Paper Bag Floor

by Wren Smart
(IC: blogger)
When we bought our home, there were way more home improvement projects than we had money in the budget for. So, we lived with things until, little by little we could fix them. I hated our dining room. Gross carpet. Searching the internet one day I came across a post about paper bag floors. Thinking it couldn't be any worse than what we had, we went for it. It turned out amazing. Over 2 years later it still looks great.
Looking at the photo, you would never know it was just paper, glue and stain. It has a rich leather look and is super durable.
We used two rolls of plain brown wrapping paper, and elmer's glue. Our biggest expense was the poly since we wanted to make sure that it stayed durable.
After prepping our floor, we tore brown paper into chunks, wadded it up to break the paper fibers and the soaked it in our glue mixture. A little messy, but so worth it in the end.
Then came the creative part. We squeezed out the excess glue and smoothed the paper onto the prepared floor like a big patchwork quilt. The wrinkles in the paper and the slight finish difference between the sides of paper added to the interest.
We let the floor dry for a few days and then used old rags to add a rich stain and bring out more of the detail. Several coats of poly to seal it and we have an inexpensive floor solution that looks like a million bucks and holds up to our family!
Enjoyed the project?

Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Published August 15th, 2014 11:07 AM
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 298 comments
-
-
Pamella Leslie Adair on Feb 19, 2022
My sister did this and you need to make sure you smooth out the floor. She didn't and it made it impossible to mop or steam. Made it come up and it had tons of Poly on it!
-
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Could this be done on walls?
What was used for padding or prepping underneath the paper?