Royal Design Studio Stencil Review! {and a peek at my G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S. painted kitchen floor!}
Last Updated on August 10, 2021
Royal Design Studio provided me with a free stencil to facilitate this review. I was not compensated for this review in any way and the opinions expressed are 100% my own!
As you all know, Joe and I have been working hard on making over our kitchen on a LIMITED budget. As a reminder, this is what we started with. NOT. MY. STYLE. You can read about our plans to transform the space here and check out our herringbone plank wall that we have already completed here.
Anyone who has completed any sort of major renovation should know that flooring costs lots of money… Money that we do not have to allocate to this kitchen makeover.
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Our kitchen had very lightly stained, BADLY DAMAGED bamboo floors. See for yourself. This is what they looked like when we moved in, even though they are less than 10 years old. I seriously think the family that lived here before us might have run a roller skating rink out of the kitchen. A huge portion of the floor looked like this.
So I had a dilemma. How was I going to improve the floor situation without spending much money? I put on my creativity hat and decided to paint them, after LOVING the painted vinyl floors that I did in our laundry room. Though I loved the striped floors I painted in our laundry room, I knew I wanted something with a bit more interest for our kitchen floors. Enter the amazing Royal Design Studios, which generously offered to send me one of their stencils to review! Yay!
Before I go any further, let me answer some questions I know you will have about WHY we painted WOOD floors {GASP!}. Yes, they are solid wood. Yes, we could have sanded them down but did not because: 1) refinishing them, even as a DIY job, was not in our budget and, 2) I don't love the look of bamboo flooring even with a darker stain. Plus, I have a serious, serious love of painted wood floors.
One of the hardest parts of this process was deciding which stencil to use! I was able to choose from Royal Design Studio's amazing, extensive design collection. It was hard to narrow it down, but I did know that I wanted an “all over stencil” and that I wanted a contemporary/modern look. Joe and I both cast our votes and decided on this awesome Hollywood Squares Stencil. Love it!
Now came the second hardest part–choosing the colors. We have beige tile in the hallway that leads into our kitchen, so I knew in order for the tile to look somewhat intentional, the base color for our kitchen should be similar. So, we chose a light taupe for the base color and a charcoal gray for the top color. We purchased both colors in the Valspar porch and floor paint variety, satin finish.
I am not going to try to teach you to stencil in this post or provide you with a step-by-step tutorial for how we completed our painted kitchen floor {that will come down the road}. For now, what I can tell you is that Royal Design Studios provides great instructions, tutorials, and how-to videos on their website, in addition to fabulous instructions that come with your stencil. I followed the directions provided and had wonderful stenciling success.
I used the foam roller application method, and as suggested by Royal Design Studios, kept dry paper towels nearby to roll off excess paint before stenciling {this prevents your paint from bleeding, which is very important!}. I will admit that I have some touching up to do, but I largely avoided paint bleeding by following the instructions AND by being patient. This job definitely requires patience. If you slap a bunch of paint on the brush thinking it will move things more quickly, THINK AGAIN. It will just create a whole bunch of extra work for you in the end. Short story, follow Royal Design Studio's instructions–they know what they are talking about!
This is a time consuming job, but the nice, LARGE size of this stencil made things move far more quickly than they otherwise would have. If you are thinking of stenciling your floor, you will not find stencils as large as those offered by Royal Design Studios. It makes a big difference! The first stenciling coat took me about 4 1/2 hours. The second stenciling coat {yes, I had to do a second coat} took only 2 hours.
What kept me going was how AWESOME it looked! I was so excited when I started seeing the pattern on the floor on a large scale!
As you can see, I quite literally, painted myself into a box. You can see here the final blank rectangle that I had to fill in. The good news is that since you work with a nearly dry roller {to prevent bleeding} it dries VERY quickly. So, don't worry, I wasn't stuck in the kitchen.
Here is a SNEAK PEEK of how the floors look!
I am beyond THRILLED with how our painted kitchen floor has turned out. I am SO happy with the Royal Design Studio stencil that we chose. Isn't it just stunning?! I think the floor almost reads like it is covered with really cool tiles, which, of course, is totally appropriate for a kitchen.
Are you wondering why I am not showing photos of the entire kitchen? Because, silly, that will have to wait for the full kitchen reveal in the next couple of weeks. We still have some lighting and finishing touches to put into place. And we still plan to put a few coats of polyurethane over the painted floor for added durability {since our kitchen is sooooo heavily used}. Be patient. It will be worth the wait, I promise!
For now, tell me what you think of painted kitchen floor! Do you like the stencil we chose? Have you ever thought of painting and stenciling a floor? What Royal Studio Designs stencil would you choose?
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So can you use these stencils on a vinyl kitchen floor ? Did you just use the floor and porch paint – no sealant on top at all ?
You can use a stencil anywhere! I did use just the floor and porch paint, no sealant. Good luck!
Hi – how hard wearing is this ? I’ve painted wooden floors before and the paint does come off after a period of heavy usage ? What am I doing wrong ?
It is wearing well! I do not recommend a top coat of polyurethane. Make sure you are using floor and porch paint!
how are they holding up after a year? what type paint did you use?
They are holding up great! Take a look at this post for the full tutorial: https://designertrapped.com/diy-stenciled-floors/
Our bamboo floors look like that after only 7 years of use thanks to 9 people and 2 dogs living inone small house! I am also going to use Hollywood Squares. Thanks for the post!
You’re welcome Dawn! Great you love it too. :)
How are they holding up, Tasha?
It’s truly an amazing turnaround and looks gorgeous!!!! My kitchen floor has plain, beige, ugly ceramic tiles. Seeing your other fascinating post of how you painted your backsplash tiles, do you think the same process would work for me to paint our kitchen floor tiles?? Any advice?
Hi Carol! I haven’t tried painting a tile floor, but I think you could. I would use the porch and floor paint. You may also need to sand the tile floor to rough them up a bit in order to get the paint to adhere. I hope that helps!
I am looking at the floor in your kitchen and laundry room. I am thinking of painting and stenciling my vinyl kitchen floor. I noticed you said you had a boxer. I have two golden retrievers, and since you have had your painted floor for a while now, am wondering how they look and how they did with your dog. Also, we have full sun that comes in on the floor, do you think it would fade the paint? Thanks!
Hi Vicky! They are holding up PERFECTLY with our dog and young girls! The sun doesn’t seem to be fading them at all. I hope that helps!
Your floors are BEAUTIFUL! I’m also in love with the stencil you used.
How has the floor paint job held up over the past few months? And what type of polyurethane did you use?
Just curious, as I would love to do something similar in our kitchen, but on VINYL floor like your bathroom.
Thank you so much, Allison! The paint has held up perfectly. We did use poly, but it yellowed, so we wound up having to repaint the ENTIRE floor and re-stencil it. It was miserable! When the whole poly fiasco happened, we talked with the paint company on the phone and they said you REALLY don’t need poly on top of the porch and floor paint. So, the second time we did not poly and the paint is holding up perfectly. It’s been done for 7 months and no problems so far. I hope that helps!
My kitchen floor looks very much like your prepainted floor and im seriously considering painting mine. Just wondering if you moved your stove and refrigerator or just painted around them? I think I would be worried about scratching the paint moving them back.
Hi Nicole! We did not move our stove and refrigerator out, for exactly the same reason. I hope that helps!
Wow Tasha, your floors turned out amazing!!!! Pinned :)
Thanks so much for stopping by and for the pin, Katie!
I am doing my floors soon! I wanted to ask, did you strip the bamboo floors before applying paint with liquid sand paper or did you sand them to roughen then up?
We have some pretty beat up hardwood floors that we can not afford to sand or replace. They now have a coat of poly on them and I would assume that should come off before applying the porch paint and then doing the stencils?
Thanks!
Hi Alexa! No, we did not sand or use liquid sandpaper before painting the floors–we just cleaned them with TSP and then primed them. You can read all about the entire process here: https://designertrapped.com/2015/01/diy-stenciled-floors.html. I think that post will answer all of your questions. I hope that helps!
WOW!!! What an amazing transformation – awesome job, as always!!
Thank you! I can’t wait to reveal the whole kitchen! Stay tuned…
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/royaldesignstudio.com I found some coupons for the stencil, I am thinking about doing a stencil in the laundry room with the Adana Abstract Floral and a stripe …. http://www.royaldesignstudio.com/collections/allover-modern-stencils/products/adana-abstract-floral-furniture-stencil. Using a ivory base with a charcoal gray stencil…. :)
That’s a beautiful stencil, Kelly! Ivory with gray will look beautiful. I would love to see how it turns out.
Thanks for taking the time to answer! :) I can’t wait to start a project of my own. Thank you for the inspiration!
My pleasure, Kelly!
I love this, only I have a couple questions…. I would like to do this but have a high traffic kitchen….. do you put a top coat on and do you think it would stay nice for a long time period?
Hi Kelly! We have a high traffic kitchen as well and I thought I a top coat of water-based poly would give it some added protection, so we did it. I will be posting about the experience in the next week, but long story short is that the water-based poly that was NOT supposed to yellow DID in fact yellow, so now we have to do the whole thing over again. When we called the poly company to complain about it, we were refunded our money (which was good) and the company emphasized that porch and floor paint really does not require any top coat. SO, this time around, we will not be top coating it. Apparently, we should expect it to hold up well on its own. Our painted laundry room floor has held up fabulously, but we are in it a lot less than our kitchen. So, we will put felt pads on our table and chairs and hope for the best. I can tell you that our 90 pound Boxer ran around on it for several days before we put the poly on and didn’t make a mark on them, so I am hopeful. I will plan to post an update after 6 months to let people know how the floors are holding up. I hope that helps for now!
Your floor is definitely gorgeous! What a great way to use such a beautiful stencil.
Thank you so much, Mary Beth!
Ohhhh! I can’t wait to see your entire kitchen. These floors are amazing and I love the pattern you picked! No more roller skating rink there :)
Thank you so much, Corey! I can’t wait for it all to be DONE! We are tired. Hope you are well!
I love it an cannot wait to see it in person. I seriously wish I had an ounce of your vision and creativity. You and Joe should really be proud because you have really transformed your house into a beautiful home and on a budget.
Thanks, Chrissie!
AMAZING!! Wow! Such a great job Tasha!!
Thanks so much Jacqui!
Tasha, you constantly blow me away! I can’t believe how amazing this turned out! You should be so proud of yourself. This is definitely no small job and you tackled it like a pro!
Thanks so much, Katie! It was no small job! I am so frustrated right now because our water based poly that was not supposed to yellow, did in fact yellow in some spots. Not sure how we are going to deal with it. Honestly we will probably be the only ones who would ever notice it but I am so frustrated after all those hours of stenciling. Oh well! The life of a DIYer always involves some unknown outcomes, right?!
I love it! I’ve thought of painting over our linoleum in the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom but since we hope to move I’d rather be on the safe side as they are already in good shape and not in your face ugly :/ I love the stripes in your laundry room too. :)
Thanks so much, Laura!