How To Paint Linoleum Floors (Without Using a Stencil)

How to paint your outdated linoleum floors to give your room an easy and affordable makeover. I’ll show you how to paint your floors so they are durable and long lasting.

Out of all of the projects I have ever done this one right here made me the most nervous…like poo your pants nervous. I didn’t sleep at all the night before I tackled this project. It’s just paint and I was just painting over old inexpensive flooring.

But for some reason I was a hot mess doing this project. It turned out fine, actually better than fine.  And if you have kids and/or a dog this project is.so.much.fun! Especially when they run right into your paint tray.

The linoleum (or vinyl-whatever this stuff is) in our mudroom wasn’t my favorite and probably could have been replaced. It’s torn and coming up in a few spots but I’m a “lipstick on a pig” kind of girl. 

As my husband likes to say- lipstick is a lot cheaper than a pig. He’s so wise annoying sometimes. Here’s a quick look at what our pig used to look like:

And then after I put some lipstick on her in the form of paint:

A little bit about this room.  This room is confused and doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up. When we first looked at this house this room was set up as the laundry room and had an itty bitty stackable washer and dryer set on the back wall.

The room right next to it also has a washer and dryer hookup. After we moved in we my husband decided it was best if we turn this room into a full mudroom and move our new washer and dryer into the other room.

Now, I’m all about having a separate laundry room and mudroom.  A room dedicated for just mud sounds amazing especially with three kids and a dog BUT (there’s always a but) the “other” room that has the washer and dryer hookups turns out to be the very first room you see when you walk through my front door.

You can see this room as you sit on my newly decorated front porch. It’s technically an office and has pretty French doors. Do I really want THAT room to be my laundry room?? And right now that room is a hot mess as you will see in some pics below.

I have so many projects forming in my head to make it work and hide the washer and dryer. Yes, I know I can move this washer and dryer somewhere else in this house but the hookups are in this room and it makes no sense at all to ruin what is already done (his words not mine).

Maybe down the road I will win this battle but until then I will make do and keep slapping lipstick on pigs.

Back to the mudroom. Once we removed and donated the washer and dryer set that was originally here (and hired a plumber to come and make a giant hole in the corner of the back wall for the water drain into the next room-ugh) I began my DIYing.

I’m not done with this room but this was the biggest project I had planned and I heart it. Disclaimer-I messed up right off the bat but I kept going and it turned out fine. I’m not a perfectionist and I tend to rush my projects (no patience award recipient). Did I mention I have the best trick for painting stripes? Keep reading

Supplies needed to paint linoleum floors:

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• Wine or drink of choice (will always be on any of my lists)
• Paint-you need four colors. Light, a little darker than light, medium and dark. I used whatever I had on hand in my basement. My white is Kilz ceiling paint in flat white, my “a little darker than light” is Behr Silver Drop (my main house color), my medium is Rustoleum chalk paint in Aged Gray and my dark is black. Talk about a hodge podge of colors. If you don’t have a plethora of random paint in your basement like I do than I recommend picking a light-ish color you like and than doing the the two or three shades darker on the paint card. You can buy fancy porch/exterior paint if you really want to but it’ll all be sealed after you are done so any paint works.
• Painters tape and lots of it.
• Foam Rollers (one for each color)
• Large Paint Roller for once your patience runs out
• Level
• Floor cleaner (TSP works great)
• Polycrylic
• More wine

**Big disclaimer…this is how I painted my floor and it worked for me. I am sure there are other tutorials out there. Please be cautious when doing this. Our linoleum was old and gross so if I messed up, I was planning on replacing the linoleum. I can’t recommend this method with tile. It might work but I can’t say for sure since I have never personally painted over tile. Yes I have…you can see how I painted the tile floor by my fireplace here).***

How To Paint Linoleum Floors

Step 1: Clean your gross dirty floor real good. I highly recommend TSP to remove any buildup. Let it dry and move on to step 2

Step 2: Tape off your baseboards and anything else that doesn’t need painted. Give your floors two coats of your lightest color (white). I used a big regular roller for this step. Let dry. And again, excuse the mess in that “other” room. I had to move everything out of the mudroom into there…real life over here

 

Step 3: Tape vertical lines. I had the faux grout lines of my vinyl to somewhat follow AND I still messed up. You’ll see in a second. But if you don’t have anything to follow you’ll have to measure and level your lines (this part blows-just a heads up).

Here’s your tip of the day. I learned this years ago watching Rachael Ray while I was on maternity leave. I don’t remember much in those sleep deprived days but I remember this. Before you paint your stripes, paint the edges of your tape with your base color (white). This prevents any other color from bleeding through and you get crisp lines every time. It works, try it.

Now let that dry. Yes, it’s an extra step to this process but so worth it. Paint the vertical stripes your next lightest color (Behr Silver Drop). Two coats will probably be needed. Remove that tape once semi dry. This is where I goofed.

My gray vertical lines are thinner than my white stripes. I should have placed my tape wider apart. I guess measuring would have been a good idea right off the bat.  I kept going though. No perfectionist here. But if you want perfect squares make sure you measure. I had some pretty awesome crisp lines though once I removed the tape.

 

Step 4: Tape horizontal lines next. I kept my horizontal lines about 8″ apart. I guess I was one step too late in the measuring department. Better late than never. My Rachael Ray tip was going to be too confusing for me at this point so I just pressed the tape down real good.

My lines weren’t nearly as perfect but they turned out fine. You can always fix any goof ups later if you need to with an angled brush. Paint your horizontal lines your medium color (Aged Gray) DO NOT REMOVE THE TAPE!!

Don’t make me repeat myself on this one. But I will anyways…DO NOT REMOVE THE TAPE. Let the horizontal lines dry, keep your tape on and let’s move onto the most confusing step.

 

Step 4: I seriously had to pull out my buffalo check pillow for this step to analyze it. Every other square that is Aged Gray should be painted black. So you’ll need to tape vertical lines in between the Aged Gray horizontal lines to make the black squares.

I know, so confusing. Hope you haven’t started drinking yet or you will be even more confused.

After that I marked with a pencil what boxes would be black (every other) because I knew I would mess up if I didn’t. I painted those boxes black. Make sense?

 

Step 5: Let your floor dry, remove your tape, chug your drink of choice and enjoy your new floor….

BUT only for a hot second. You need to seal that bad boy before your kids walk all over it and leave dirty foot prints.  I waited until the next morning to seal my floor but in hindsight I should have done it sooner.

I had a few touch ups to make thanks to all the other people and a four legged friend living in this house. I used Miniwax Polycrylic in Satin finish.

It went on easy and quick. I did three coats. Read the back of the can before you start. I started with a foam roller and quickly switched to a regular roller since my patience was running out. Wait a full 24 hours from your last coat to resume normal activity…which is comical with kids but I tried. I think I got a good 12 hours in.

Now you can enjoy your new floor!

I have recently updated our mudroom (once again) but this painted floor is holding up so well. You can see more about the mudroom makeover here and here’s a sneak peek

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How to paint your outdated vinyl floors to give your room a easy update. It is so simple and quick to paint a floor that is beautiful, durable and long lasting.

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