I had this SUPER BORING and BLAND entryway tile (see image below). However, I didn’t want to pay for all of the tiles and take the time to rip these tiles up and completely retile them. But I knew this had to be updated to get the look I wanted. So I’m going to share with you a super easy way to paint floor tile in your entryway for a budget-friendly upgrade! Using just paint, you can get a faux brick herringbone design!

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STEPS

Here is a quick overview of the steps, then I will go into more detail for steps 3-5. You can click steps 3-5 if you would like to jump to those sections. Otherwise, just keep scrolling along!

1. Clean – wipe your floors clean so that the paint will stick
2. Prime – learn from my mistakes and use primer—even if it tells you that you don’t have to!
3. Paint tile floors with base color
4. Use carpenter square & grout pen to make faux brick herringbone design
5. Use an accent color to make the brick look more realistic

In case you missed it above, since steps 1-2 are pretty self-explanatory, I am jumping ahead to step 3!

3. Paint floor tile with base color

• I used ALLFLOR Porch, Patio, Floor Paint Battleship Gray for my base color (see image below)
• NOTE: You want to use thin coats. If you do too thick of a coat, it will peel off

4. Use carpenter square & grout pen to make faux brick herringbone design on floor tile

• Then I used a carpenter square to draw the lines
• After a bit of googling, I decided to use the Grout Pen White Tile Paint Marker to make it easy for the lines to look consistent and because it’s meant to be waterproof and should be able to withstand wear and tear.
• To get started, I put the flat edge of the carpenter square against where my tiles met my wood floor and drew a line that was the length of the carpenter square
• I decided I wanted the bricks to be about 3 inches wide, so I measured 3 inches up the line I drew, flipped the carpenter square around, and drew the line going in the other direction. Then I measured 3 inches up that line, flipped the carpenter square around, and then drew the new line. And I kept doing this on repeat (see image below)
  • To prevent becoming bored, I listened to a good lecture on mastercourse.com while I was doing it (middle picture). If you want some audiobooks or documentaries to listen to while you do it, check out my post on my favorite documentaries, audiobooks, and reality romance shows!

5. Use an accent color to make the brick look more realistic

To give the brick a more realistic look, I tried to give it some texture with a darker color.

I used BEHR MARQUEE #PPU18-01 Cracked Pepper semi-gloss paint that I put on with a brush and then smeared with a sponge (see image below)

Then paint tile floor with 2 coats of Minwax Clear Polycrylic Water-Based Semi-Gloss Protective Finish. And that’s it!

Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! Let me know if you recreated this in your home!

If you want to paint your floor, but don’t like the design that I did, check out my Paint Floor Pinterest board for some inspiration!