Painting floors

A painted floor is one of the most elegant, and most economical, moves in decorating: it unifies a room, widens a corridor, wakes up a tired parquet. Our Decorative Floor Satin Paint (40% sheen) is formulated for footfall: it stands up to feet, chairs and mopping, on interior floorboards, parquet and stair treads.

Stone and light grey tones, Cadogan Stone, Grosvenor Square or Stone Castle, reflect the light and hide dust; a dark floor, Downing Street or Bond Street, anchors a room with pale walls; and a Dulwich red or a Market Green give a hallway the spirit of a country house. Every colour below is available in our floor finish.

Recommended finishes

Wooden floors

Decorative Floor Satin

Primer

Multi-Surface Primer

Our advice

A wooden floor, done well

A floor is painted on bare wood, in thin coats, and left to harden for a week: patience makes all the difference.

Sanded, vacuumed, wiped: the bare wood is ready for its undercoat.

Prepare

Back to bare wood

Punch down any proud nails, screw down boards that creak, fill gaps with wood filler. Sand with a floor sander or orbital sander, 80 then 120 grit, to remove varnish, wax or oil: floor paint only holds on clean, dull wood. Vacuum, then wipe with a damp cloth and let it dry.

On bare wood, apply our Multi-Surface Primer in the tone matched to the colour; on sound, previously painted boards, sanding is enough. Make sure the room is dry and between 10 and 25 °C, and that you can leave it alone: the hard part is not walking on it.

Grosvenor Square on the floor and skirtings, Holland Park on the walls.

Paint

Towards the door, in thin coats

Start at the wall opposite the door and work back towards the exit. Cut in along the skirtings with a brush, then paint with a short-pile roller on a pole, board by board, along the grain. Two or three thin coats of Decorative Floor Satin Paint, 3–4 hours apart, are far better than one thick one, which would dry badly and mark.

Wait 24 hours before walking on it in socks, and seven days before furniture and rugs go back: the paint has reached full hardness by then. Stick felt pads under chair legs. A Grosvenor Square floor with skirtings in the same colour and Holland Park walls: the room looks twice the size.