How to paint floorboards?

behanjp

So people, just bought a house and currently in the process of painting the whole place.

There are bare floorboards in the bedrooms and someone had suggested to me to paint them white. She said she had painted hers previously using a normal emulsion just watered down. Have to say love the idea, love the thoughts of the country look on the floors etc. But bit nervous we may get it wrong. Main questions I have are:

Is it okay to use watered down Matt on the floors? Will this just chip immediately etc?

Do we need to varnish over once painted? We were trying to avoid a glossy look if we could.

I suppose we dont mind a bit of wear and tear, would add to the whole distressed look but just not sure if we would be damaging the wood if we didnt varnish etc.

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated!!!

Oscar15

I painted my bedroom floorboards white in my first flat. I just used Matt White emulsion but then I sealed it with a Matt floor varnish. It was easy to do and it looked good. It wore well and was easy to keep. I'm not sure how well it would stand up without varnish though.

dmc17

Matt emulsion wouldn't last a day on it's own. To avoid the glossy look, use matt varnish as mentioned. I have never done this myself but I wonder would it make sense to use a water based wood paint rather than regular emulsion. Water based satin floor varnish might be as handy to put over it. Not too shiny, easy to apply,quick drying and very durable.