DECORATIVE PAINTED CONCRETE ENTRYWAYS

Pictured here are two porches with concrete floors. They are front entryways that I painted for customers of my business called “Snowflakes, Custom Designs”.

The first design was the easiest, simply being a random copy of a slate floor. The other was not that difficult but it took a lot of measuring and mapping out of the pattern to scale. Both floors have stood up well under weather conditions and it has been more than 4 years since I painted them.

The main thing that is required before you paint your design is a good clean surface. The ideal would be a newly poured floor because the paint actually seeps into the concrete then and you only need two sealer coats to finish the job. This is not usually the case however and you need to carefully prepare the floor before you start.

First of all the concrete MUST BE DRY and thoroughly clean. If there is any grease or oil you can sprinkle cat litter on it and let that absorb as much as possible. Then scrub with “Goof Off” and rinse. After this you will need to wash the floor again with TSP and rinse thoroughly.

I would wait at least three days for the floor to dry, especially if it’s an indoor floor. Now you are ready to get creative. If you’ve designed a symmetrical floor you will have to draw it out first. The faux slate floor was very easy. I painted the floor a solid color first, using a color that would show through as the grout between the stones. Then I took three shades of off-blue and simply designed as I went along. I used only one brush and would wipe it on a cloth before dipping it into the next blue paint...the residue from the one color bleeding into the other as I went along. This kept it from looking too pristine.

The final step is to let the paint dry thoroughly...usually a week or two...and then give it two coats of a good concrete sealer. There are so many products on the market now that I can’t recommend one in particular. Just ask your paint dealer.

Your “new” floor should last a good long time, depending on the traffic it gets and the condition it was in when you started. The most that you will probably have to do in the future is a little touch up...so be sure to label and keep the paints that you used.

GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN !