tutorials | diy floor for photography :: Tulsa Newborn Photographer

I get a lot of emails asking where I get my white floor from and the answer is, I made it.  Well… “I” didn’t make it, the hubs did.  I have to give him full credit for this one because I just told him what I wanted, bought the supplies and he brought it to life.  Such a great man!

Items needed:

Wood planks – We bought 8ft planks from Lowe’s.  If you are on-location I recommend going with the 4ft planks so you can easily transport them.  I use 7 planks for my floor.
Valspar paint – Lowe’s – You will need an undercoat color, the color that will show through (mine is chocolate brown) and then a top coat color (mine is a cream color)
Valspar Weathered Crackle Glaze – Lowe’s
Paint rollers – 3-4
Paint tray – 3-4, just the cheap plastic ones

Now that you have all of your items, it’s time to get busy.  Vaslpar has a section at Lowe’s with all of their faux finishing techniques and you can pick up a pamphlet there for easy reference (recommended) or click here for reference as well.

Directions:

1. With wood planks laid out, apply a base coat of Valspar paint according to label instructions. Allow to dry 4 hours or overnight before applying Weathered Crackle.  Make sure you paint the sides of your boards the same color as the bottom coat.

2. Using a premium quality short nap roller of nylon brush, apply an even coat of Weathered Crackle to the surface. Uneven application will cause unwanted variation in the cracking pattern.

3. Let Crackle Glaze dry 1-4 hours before applying top coat. Waiting longer than 4 hours may require re-application.

4. Using a premium quality roller or brush, apply a flat latex paint in the color of your choice. Do not overwork this coat. One application in a single direction works best.

 

There you have it, easy peasy!  This project is pretty fail proof and if I had time I’d love to do some funky colors like red base with turquoise top, fun!  Or with Valentines coming up, doing a red crackle would be fun too!  Ok, I need to stop… my hubby will kill me as we’re cleaning out our house to move.  Hehe!

My finished product:

For the background I just use my wall and use Pure Photoshop Action’s blanket fade action to blend the floor to the backdrop.  If you’re on-location just pick out a blanket or some fabric that is close to the same color as your top coat and hang that from your backdrop stand.

As always, enjoy, have fun and be creative!

xo,

Kristen

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