Yes. But why would you want to? I have no objection to painting concrete or vinyl because those things are rarely pretty, but I love hardwood floors. Ok, I won’t beat you up, you obviously came here for an answer, and I will give it to you. Paint can be a great alternative if your floor is damaged or if it goes throughout the entire house and you want a different look in a room. I have seen some beautiful floors that were painted in large blue & white checks. I think the key to this project is to use a “wash” so the beauty and texture of the wood still shows through, but you get the added color. Here are some great instructions on how to paint a hardwood floor from HGTV. Have you painted a floor? How did it turn out?  Leave a comment and let me know, I promise not to yell.

Sorry if this is a boring post, but it was a boring episode of “Design Star”, not my fault. Way to reel in the readers just tell them up front this is going to be boring. The designers were given $10,000 to design the dream room of a lucky HGTV viewer with 28 hours & the help of a carpenter. The designers didn’t know which of the three rooms they would get until they arrived at their location, they would either get a NYC apartment, a man cave, or a family’s rec room. The rooms were fine, but not $10,000 worth of pretty. The rec room & man cave had a small flat screen TV in them, that’s where I would have spent more money for the family. None of the rooms were bad, & all looked a little the same so it was a tough decision for the judges. In the end Tym was sent home. So next week it will be Alice & David competing for our affection. I’m curious as to what kind of show they will wind up with because they’ve both seem to already used all of their ideas twice. What did you think of last nights episode? Leave a comment & let me know.

Yes. My garage is often used as an entry way, so we painted the concrete floor to look like tile. It has held up very well over about ten years. There are step by step instructions from HGTV here. Here are some things I did right, and a few I did wrong:

Right: Precision. We laid out the tape in a perfect grid and by “we” I mean someone who is better at math than me.

Standard Size: We also kept the squares to a standard size of tile so it is believable.

Prime:  I hate priming, I just want to get to the color, but sometimes it is necessary. We primed and the floor has held up very well.

Wrong: Colors. The “grout” lines are dark gray and the tile is dark green, we should have used more contrast in the “grout” like a lighter gray or taupe.

Size: This wasn’t really a mistake but after we finished this project I saw a floor with very large 16×16 “tiles”. Where the tiles met another smaller diamond tile was inset. This smaller tile was then sponged in a different color, and the effect was gorgeous.

This is a project I would definitely do again.  For the cost of a few cans of paint we now have an entry way into our home. Have you painted concrete? Leave a comment with your experiences.

The Big Brother All-Stars set has to be the ugliest set I’ve ever seen. It’s not like the “Brady Bunch” set, which was probably the pinnacle of decorating in it’s day, the “Big Brother” set would be offensive to any decade. I remember reading something from the first season of “Big Brother” that the set was designed to be lively so people would conflict. I miss season 1 where the purpose was “how will strangers act in a house together for extended periods of time with no contact with the outside world”, that was an interesting social experiment. Now it is simply “who can make the most complicated alliance possible”, and is pretty much like every other reality competition show out there. This set just seems to have been designed with the intent to burn my retinas and remind me of the inside of a plastic out house crossed with a prison. Cheesy wood paneling, neon flames, and red and blue carpet distracted me so much I forgot to hate Mike “Boogie” Malin. This has to go down in history as the ugliest television set I’ve ever seen. This is the first time I have ever stopped watching a show because of the decorating. I was hoping they somehow did this on purpose, so if you know anything about this please let me know. What is your least favorite TV set of all time? What is your most/least favorite thing about  “Big Brother All-Stars”? Leave a comment and let me know.