Faux-Finish a Concrete Carpet

If you hate the look of a bare concrete floor, no matter how practical it might be, here’s an idea — why not stencil the concrete to look like a luxurious carpet?

Perhaps not as comfy as a fine oriental rug, but certainly more durable, is this concrete “carpet” created by faux finisher Kim Longo. Inspired by an aged tile look she saw in villas and palazzos in Italy, Longo has used templates and trowels to create unique patterns in concrete surfaces.

Planning out the design and colour palette for a stencilled concrete faux carpet comes first, of course, as with any project.

After that, The Concrete Network (www.concretenetwork.com) lays out the basic how-to on stencilling concrete:

1. Scrub the concrete surface
2. Apply two coats of primer.
3. Measure off the area to be stencilled (Longo chose the Barcelona stencil from Modello).
4. Tape off an extra width all the way around to create a border, if desired.
5. Mark a centre line and place your stencil, sticking it down firmly.
6. Carefully lay your colours into the cut-out areas in the stencil.

   You might choose to stain the concrete substrate, or trowel on a coloured cement product like Skimstone — it might be tempting to use paint for an quick and easy fix, but paint on concrete is simply not durable and will inevitably flake off with time and foot traffic.

7. Remove the stencil and finish with two or three coats of sealer.

“What began as a blank concrete canvas had been transformed into an inviting room where my youngest does his homework and reads in the afternoon with his dogs and that becomes a spot to relax at night with the ocean breezes,” Longo says.

I don’t think I’m going to pour this much DIY creativity into my concrete basement floor — which is the only flat interior concrete surface in this old farmhouse — but what about stencilled concrete for jazzing up a patio, a 3-season sun room, or even the standard mid-century concrete front step?

Very uptown!