Sunroom Floor Stenciling

True story: Last week, it was 1-degree one day, and 31-degrees the next day in Rochester. That temperature difference is just as drastic a change as if it had been 60-degrees, followed by a day at 90, so yeah, we thought 30-degrees was oddly balmy. The “warm weather”was just enough to get me thinking more about my springtime projects (side note: I’ve re-prioritized the to-do’s so you can see what my plan of attack for the springtime is).

One of the things on the top of the list is to paint a detailed border to the sunroom floor. Last summer, I had painted it a neutral, durable gray to spruce it up (did I ever mentioned that a ragged out, bright blue, indoor-outdoor carpet was in there when I moved in? Yikes). I also painted a 3″ wide border in lighter gray around the perimeter. It’s subtle, and I really like it, but I hadn’t gotten around to taking it to the next level before winter hit (since it’s only a 3-season room, I keep it closed off until springtime).

One of the homes I looked at years ago had a hardwood kitchen floor; along the edge of it was a hand painted border which was ornate, cottage-y, and really tastefully applied. Even though I didn’t buy that house, and even now I don’t remember much about the property, that’s one detail that’s remained in the noggin for inspiration. I only wish I had snapped a photo of it.

So, I’ve been working on sketching a few patterns because I think a quaint border will be a nice accent. I’m starting to narrow down my top picks. Here’s what I’ve got. And note, the lines drawn through the details represent the 3″ gray line that’s already on the floor, although I’m still considering adding any of these details outside or inside that existing line (I’m plagued with tough decisions):

I already know what paint colors will be used. The plan is to take some of the leftover paint from the other rooms, and mix a little of each with a to-be-determined-on-the-spot amount of the gray porch paint to tone down the color a bit but still let it show through. A smattering of colors will be used in the design, whether it be different colored “petals” like I noted in the photo, or different colored dots. Here’s a sampling of how I think the palette colors will turn out when mixed with gray (the pink represents the old coral paint that used to be in the dining room):

The sunroom is still 30-degrees, but once it starts to warm up this will be one of my first projects. Stay tuned.

(True story, I used the Sherwin-Williams Colorsnap iPhone App to pull these color samples. If you like what you see and click on the thumbnails, you’ll be able to see the name of the paint color.)