June-July 2015 Issue of Inside New Orleans

Benjamin Moore has a Porch & Deck enamel that goes on thick and dries rock hard, almost impervious to wear and tear. And what wear does appear over time is a welcome patina of good character. If a little ‘good character’ bothers you, it’s easy enough to have your painted floor touched up from time to time.

The funny thing is that, particularly in New Orleans, we are a tad obsessive about our natural wood floors. Wood floors and high ceilings—a New Orleanian’s badge of honor. So it sometimes proves quite difficult to convince a client (usually the husband) to paint over their precious wood floor. But once it’s done, the room with the painted floor invariably becomes everyone’s favorite room in the house. There’s something very happy about a room with a painted floor.

The painted wood floor can be whimsical in a child’s room, or dynamic in a master bedroom. It can be fun in a playroom or sophisticated in a foyer. In an older house, a painted floor can infuse life and charm to a worn-out wood floor. If you are building, you can designate the painted floor beforehand and use a much less expensive grade of wood and a more narrow plank in that room than in the rest of the house.

That’s it! Tell your husband it’s a money saver!

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