awful linoleum (taupe with blue roses on it) and a few years ago, my daughter put my iron on the kitchen floor, turned it on and left it there.

Use your imagination folks. ?There is an awful iron-shaped black mark on my kitchen floor. ?It irks me every time I see it.

So I've been eyeing different types of flooring. ?A friend told me tiling wasn't so hard, but tiles can be expensive, so I was super stoked when I found this:

It's tile, but it's not tile! ?It is tile made out of linoleum. ?I kind of scratched my head at first. ?Like, isn't linoleum deliciously eighties? ?I wanted laminate flooring until I heard you aren't supposed to put it in kitchens or bathrooms.

Which is totally where I need it.

So, I grabbed a few tiles from my local Lowes (both Home Depot and Lowe's have awesome tiles, I just happened to find my favorite at Lowe's) and threw them on the floor to see if I like them.

Yes! ?So I bought a case and started the project. ?It was a fairly easy project and I only needed *minimal* help from my husband! ?Here's a quick overview. ?(If you want good tutorials, there are tons of YouTube videos out there and websites. ?This is mostly to get you interested and excited!)

After endless configurations, I liked this pattern the best:

We had to do a few prep steps (hehe, I rhymed).

We ripped off the baseboards...?

and sawed under the doorjambs (so we could slip the tiles under them easily).

We removed the toilet by cutting the caulk, draining it (there's a great tutorial on that here) and pulling it out of the bathroom, leaving a really scary hole behind.

I wiped up the floors with a damp rag to make sure they were clean. ?

Then I started laying the tiles out and sticking them on the floor (like giant stickers) right over the original linoleum...

So I kept laying and sticking them....?

Until I had put them all down.

I really liked these tiles because they are groutable, which makes them look fancy and SUPER waterproof. ?One problem we have in our bathroom is the linoleum around the bathtub has been peeling and leaving a gap for years. ?We always caulk it, but it doesn't stayed sealed. ?These allowed me to grout and make an airtight seal between the floor and the tub.

After a layer of grout made especially for linoleum tiles, ta-da!

There were only a few finishing steps - replace baseboards, put toilet back in, touch up wall paint.

They look so much more modern than the previous flooring, the tiles are super pet/child/water resistant (some come with a lifetime warranty!), and they make my bathroom look bigger.?

All for....

$25 for the tiles (I used one case plus two singles for a total of 22).

$8 for the grout

$4 for a pack of new utility knife blades

For a grand total of $37, my floors went from this:

to this:

Worth every penny! ?The kitchen is definitely next....(just don't tell my husband!)

Oh! And go check out all the other Pinterest Challenge posts at Merrick's Art!