Kitchen floor doodling
November 9, 2007
Last night i decided to turn my new white shiny plastic floor, which i had put over the horrible light wooden floor, back into a wooden floor. With a fat black marker.
No sketching, no real plan. Just doodling along all over the floor. The result is amazingly attention-grabbing. On the edge of psychosis inducing.
It all began when i wanted to get rid of the wooden floors that were in my apartment when i bought it. Tearing it up would be a lot of work(obviously) and stupid(because even if i don’t like it, i know replacing it with plastic floor would lower the value of this apartment remarkably when i’m going to sell it one day).
So i started looking for a way to keep the original floor, but cover it with a white shiny surface. Painting it would possibly ruin the floor, and it would require a complete floor grind. No other solutions seemed to be available. Until i one day saw a roll of self-adhesive vinyl film in the hardware store. People use it for cupboards and car decals, why wouldn’t it work on a floor? The staff at the store said it would never work of course. “It won’t last blah blah blah leave marks blah blah do it proper blah”.
But i was optimistic. I don’t need something to last for 10 years, if it looks good for one year and is easy to remove it’s way better! And it’s cheap too. So i bought a roll and tried it out.
The result is great. The film is so thin you can even see the structure of the wood on it. It’s like paint that you can tear up as many times as you wish. And you don’t need to grind or polish the floor, just vacuum it before you apply the film. It doesn’t leave any marks or traces of glue on my floor, but i don’t know if that goes for every type of wood. And it’s more durable than you think. After a couple of months you will have a few minor tears. But not much worse than a painted floor.
And i love the feeling of disposability in interiors, it enables you to experiment with it.
Like turning it into a huge doodle.
I love this floor, I would like to do something like this(have just moved into new small place) but the floors are concrete- I imagine the film would not stick fast to this, maybe I could cheaply tile it or something first *thinks thinks*
Comment by chkn — August 19, 2008 @ 7:47 pm
great job! The cats were hilarious in the clip. Did you record the drawing going on too?
Comment by Overstroming — September 15, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
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Comment by fhyaqp — September 16, 2008 @ 2:41 pm
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[...] Remember the Sharpie Lamborghini? Hemmendorff just did the same thing to his plastic kitchen floor: [...]
Pingback by Kitchen floor doodling : clusterflock — September 16, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
What a great idea! I have an artist friend that’s offered to do something for a sewing room….I would so love to have doodles like this. Did you use anything over the marker to keep it from smudging?
Comment by Ariane — September 17, 2008 @ 10:44 am
That’s awesome. Love the cats. Is the spotted one an ocicat?
Comment by Megan — September 17, 2008 @ 11:59 pm
Dude. That is so incredibly amazing. Now I want to rip up my beige wall-to-wall carpeting, plastickify, and set the kids loose with big fat markers (they can draw way better than I can).
Wow. Dude.
Comment by anne — September 18, 2008 @ 1:02 am
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Pingback by Floor "refinished" by drawing on it | The Current Buzz - Tech — September 18, 2008 @ 2:57 am
That’s the coolest floor I have ever seen. That is a floor that even I am jeaous of!
Comment by Thomas — September 18, 2008 @ 3:22 am
There’s money to be made here! You should figure out how and quick! Awesome! nice panties too.
Comment by Shawndra — September 18, 2008 @ 4:59 am
My husband makes the suggestion to put down a coat or two of polyurthane. To help protect the floor a bit. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
What a great idea! I want to do that in my kitchen now! Cept I run a daycare and likely it’d last um, a week. Maybe a bathroom. Oooh you could do waves with fish and sharks and mermaids and boats! …off to find lots of contact paper now. >:)
Comment by Lisa — September 18, 2008 @ 6:14 am
This film gets an A for incidental cat participation. The floor is pretty cool too.
Comment by Roger — September 18, 2008 @ 9:57 am
This looks so cool!
Maybe the table would benefit from the same treatment, if you have a spare of that plastic left?
Comment by til — September 18, 2008 @ 1:51 pm
The polyurthane tip might be useful. And if you want to protect the drawing from damage (say if there are kids around) you might want to cover with a layer of clear plastic film.
Comment by Kmac — September 18, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
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Pingback by furiousBlog - in my diatribe » Blog Archive » the one thing that was missing from the list — September 18, 2008 @ 3:59 pm
love the floor & the original idea behind it! love your cats too, they are so cute in the video!
Comment by Luphia — September 18, 2008 @ 5:07 pm
i think the floor is actually pergo, laminate fake wood flooring. great stuff, affordable and totally bulletproof. should take this treatment many times. the expensive brands even have plastic over them for protection during the install. absolutly love this post. much better than painted wood floors
Comment by andy — September 18, 2008 @ 6:10 pm
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Pingback by Kitchen floor doodling « Domestic Geek — September 18, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
I deal with the same “audience” whenever I’m doing something on the floor.
Awesome idea!
Comment by Never teh Bride — September 19, 2008 @ 1:27 am
My first thought was NICE man-panty. But just when I thought it couldn’t get any hotter, there you go showing a little leg. Miss Havisham, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!
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Pingback by With the Look of Real Wood » Manolo for the Home — September 19, 2008 @ 12:06 pm
For the person with concrete floors, Try googling making a floor cloth. Basically you take a big peice of canvas, prime it and then paint your design on it. Permanent markers might work. I go to the local “Department of Toxic Waste” and get partly used cans of house paint (my son has even got cans of expensive car paint there). Acouple hundred of years ago, if you couldn’t afford a carpet, you faked it with a painted floor cloth.
Comment by SKitty — September 20, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
Cool and fun!
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Pingback by links for 2008-09-23 | The Computer Vet Weblog — September 23, 2008 @ 9:00 am
The grass is the surreal part for me. The floor is pretty awesome.
Comment by web — September 25, 2008 @ 2:24 pm
There’s a lot of other custombuilt small features in my apartment like that extended grassy window ledge…
I’ll make a proper tour of the apt some day and put it up here later.
Comment by Hemmendorff — September 25, 2008 @ 7:45 pm
Hi there, I was hoping that we could chat for a bit over email. I am a style editor for a company in Toronto, Canada and we came across this amazing floor - I wanted to ask you a couple of questions as to what make you do it? How long it took you? What the feedback etc. from people who’ve seen it…etc. Could you let me know if you are available to chat with me for a bit.
Thanks so much
Charlene
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Pingback by Natural Decors » Blog Archive » hemmendorf floor design — October 28, 2008 @ 5:26 am
Do you know the brand or gauge of the film you purchased? I just moved into an apartment in Vermont and would love to try this on the floor there. It’s an old 1980s laminate — do you think the film would work on that?
Thanks! Ginger
Comment by Ginger Gellman — November 4, 2008 @ 1:44 am