Innovation may be born from necessity, but, oftentimes, so is art — even when the chosen “canvas” is the floor. While certainly nothing new, painted floors are having what is definitely not their first, or last, renaissance.

Traditionally, people painted wooden floors for practical purposes. The heat from wood-burning stoves and fireplaces posed a hazard for splintering untreated wood; later, paints and stains deterred pests. As these paints and stains evolved, decorative colors and patterns began to emerge.

Today, wooden floors are being painted once again for entirely new reasons. Young homeowners are continuing the tradition of buying and restoring older homes and buildings, optimistic that, like their predecessors, they need only sand and stain their worse-for-wear hardwood floors. Unfortunately, these homeowners are running into a common problem — the floors are too thin to sand. That’s especially true for homes welcoming their third or fourth owners that may have had their floors sanded down at each turn of title.

Saddled, née, burdened with the discovery that the floors have seen their last sanding machine, and nary the budget for replacement, the remaining option is clear — paint them!

Unlike the deep sanding required to apply a stain, painted floors require little more than a light scuffing to be ready to paint and seal; any dips and drops can be filled with a paint grade wood filler if needed. While there are many companies specializing in painting floors, this is a project that is fit for even the most novice do-it-yourselfer.

A quick search of “painted wood floors” on Instagram, Pinterest, and the like will turn up a plethora of inspirational photos. Classic harlequin patterns are most popular for their timeless quality, but the sky is the limit — a solid color is equally attractive.

A personal favorite is a cream-and-mushroom colored harlequin painted floor in the kitchen of DIY guru Katie Shears of the immensely popular Florence Revival blog.

“I chose to paint them because the fir floors weren’t in great condition in the kitchen,” Shears tells CultureMap. “I tried to refinish them, but they didn’t look cohesive with the rest of my oak floors. So I decided to use paint on them to give them a clean look.”

As seen above, the results speak for themselves.

Painted floors have remained popular mostly in the well-appointed homes of “high net worth individuals,” but that’s beginning to change. While most trends take an average of five to eight years to “trickle down” from the world of high end design to the mainstream market, painting floors has held firmly to its position in elevated design — until now.

It’s an exiting time for painted floors in the mid-market, and we cannot wait to see what emerges from the trend next!