Annie Sloan's Chalk Painted Floor

Our contract on our house ran out a week ago, and we've decided to just let it rest for awhile.  With the house not being for sale I thought it would be a great opportunity to do something messy----

and big and dramatic :)

 This is our hallway floor...which used to look like this (below) it actually doesn't look bad in this photo but keep scrolling....

 You can see how dirty this gets being a hallway and pretty high traffic area.  This carpet has been here since before my husband bought the house (as well as the carpet in the kids' room....more on that later.)

 Brace yourself if you're a fan of having carpet....I would have hardwood flooring in my whole house if I could choose.  Carpet just holds all kinds of nastiness....And right about here I was thinking maybe this wasn't such a good idea....

 (Grandma comes to get the kids each Tuesday in case you're wondering how I could get this done with two little ones!) I pressed on....and now I'm glad I did.  I found some sort of little worm like critters LIVING between our hall and dining room....the kids' bedroom carpet will be leaving us SOON...

 Not too many staples, and the hallway is a small area...actually prying out the tack strip was more difficult because of the baseboards being in the way.  

 It was in pretty good shape.  Some paint spots here and there.  I would have loved to refinish it.  But with it being the hallway, and having the kids we'd have to be out of the house.  And we have different floor in the dining room and a third in the bathroom so I wanted something different to break it all up.

 

A nice wash (half water + half paint) of ASCP in a mix of Paris Grey and French Linen....and if you look closely you'll see my pattern laid out in pencil....
I just painted it all by hand without taping.  It goes faster and I wanted it to be aged looking anyways. It will get PLENTY of wear and tear being in our house....

 The second color is a wash of Old White....

 I distressed it all lightly with 100 grit sand paper 
And after that with a damp rag (I did another post here on distressing furniture with water )....if you choose to use the water I find that having a large bowl of water to rinse your cloth in frequently helps.   And I wring my cloth all the way out.  It will seem like nothing is happening for the first few seconds and then all the sudden it will really start to come off.  So work carefully at first....

And I finished up with a Polycrylic top coat in case you're wondering.  

 It's water based like the paint and I'll be able to mop it.  And mostly I already had some :).....

I know Annie Sloan sells their own lacquer you can apply to finish flooring and seal it up.  We'll have to add some sort of toe strip around the baseboard and do some finish painting to the woodwork that was hidden by the carpet but overall I'm wishing I'd ripped that carpet out a LONG time ago!!!