I want to paint a black and white checker board pattern on my kitchen floor but don't how how to lay it out?

Question

I am trying to remove very old vinyl flooring that has been glued down to plywood. This is a very slow, and time consuming process. Once this is done I plan to sand it down, fill in any "dings" and paint it with Kilz. Then I want to paint a check board pattern over the Kilz. In detail, please explain to me how I lay this pattern out. Any way I think about it, I'll have tape where I want to paint. This is probably a no-brainer to some of you but for the life of me, I can't think this through. HELP!!

Answer 1

You may find that paint is not all that great as flooring.  You can get 12" black & white tiles and glue them down, which would be a more durable flooring material.  There are various grades, from commercial to self-stick - commercial being the best (and not very expensive).

If you wanted something other than 12", you can cut them (or join them, if you wanted bigger).

Note: I had a 12" black & white floor in a place I lived a few years ago.  It was almost impossible to keep it clean.

Answer 2

Once you get the floor in top shape, paint it white all over. Then use a straight edge so mark off a pattern of squares whatever size you desire. Start in the center and work out to the edges. (Don't start at one edge and work across . . . )

Tape off every other square and paint it black. Paint in from the tape and not up against the edge to keep it clean. This is a tremendous, back-breaking, pain in the butt project you are about to undertake.

I have a black and white painted kitchen floor and I now hate it. It is impossible to keep clean and has to be swept and mopped everyday. But it was so much work laying it out and painting it, it's hard to chuck it.

Answer 3

Use a soft tape measure and a caulk line. Measure  out the size squares you want (Say ever six inches) and then mark a vertical line with the caulk. same thing vertically. Then pain in the squares. You can use a 12x12 tile as a guide, and then tape.

Make sure you use paint that is meant to be walked on, most paint will peel very quickly if walked on!

Good Luck

Answer 4

paint in and meaure it

Answer 5

My advice: don't do this. By God, don't do this.

Plywood, and especially old plywood, does not have the intrinsic toughness to take the kind of direct punishment that a floor has to take from shoes, table legs, and all the other things that can ding up a floor. The plywood is a subfloor meant to support the real floor. No matter how many coats of paint you put on it, eventually the hard wear a kitchen floor has to undergo will damage the plywood and you'll end up with a messy, splintered (and possibly bloody if you get a splinter in the foot) floor. This is even more likely given that the plywood is probably already dinged up and will have chunks missing where the glue from the old vinyl took away a bit of wood. (And no, filling it in will not "fix" the wood.)

You could do this on actual wood flooring, but even then you'd spend half the time washing the floor. Vinyl or tile are MUCH better ideas. Tile especially will give your subfloor added protection and be very hard-wearing. If you do it yourself it's also quite reasonable.