Because one can just never have enough projects going at one time, I decided to gut and transform our shed into a playhouse. You know just as a little something to do while the paint is drying on all my other projects. (Help me I have issues!) In all seriousness though, I was really excited to work on this project and mostly, to do a painted plywood striped floor.
The Before
So this is the state the shed was in when we adopted it. The poor thing was looking pretty forgotten. There was a major moisture problem inside, because someone had gotten the bright idea to bury the back of the shed into the hillside. The original plan was to tear the thing down, but we decided to give it a chance.
This is kinda what the interior looked like, however I had already started tearing out all of the warped and rotten wood paneling before I remembered to stop and take a picture. All of the insulation had to go too because, lets just say mice…and leave it at that. (Nightmares!)
The Almost After
So fast forward through several hours of elbow grease and that brings us to present day shed. Now deemed “The Playhouse,” it’s showing off it’s potential. There is still some landscaping to do which, probably is on next Springs to-do list.
The Painted Plywood Striped Floor
Here’s the plywood floors in their gloomy before state. Just Pretty stained and drab if you ask me.
The Base Coat – Painted Plywood Striped Floors
My first step in achieving my painted plywood striped floors was to paint a base coat. I picked yellow because it reminds me of sunshine. A playhouse needs to have cheerful childhood vibes, am I right? This is just the first of two coats of paint.
If I was following all of the rules I would have done a base coat with this great primer. I would not have cut any corners if this wasn’t just a shed floor.
The Stripes
I used a straight edge and pencil to trace my lines onto the floor. I chose a striped pattern that I liked with one 6 inch bold line, and two narrow stripes at 2 in x 3 in x 2 in intervals in between.
I found the easiest way to trace my lines was to stretch a measuring tape across my whole room and make marks at the stripe intervals I wanted. After making marks in three sections of the room, I used my straight edge to connect the marks and make a continuous line on the floor. I used pencil, but if you were worried about bleed through, you could use white chalk.
For the stripes, I used a high quality white paint/primer. Starting with one half of the room, I painted the stripes by hand following my guide lines. I wanted to paint the stripes by hand to get more of a whimsical boho look.
If you want perfectly edged stripes, you can use painters tape.
And this is the finished product. Be sure to add a sealer top coat to preserve all your hard work.
Check out how I made my reclaimed window planters here.
