That is a great question, Denise! We’ve painted and stenciled the floors in two different rooms of our house now and we’ve used a base coat each time. I’m not an expert by any means but it likely depends on what kind of shape your concrete floors are in and the color you plan to use for your stencil. Hope this helps and happy DIYing, CoCo

Thank you so much for your kind words, Tara, I really appreciate it and I’m so sorry for the delayed response. It’s really hard to say what size stencil you might need without being in your space. Both of the spaces we stenciled (the pantry walls and the floor of the master bedroom) were visually big spaces so we needed a larger stencil to cover a wide area. That said, the walls in our pantry are around 20 inches and while we chose a larger stencil it was difficult at times to maneuver around the edges and corners. Looking back, I wish we would have chosen a stencil that was medium-size because it would have been more manageable around those tighter areas. As far as the contrast in paint goes, it’s usually easier to have your base layer be a lighter color and your stencil be painted in a darker color because it is not easy to cover up dark paint with light paint. Hope this helps! I’ll definitely be cheering you on, CoCo

Tara

That is very interesting, Sue, and good information to know too! I really appreciate you sharing!

You are so welcome, Sue! Working on DIY projects like these are always exciting. Our floors are holding up well after 4 years of constant use. I definitely wish I would have added a sealer as a top coat though because the concrete is starting to wear more in certain areas than I expected. When I clean the floors now, bits of cleaning residue stay in the nooks and crannies. Also, we have a large jute rug that has not worn well at all and the stencil looks like it has worn at a slightly different rate under the rug. Other than that, the stenciled floors still look great. Hope this helps, I’ll try to do a full update soon! Good luck with your basement makeover, CoCo

Thank you for this tutorial on stenciling a concrete floor! I purchased a stencil as well, but not the Lisboa. I purchase the Anatolia stencil from Royal Design Studio. I also used the Valspar paint you used, the Floor, Patio and Porch paint, for both the base coat and stencil colors. I stenciled a concrete floor in my basement.

May I please ask you, how has your floor held up these past four years without having put a concrete sealer over the paint? You mentioned you were told by the retailer that this specific Valspar paint does not require a sealer. Just curious if the paint has held up well without it.

Thank you!

Thanks so much lady! Hugs, CoCo

Thanks so much, Sarah, I really appreciate it. It does take a little bit of time but once you start seeing the patterns form and the room taking shape it really helps to keep you going. Sending you hugs, CoCo

You’re sweet, Bonnie, thank you. I was so nervous at first but sometimes you just gotta dive right in, you know? Hugs, CoCo