We did it! We stenciled the subfloor in our bathroom vanity area and adjoining closet, and it turned out great. The result was absolutely worth the effort and a huge improvement over the old carpet that used to be there.
Remember when the closet and vanity floor looked like this?
We ripped up the carpet and revealed the bare particle board subfloor:
Five hours and about $24 later, the floor looked like this:
Our main bathroom already has tile around the shower and toilet, but the vanity area and closet had old carpet that we couldn’t live with any longer. We removed it and decided to temporarily update the subfloor with paint and a stencil until we get to a full renovation. Eventually we want to knock down the dividing wall and retile the entire space, but this quick solution makes the area usable and attractive in the meantime.
We considered peel-and-stick tiles or a wall-to-wall seagrass rug as interim options, but a stenciled and sealed floor felt like the best balance of cost, effort, and style — something bold and temporary that we can remove when it’s time to install proper backer board and tile.
I like short, affordable updates like this because they let you be a little more adventurous than you might with a permanent choice. Don’t worry about the vanity — we plan to either stain it a deep ebony or charcoal or paint it a dark subdued color so it coordinates better with the floor tones.
Here’s a quick rundown of our process and what we learned.
Prep: the subfloor is particle board, a smooth but porous surface. We filled the seams between sheets with wood filler, let it dry, then sanded. It didn’t become perfect, but it was much improved.
Next we primed with a water-based Aqualock primer to help the paint adhere and to block any stains or bleed-through from the particle board. The primer step made a big difference for durability.
For paint we used two quarts from a low-/no-VOC line to keep fumes down. The base color was matched to a Benjamin Moore shade similar to Revere Pewter and the stencil color was a darker gray called Gargoyle. We chose semi-gloss for durability and planned to seal the finished floor with a non-toxic polycrylic for extra protection. Since this is temporary and will be replaced when we tile, the lower-cost paint approach made sense.
After priming, we applied two coats of the base color. The matched base didn’t perfectly replicate the wall paint, but it was in the same color family and read well with the rest of the room. The main goal was to create a subtle, sophisticated backdrop for the high-contrast stencil pattern.
Stenciling went much faster with two people. Working as a team made registration and placement simple, and stenciling on the floor is easier than on a wall because gravity isn’t fighting you. We used a foam roller with a thin layer of paint for clean lines — this method is faster and kinder to the wrists than dabbing by hand.
We centered the pattern at the vanity and worked outward. The stencil we used has registration marks that make lining up repeats straightforward. With large stencils it helps to have one person align and lower each corner while the other steadies it in place.
Working around walls and corners required partial stencils and some careful bending of the flexible stencil material. We kept cardboard scraps nearby to protect baseboards and wiped excess paint from the stencil back between placements to prevent ghosted marks.
Plan your exit route before you start. Because we wanted the pattern centered on the vanity, we couldn’t simply stencil from a corner outward. Instead we worked in sections across two days, painting accessible areas first and leaving a clear path to walk out. When those sections dried we stood on them to reach adjacent spots and filled in the rest the next day.
After stenciling, I used a small craft brush to touch up a few places. Rolling left a consistent half-inch gap near the baseboards that ended up reading like an intentional border, so we left it rather than hand-painting a perimeter.
Our final step will be sealing with a non-toxic polycrylic (we plan to use SafeCoat Acrylacq) to increase durability. Even before sealing, the floor has held up well for several days.
We’re thrilled with the transformation — it beat the old carpet by a mile — and it makes the space much more pleasant while we finish the rest of the list:
remove the carpetpaint and hang a larger mirror(completed)paint the trimpaint the walls and ceilingreplace outlets and switchesstencil the floors- seal the floors and add better closet storage
- paint or stain the vanity, update hardware, and add built-in shelves under the counter
Have you stenciled a floor, ceiling, wall, or piece of furniture? We recommend using a small foam roller for stenciling — it’s faster and less painful than the old dabbing technique.
Psst— Want to know where something in our house came from? Click the shop button on our site to see items we’ve used.
