DIY Thinnest hardwood Florrs

My new and improved floor. I am calling this the world's thinnest hard wood floor because it's made of paper which, of course, is made of wood:) 

You can see that before the polyurethane the planks had a few lift spots. Most of these went away with drying time.

This was my lunch break. Ravioli from the can! I was so busy plus I had painted myself right out of the kitchen so I didn't have a bowl or microwave. Plus, my lunch read was a good one. I'm now on to book two and another project.

This was the floor before the polyurethane. In some spots the glue "that dries clear" was showing but the polyurethane completely covers all that; leaving your floors shiny, sealed, and so easy to sweep or mop. The glue I used was Titebond wood glue and it's $4 for 16oz. I cut the glue down with water at a 2.5 to 1 ratio. I ended up having exactly the right amount...for about a 100sq ft.

To lay the planks I filled a mini paint tray with the glue mixture and used the mini roller. I rolled the glue onto the back of the plank and also the floor. Put the plank down and then run a squeegee over the plank to get excess glue off and smooth the plank over. Then repeat repeat repeat until you question why you even started this project. Quick tip - use a knee pad and don't do this when you are five months pregnant. Haha

This is a before shot. The floors were originally just the plywood subfloor and we had painted them. Remember way back when I said that this was built as a studio so there wasn't a need for anything fancy. When I decided to do the paper floor I knew I would have to level the floor out and that would be the whitish stuff you see. I used wood filler or water putty. They were two bucks a can and I used one and a half.

To make the planks. I first started with a roll of paper drop cloth. It's $11 for a roll of 3ft by 140ft and I had a lot left over for other projects. I cut the paper into manageable sheets, say 4x4. First paint the entire sheet with your desired brown, then using a graining tool I applied the faux finish. For this I used a mixture of deck seal and stain that I had on hand, but paint would work too. 

Once the sheets had dried I cut my planks into varying lengths, depending on the sheet size, and 5 inches wide. To get a straight edge I used a glass crafting table, a square, and a box cutter. 

I lined the square up with the straight edge of the table. I kept the square from moving with a small weight, aka a little can of stain. Then, I pull the sheet down under the length of the square and lined it up with the straight  edge of the table. Cut with the razor knife and pull down for the next plank.

This is what the sheet looked like before cutting into planks and you can better see the grain pattern.

This is the sealer, stain, and graining tool that I used.

For a run down of everything I used 

Varathane Floor Finish Semi-Gloss Water-Based 128-fl oz Polyurethane ...  $40

Paper drop cloth, glue, water putty

$19

Graininess tool

$7

This was all done well under $100 and I have so many supplies leftover for other projects. 

Hope y'all enjoyed the tutorial as much as I enjoy seeing my floor. It's so easy to clean, I just love it. Till next time y'all keep it green, clean, and classy.

Shalimar