spring project : stenciled floors

three months after our son was born, my husband and i discovered that the carpet in our home was giving him allergies. although i professionally cleaned them every six months, we wasted no time ripping it out of every room, including closets. what waited for us underneath was a softwood fir floor covered in paint splotches of various color and a very uneven tone in the wood. i tolerated looking at it's unattractiveness as long as i could (which seemed like forever) until concluding that something had to be done with it before i lost my mind. after doing a little research i decided painting would be the most promising, albeit affordable option at the time; although not the easiest. i enlisted my seventeen year old brother-in-law to help (much to his chagrin) sand, prime, and paint two bedrooms, our front room and hallway~ everything but the kitchen and bath. time, weather, and space (to move the furniture) were not on our side, but somehow we managed to finish the project a week before my son's first birthday party. now only a year and a half later the shortcuts we took are starting to rear their scuffed and patchy holes. i need a solution this spring and i think i've found it~ below are some of my favorite ideas for stenciled floors... i'm heading out now to buy the supplies. Stay tuned for my results!

images via web