One of my favorite projects I completed at the Sixty-One Park Farmhouse this past year is the DIY Painted Floor Quilt!

I wrote in an earlier post about salvaging the old farmhouse floors and how we managed to save almost all the original flooring. The upstairs master bedroom was one floor that we couldn’t save though. It had already been sanded down and refinished at some point and there was also a wall we took down leaving some damaged flooring. That’s when I decided I was going to paint a quilt on it:

I used a palm sander to scuff up the floor finish a little. A shop vac duct taped to the back of the sander collected all the dust I created:

To prepare the floor for painting I painted two coats of this Behr Multi-Surface Primer and Sealer. I also used this as my base white layer for the quilt as well:

The finished base layer:

I sketched out a few designs I was thinking about for the room to think about scale. I ended up winging it on the measurements because my brain started to hurt:

Even though the second floor was kind of busy I decided it would be the most “quilt” looking. These were my main tools for creating the design:

I recommend using the longest t-square imaginable to help draw your lines! I also used posterboard to make a template of a square and the cut out triangle. It was easy to just line up the square and figure out my triangles this way once I had diagonal lines drawn. I started at the center of the room and then just worked my way outward with Frog tape. Triangles actually aren’t that hard if you can learn to cut a 45 degree angle across the tape because then you already have two corner cut!

As I worked I marked the triangles that were going to remain white with tape scraps:

I wanted a very organic gray color and so I started with Behr’s Mossy Oak and then mixed white into it until I lightened up quite a bit. It probably ended up as a 50/50 mixture of white and Mossy Oak when I was finally happy with it. This gray is actually my favorite color now…I’ll show you what else I painted with it soon. And I just used an interior flat finish:

When I was ready to paint I made a little station on a towel that I could slide around with me. I ended up just using a paint brush for the entire floor but the trick was to use a bone folder to burnish the edges of the tape quickly before painting each triangle. Because I added that step I didn’t have one bleed through on the floor:

One coat down! I didn’t have to apply two full coats…just some touch up here and there where I could see the white floor through:

When the floor was pretty much dry I carefully pulled up all the tape and look how it turned out! So happy with it!

To finish it off with a durable finish that could withstand renters I did three coats of Zar’s Water-Based Polyurethane. It’s the best non-yellowing, true flat finish I’ve found so far. It dries quickly and you can recoat after 30 minutes. I just apply with an oversized brush:

And here’s the finished room with furniture in it:

So far so good! We’ve hosted almost two months worth of guests at the farmhouse and not one scratch to the floor! Read more about our restoration project here! 

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To check out our finished restoration project in person come and stay with us! You can visit the official Sixty-One Park Farmhouse site here and we are also on Airbnb and VRBO. November and December are almost filled up because of the Polar Express but I think the fall is the most beautiful time to visit the Smoky Mountains. 

I’ve been so busy with projects that I haven’t had time to share anything but this last week we finally finished our farmhouse vacation rental just in time for our first renters! I will share more details soon but here’s a sneak peek of the finished house…a few of my favorite things:

The front porch with the concrete painted deer:

The kitchen with a custom zinc bar top:

The dining room with a farmhouse table we made from reclaimed oak found in the old barn:

The living room with a hutch I custom painted:

An upstairs bedroom with handpainted train signs:

The outdoor succulent wall:

I’m just taking a few days to recuperate from all the work but I can’t wait to share each room and all the DIY and custom details. We are now finally booking for the summer, fall and of course the Polar Express! You can find more information and photos on Airbnb or on the Sixty-One Park Website. Let me help you plan a trip to the Smoky Mountains!  You can see how far we’ve come by scrolling through the farmhouse archives here. Thanks for following along! 

Every day the farmhouse is changing! The progress seems to be moving right along which is great because our first booking is June 9th…and the time is flying. (I’ve almost finished the website and the reservation system is finally up and running.) The bathrooms were tiled right before we left for spring break and I love how they turned out. Both upstairs and downstairs bathrooms are very similar…I like cohesive flow in a house. This is the downstairs:

And the upstairs:

 
And a progress shot of Jaime and Brett working:
 

We are using locally-found vintage dressers for the vanities….they are being slightly modified to be able to use the hardware and sinks we want. Jaime was able to use the tops to create enough extra wood for building them out from the wall:

All the doors have been install and primed but I’ve left a few their original patina with just some clear coat…aren’t these beautiful?

Some kitchen progress:

And one of the small bedrooms upstairs! These adorable little beds were my dad’s when he was little! They still have the original tag on them.

So we do have a website up finally! It’s still being updated as I think of things….but the reservation calendar is now open. (click here to visit SixtyOnePark.com) I would love to have you come and experience the farmhouse and the Great Smoky Mountains! A family trip…a trip with your girlfriends…a small retreat? My friend Stephanie Corfee did the new logo and I love it….I just want to put it on everything: