staining the porch

When we looked at our house one of the things I loved was the porch.  It has glass windows which can be changed to screens in the summer.  There is no heat but the sun warms it up in the winter and you can hang out there very comfortably on a sunny winter afternoon.  It is my favorite space in the house but it has been slow to come together.

Here is what we were working with.  This is my husband near unconscious on the floor after ripping up all the carpet in the house.  Faithful Olive is keeping him company and our little guy just 6 months at the time was snoozing in his stroller.  We had two weeks after we closed before we moved into the house and we tried to get as much done as possible which meant that our son spent lots of time on the porch while we frantically worked inside. 

As you can see it is a concrete floor.  I think it had been painted at one time but has worn and chipped away.  So it was a dirty greyish brown and not terribly attractive.  We had been talking about staining it and this weekend we finally did!  The contents of the porch went out in the yard which our little guy thought was pretty awesome.

We chose Behr semi-transparent concrete stain.  We liked the idea of adding a color but still seeing the variations in the floor which are sort of pretty.  We figured we would do a medium grey but when I got to the store to choose a color the only greys were light bluish grays or a charcoal grey which was pretty dark.  I knew I didn't want the blue tones so charcoal would have to work. 

I edged around the porch with a foam brush and rolled two coats on with a medium nap roller.  They suggest spraying it on initially then smoothing with a roller or brush but I figured a roller would work just fine for the whole job.  We weren't looking for a perfectly even finish anyway.

Two coats did the trick and we are really happy with the change.  I'm so glad that we went with charcoal.  It is sort of dark but there is some warmth showing through and it really changes the space.  Looks more like a proper floor and less like a concrete slab.

I'll be revealing the whole porch in the next few days.  I'm just finishing up a few little touches.

not just a housewife