Spellbound Children’s Bookshop moved into a new space in 2013 which had a bare concrete floor. Owner, Leslie, wanted to paint or stain the floor in an interesting way to enhance the space, yet keep her costs down. After some research by both of us on materials, time, costs and ease of application, we decided to go with concrete floor paint. I mocked up a swirly design in Photoshop so she could see what I was visualizing and so we could choose our paint colors – which are pretty limited if you are using stock colors.

Once the floor was clean (which was a challenge in and of itself) I used chalk to draw out the pattern and label the color areas. The painting took longer then we first thought as multiple coats were required and edging between the colors needed to be done with a paintbrush quite carefully which was not always a speedy process. A roller worked quite well for the big areas and we found some small size rollers that allowed for painting a good portion of each color area in that method. Leslie and I developed a system where she rolled and I edge cut and only a couple times did we almost paint ourselves into a corner.

There are a few things we would do differently now that we’ve been through the process, but overall we are pleased with the result and Leslie tells me that she gets complements daily on the floor.

Visit Spellbound Children’s Bookshop in person at The Lofts at Reynolds Village, 50 North Merrimon Ave, Suite 107, Asheville, NC. And visit them online at www.spellboundchildrensbookshop.com

Some images from the process are below.