Will this floor photo collage work?

November 2, 2007 4:08 PM

Would this art/home improvement project work, or can you share tips on how to make it work? Involves linoleum and vintage photos...

The linoleum floor in my bathroom is ugly as hell, so I decided to paint it (which the Web says is possible, and has a bunch of advice on).

Then I had the idea to kind of decoupage the floor using vintage photos, and I outlined it thusly:

1) Clean lino thoroughly
2) Lightly wet sand, clean again
3) Oil based primer
4) Place photos on floor, cover with a layer of Mod Podge
5) 3 coats of urethane

Does that sound doable? Is there something I'm missing that you think I need to do? Can I skip the Mod Podge and just brush urethane straight on a photo? (I have never used urethane so don't know its potential toxicity to materials.)

And, just out of curiosity - what do you think a floor collage of B&W photos from the early 1900s-1960s would look? Bathroom is miniscule, walls light pink, trim white.

posted by tristeza to home & garden (8 comments total)

Is this a powder room, or will you be showering in this bathroom? I'm not a crafty person, but I'm guessing that dampness and humidity may turn the finished work of art into a gooey mess.

If it doesn't turn into a gooey mess, the B&W photos with light pink walls sounds like a nice combo!
posted by necessitas at 4:14 PM on November 2, 2007

Aesthetically it sounds nice, but I would make sure the photos are of a similar size and quality, and you might consider the subject too. I don't think it would look great if it was a mishmash of sepia/B&W in varying formats and with subjects that aren't immediately identifiably. It needs to look like a well executed design choice rather than someone who lined their bathroom floor with photos because they couldn't afford tiles :)
posted by fire&wings at 4:19 PM on November 2, 2007

No, it's THE bathroom...I assumed the urethane would be like a hard, glossy top. ??
posted by tristeza at 4:19 PM on November 2, 2007

Sounds cool! You might also consider the cost of your art project vs the cost of new lino, especially in a small room like a bath. Lino can be had for really cheap, and you can do cool stuff with it...
posted by DarlingBri at 4:38 PM on November 2, 2007

There's a lot of information here about surfaces, floors, urethanes, and decoupage (search for "floor" on the page).
posted by tractorfeed at 5:01 PM on November 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

is it an oil based urethane? It will soak into the paper and dull it considerably. It will also come out yellowish so you have to factor that in. I think a better idea is to paint a design on the floor and urethane the design. That will be easier to cover up if you get sick of it. Sealing any kind of papery thing on a surface you are going to be walking on isn't long for this world. It also has the distinct possibility of mildewing/molding under the varnish (the way chaulking looks black sometimes--it's the mildew behind the chaulking bleeding through) and that won't be pretty at all.

What about a wall piece on stretched canvas? You can get pre-stretched canvas at any arts & crafts store and you could match the background of that to the floor and then use an acrylic gel medium (the Mod Podge you speak of, but many art stores will have other varieties and Golden paints makes many different types of gel mediums. Matte is flat, gloss will dry shiny. Golden Paints also has lots of advice on their website for do it yourself effects and projects you might want to check out.
posted by 45moore45 at 5:57 PM on November 2, 2007

if you're using actual photographs, you may want to test the urethane on a photo to be sure it doesn't react to the photos coating. also may want to test applying oil based urethane over water based modge podge.
posted by beckish at 6:01 PM on November 2, 2007

Get a piece of linoleum and test 1st. Is mod podge really waterproof? If there's a water soluble layer under poly, it will peel. People used to decoupage directly with poly.
posted by theora55 at 10:38 AM on November 3, 2007