Ceiling and Floor ReDo on the 2nd Story Sunporch

The beadboard ceiling, although it’s original vintage finish, was so dark it needed lightening, and the painted floor was crumbling and just a really ugly color. So here’s how I went about tackling this redo project…

It really is a gem of a room, a couple weeks ago I told you about the window boxes I installed… once they were up, I realized that this room needed a bit more than just window boxes to freshen it though.

Below you can see the dark wood beadboard ceiling:

and that paint on the floor was in horrible condition!

I was recently reading about someone that had just redone her porch and how she loves the feel of the cool wood on her bare feet. Well that convicted me! I know that feeling she was describing, and this porch of ours didn’t have that… No indeed!

But I wanted that for this porch too…

So I piled all the furniture on the other half of the room: (we moved into our 100 year old house last year and although this room didn’t get any work done to it at the time, we did have furniture from our former sunroom that just got moved out here)

and thoroughly vacuumed everything.

Then using this primer, (HERE is this primer, you can have it sent to your house) I primed the floor where the paint had completely been worn down to bare wood. This room used to be an open sleeping porch, so rainwater did come into the screened openings…

So it was like half of the floor that needed priming first!

Let’s just pause here… funny how stuff changes in attraction depending on circumstances… like that authentic chippy paint finish the floor had. If that was a piece of furniture, great! But underfoot, it was nothing shy of icky, nasty and something to avoid to walk on. So don’t go and think I don’t appreciate a good chippy finish when I see it… it just depends on circumstances! 

Since this was at one time a sleeping porch, both the floor and ceiling are built on a slight angle… Takes a little getting used to it… I remember my 5 year old grandson asking me one time when he and I were out there reading books, why the “floor is falling off”… ha ha!

It’s not really as intense as all that, but there is a slight slope. I think the idea was originally  for the rain water that came in, to drain away from the main part of the house. Or maybe it was just built on a sloping roof… kind of a ‘do it yourself’ project, gone a little awry. Who knows? I find it somewhat charming… once you get used to it. 😉

Then for the ceiling, which is quite low. That brown had to go!

I love the traditional sky blue porch ceilings. I’ve actually painted a few different ceilings light sky blue both inside and outside. It always lightens, lifts and brightens the space!

The sunporch ceiling paint I selected is a sky blue paint with primer, available HERE. You can order it online and they will deliver to you.

Even just the trimming around the border with the paintbrush shows what a difference it’ll be:

Here’s a tip:

When painting beadboard, get a super thick nap roller. I think this one was 1″ thick. That puppy does hold a lot of paint, so your arms get a workout… especially doing the ceiling. (sheesh… you’d think my arms would look better than they do… I guess it’s that nice layer of fat covering the buff muscles underneath)

This ceiling is not in the finest condition, so I still had to hand brush some of the cracks with a brush… and some were just cracks with nothing to paint, so there is still a very old look to the finished product… but that’s ok with me.

Look at the huge difference from the dark old brown color to the light sky blue!!

After 2 coats on the ceiling, I could finally paint the floor. So much easier to paint than the ceiling…

For the floor paint selection, I chose a premixed light gray floor enamel, again from Walmart. I love my local paint chain Hirshfield’s, but Walmart is a mile away and the nearest Hirshfield’s is more than 20 miles away… Convenience wins on a small project like this!

So, pretty much the same process as the ceiling…

First, hand paint with a brush all the edges.

Then roll.

Then repeat.

Two coats for the floor as well, but that’s only half the room. Now the other half to complete this ceiling and floor redo…

Want to see the finished room? I want you to see it, but this post is going to be too long… I did achieve that wonderful barefoot feeling, but you just have to see it to believe it, right?

HERE is the post showing the final reveal of the Sunporch!

Love reading about Before and After projects? Here are more!

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This post is also found at Between Naps on the Porch.