Thinking about a new pantry floor.

Sorry I've been away for a bit.  Poor Hailey and this chemo, they don't seem to be getting along in the vicinity of the rear area, to be polite.  Needless to say, none of us have been getting a lot of sleep in the last few days with the unending rush to outside at all hours.  I feel terrible for her.  Hopefully this won't happen each time she gets a new dose.

So I haven't had a chance to work on much around the house really, other than to think about what I would like to be working on.  Although today I did the Super Fridge Purge and Clean where I took everything out, washed all the shelves and drawers, tossed stuff and reorganized.  That felt good.  I really haven't felt like I've gotten things organized since we moved in here.

Now that the stripes are complete my attention seems to be drifting back into the pantry, thinking about that ratty floor in there.  Finishing the stripes has got me hankerin' to finish something else.

I looked into some self leveling concrete and it sounds like it could possibly work, though it would take some good prep to make sure I don't have rivers of runny concrete seeping out everywhere.  It looks like the stuff is on the pricier side and I'd need about 5-6 bags to get a 1/2" thick floor so I'm not sold on the idea.  That and the carpeted floor was cold in the winter so it's clear there's some insulation (lack thereof) issues to contend with.

I'm not in the mood to tile the floor with ceramic, nor toss down a wood floor.  It's a pantry.  And while I do want it to be cool, we have enough tile projects lined up, I already feel too much tiled out.   It's not a big room, this pantry, so something a little more creative without going too nutso seems in order.   It's a room that inherently comes with a Get Away Free, Do Something Cool card.

There's vinyl tile.  Eh.  Easy.  Solves the problem.  Cleans easily.  Boring potential:  quite high.

I could paint it.  Though that right there, I mean, there are just a bazillion ways to paint a floor.  I suppose then it could be a rotating canvas of ideas whenever the whim strikes.  Boring potential:  quite low.

Off to the interwebs it is then.

This woman did a faux concrete floor using a product called Ardex and while it's definitely a cool floor, kind of where I wanted to go with the whole thing, this stuff sounds way fussy and she ended up with only an 1/8" coating after six layers.  Much too thin for a higher traffic pantry.

A leather belt floor is cool, though wow, imagine how many leather belts you'd need!  Hm, it is only fifty eight square feet.  How many trips to every thrift store in the whole area!  How many droopy pants around town!  Actually, I'm sure Mike's got a growing stash.  I'll keep this idea on the back burner as the more I think about it, the more it grows on me.

I thought about cork flooring but after a cursory search, it's pretty expensive.  Or those decorative cork tiles but they aren't terribly sturdy.  I did see this idea which, wow, yeah, serious hangover and a serious test of patience?  I know, you can just buy corks, but I don't think this is right for me, though the additional insulation is a plus.

This is neat, felt flooring (sans the LED lights) but that puts me back in the realm of carpet where I do not like to tread.

This was kind of interesting, a newsprint printed wood floor.  That would have to be a DIY thingie where I make up the process. (Broken link and now I can't find it, sorry.)

There are paper bag ideas, cutting strips of plywood ideas, brick veneer, epoxy, pennies, mosaics, hand drawn permanent marker, hand drawn permanent marker, bottle caps, tree branch circles, puzzle pieces, maps.....the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on.  Type "DIY floor" or "floor ideas" into Google images and see what comes up.  And it goes on.

What if I wallpapered the floor and sealed it?  Or made wallpaper tiles?  Or tacked down a bunch of paint sticks and stained them?  Or.  Or.  Astroturf!  That would be really fun actually and something I would totally do.  (Did you hear Mike scream in panic just then?)  Or.  Or.  Or.  Or poke through the materials section or free section of Craigslist and see what I could turn into a floor.  Or.  Or...or......

And overwhelmed.  Cross-eyed with ideas.  Step away from the computer.  Better go lay down for a few seconds while my brain resets.