Painting a Terra-cotta floor?

8 years ago

We have a terra-cotta floor in our entry hall. It’s an ugly brownish red which all terra-cotta is. We would like to give it a more modern look as we are updating the entire house. It is a good solid floor and don’t see a reason to rip it up. We would like to paint it a slate gray color. I’ve found a little about painting the terra-cotta and the process. I’m wondering if anyone has done this? How has it turned out? Any suggestion for pitfalls in the process of doing it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments (4)

phuninthesun
8 years ago
painting a terracotta tile floor

Family member had theirs painted professionally, and it looked great for at least the 10 years that they owned the home. I believe the results depend on the quality of the prep work.
SJ McCarthy
8 years ago
Terracotta can have colour/stain added to it. It stands to reason that floor paint (of the RIGHT TYPE) will do the same.

Remember: Terracotta tiles are sealed and then WAXED!!!! Which means you need to remove every single molecule of wax/finish. Once you are down to the raw, porous, uncontaminated material (real terracotta), you can then do with them as you please.

If you miss even a speck of the wax, you will have a peeling mess on your hands. And it could "let go" inside of a few months.

A better photo would be helpful. This looks to be a high-end terracotta tile. I wouldn't do anything to this. The value is in the authenticity of the tile itself. Once you try to fix the visual....you remove all value.
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Debbie Downer
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Is it glazed or non-glazed? If non, that means its very porous and would be very paintable - as above poster stated ev molecule of wax has to be removed. Yeah it would be nice to get better view of it - looks like there are some grays in it. A drab monotone gray, although very common on this forum, is not the only choice for a more modern palette - grays + a color can be very modern indeed. Grays + terra cotta or even orange can be very attractive combination depending on exact choice of shades. Actually I ve been coming across that combo a lot lately in the new construction around my fair city.

Google images searching on gray+terra cotta interiors - way more pics than I can list here.
ilikefriday
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I painted my tile floor, not terracotta but it was some kind of glossy tile that I hated. I would imagine that the process with terracotta would be no different. Not sure if it had wax on it. All I know is I hated it. I mopped the floor and rolled on the paint. I used the same Behr paint that had been previously used on the walls. I think I put 3 coats of paint and then several coats of polyurethane. I think the key is to do several layers of polyurethane or whatever you are going to use to protect the finish. After I painted the floor I stenciled on top of that and added even more polyurethane. I think terracotta would be more porous than the type of tile I have and therefore your results will probably be better.

Here is my before and after.