The Original Brown Paper Floor: DIY Alternative To Hard Wood Floors 

I'm a professional carpenter. I've seen just about everything I thought but I've never seen this before. You can buy that cardboard paper in bigger rolls too cause we use it for when we're covering stuff up for painting. Floors actually looked pretty unique. I like stuff that's different than everyone else.

I just finished my Little White Trailer art studio. I used 10 years of paper bags I had stuffed under the bathroom sink. I stained it and made a stencil. I love it. Labor intensive, back and knee tribulations, but came out beautifully. Thank you, for this wonderful video!

As a carpenter who has done a lot of flooring I have never seen this before but I think it looks awesome, a real Depression era type solution that looks great. Good job.

We used to do this in the 70's. It's about time stuff like this is making a comeback. I've already starting doing macreme again, and I feel much better. Put on some van Morrison and enjoy!

Great idea and great video instructions that kept my attention. Sometimes these video's are so BORRING because people get too technical in explaining a simple thing. Thanks for keeping it simple. I'm starting my kitchen floor this week! I've been living with a sub-floor for a year now. Every type of flooring I've wanted has been too darn expensive...this fits the bill, perfectly and I think it will be therapeutic as well. Thanks AnOregonCottage! Well done

I've also see this technique where they put stain over the paper after the glue dries and before the poly is applied. It also looks amazing. This would give more color choices.

I did my living and dining room like this and it held up great to me and 4 large dogs. I also took an extra step and put wood stain on the dried paper. Really brings out some character. I also did 12 coats of poly.

I am buying a rental soon and may just do this!! Thanks so much!! Single mom of 4 trying to make some extra $$ and you just saved me big bucks!

1) great video 2) can’t wait to do it on some of our rooms. 3) hands down, the best part of the video is when you re-assured your viewers not to sweat the wrinkles. Without that key info, people wouldn’t be as empowered to give this a go! 4) Wondering how adventurous you can get with paper stock... say pages from your favorite books for your library or office etc?

The best thing about this is that you can pretty much use any type of paper and you wish the paper was darker like a hardwood floor you can stain it. There is a video where a lady took the brown paper and cut it into long strips just like a hardwood floor and the finished product came out fabulous and it actually looked like wood

We refinished our mint green formica counter top with paper! . Only different steps is, we used wallpaper paste, skipped crumpling since the tearing and gluing gave texture and used tinted polyurethane in Red Oak. Now Looks like beautiful real wood counters and have held up for two years. Just once a year we apply another coat of polyurethane to freshen up the shine. For any nicks, we add a repair piece of paper, repeat install steps and no one can even tell a repair was done!

Nice! I did a wall using this method. The only difference was I dipped the paper in the poly and rung it out then applied. It work a treat and didn't require further coats. The poly doubled as glue and protection.

I did this technique about 13 years ago in a bathroom - still holding up Haven’t even needed to repoly. Insane

everyone has their own techniques, i think you guys did a fabulous job. When I did this in a rental house we did it in the kitchen over top of some old asbestos tiles... that were cracked and awful looking. i tore up the bags in all sorts of different shapes and actually put it down with pre mixed wallpaper paste, the kind you get in a bucket. it did pretty good it did not wrinkle at all.. then we used what was called gym seal... like they use in gymnasiums its oil based and took longer to dry but it turned the floor a darker honey color and really resembled stones... this held up o our kitchen table and chairs and many parties at that house and it did great no tears.. i did get a tear once moving the washing machine but i just patched over it with more paper and a dab of gym seal once i dried and it was all fixed... this is really a fantastic floor for someone on a budget and looks so much more expensive then it really is... we loved ours.

My parent’s had poured concrete floors in their kitchen and breakfast nook. This looks a lot like the concrete floor, but a lot more cost effective! Great job, looks lovely!

This is incredible. So simple and you don't have to worry about things like cutting laminate pieces with a circular saw, making a bunch of racket, dealing with warped pieces from water damage, etc etc. I will DEFINITELY use this technique in my next DIY home. I can't believe the savings this idea provides, and my local HD store sells rolls of this paper for $11 that covers approx 400 sq ft of area. Unbelieveable.

I've never seen this before. As an artist I wonder how I missed it. Thanks for sharing.

You can alter the look of any "paper" or fabric in this decoupage application. Just add paint pigment to your "glue". Did a kitchen floor where I had "dyed" the paper to give color. It was beautiful. You can do the decoupage treatment to just about anything (floors, walls, ceilings, furniture, etc, etc, etc) and decorate accordingly. A nice touch is to have special messages on the paper... either text... children's handprints... photos... anything, really. Let your imagination be your guide. As with ALL applications, you will need to protect the finished product, accordingly.

Stunning work and I never thought of something like this. So nice to see something refreshing and new on youtube. You guys are great.

I seriously thought this was a joke at first but then realized it’s actually pretty cool! 👍

We had an RV that we redid the walls with paper bags and it looks wonderful. You can do your walls as well or even one wall for a nice look. We didn't need the polyethylene so it was very inexpensive!

I agree with using the poly to adhere to the floor. One suggestion also spray paint the paper either before it's torn this will create cracks in the paint, art work & lay down the entire sheets without tearing. Stain darker to look like wood. The possibilities are endless

I did the same technique to walls in a powder room. Then I lightly brushed over it with cordovan shoe polish. I truly looked like leather, and people couldn't believe I just used shopping bags, lol!

I think it's beautiful the concept was similar in texture to the hard would flooring and let's not forget the fact that paper is a product of wood. not intended to be for everyone however for those of us who are not born with a silver spoon up our behinds this is an environment friendly economical way to have your home quite dignified until the you are able to upgrade if you so choose to to the couple that created this video thank you I was at wits ends look forward to any other hacks you may have for people of modest means who still have the pride of ownership.. Best of everything to you...

Thanks so much for this video. I just finished putting it all down in my new crafting studio. First coat of poly is down and it's looking pretty good! The room is 12' x 28' so it took a while to put down.. but so inexpensive I love it! I'm going to create a video showing my 14,000+ YT subscribers what I did and will link to your video and give you guys credit for the fab idea! Thank you!!!

This has opened my mind to so many ideas. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for this, I have been thinking how to do my floors on a budget... you gave me a fantastic idea and then some of the commenters on here added to the ideas... how fantastic! I am so glad you did this... thank you

You are basically decoupaging the floor! I love it!!

Wow! I'm blown away! This is fantastic!!! Looks expensive! I'm so doing this! Thanks for sharing! Ur Awesome!

I've always wanted a denim floor. The technique should work for that too.

That looks exactly........like a floor made out of brown paper. It looks very, very nice. It takes an artist to do that and I have the artistic ability of a fruit fly. I would have to take years of lessons to even tear the paper prior to beginning, good video.

Thank you so much. Im going to tackle this project this weekend.

comic strip floor

Just found this accidently, and it is genius! Thank you for sharing.

I have more time than money. I have seen this on walls but not flooring. I think this is amazing. Thank you for sharing.

You kept it easy and informative. Thank you and well done!

Awesome !!! Video Thank You, for the Great Simply Instructions and detail. I finally feel I can do this too! Many Blessings Hugs

Your results look nice but there is a better easier way. Use your water based poly to apply your paper. After you tear your paper scrunch it up, dip it into the poly, squeeze it out, open it up and stick it to the floor. This swells the paper a little but as it dries it pulls down tight, no wrinkles. And you don't have to poly it again when its down unless you want to. Yes you need gloves and your forearms get a good workout from the squeezing but the results are worth it. I've done it on walls, floors, over wood, over concrete , interior and exterior(need an oil based poly to finish with).

Nice job! Looks great! There are SO MANY applications for this technique: walls, furniture, shelving, statues, AND so many kinds of paper that can be used: gift wrap, newspaper, comics, maps, book pages, etc.

Wow, absolutely genius. Considering all the wasteful expenditure one sees in society today, it is amazing to see people applying their "little grey cells" (as Poirot would say). Bravo!

I did this but added a capful of liquid brown rit dye to a 1 liter soda bottle of glue and water mixture. This dyed the wrinkles darker and made it look really well.. Eliminated the staining process.

I like these people - they are so real 😊

I was doing this to pieces of furniture in the late 70 early 80 if you want you can add a splash of color with spray cans of different colors of paint before you rip up the paper . I recently covered some doors in a house that had been abused and would have cost roughly 2500 to replace all of them but I soak the paper in a mixture of water based varnish and 10% water small group of paper at a time then place them on the item I wish to cover and next day clear coat 2-3 times depending on the finish I’m after. If I was going to use this on a floor I would use a good two complement wood finish such as Bona they make a very durable product that will stand up to heavy use. Thanks for the video I enjoyed it greatly.

I have done this with walls but before putting a sealer on it I would go with some dark brown and cream color paint to put some low lights and high lights on it, when I was finished it looked like leather very beautiful for an accent wall in an office

That's got to be one of the COOLEST techniques I've ever seen!!

I did this to a wall years ago it looked like suede. Great project .

Wow! I'm impressed! At first I thought oh my god what are they doing? But got to admit it looks really good! Cheap too!

I used brown paper bags, with a mix of thinned clear elmers glue to basically make an axe handle for my sons fireman costume, and it looked like real wood or leather, very cool.

When we did this back in the 70s we used shoe polish and it really looked like leather! This was on a wall however! We didn’t use polyurethane because the polish made a nice shine.!

Wow Amazing Really got me thinking about doing all my bedrooms

Thank you, you seem to point out the things like the bubbles that would have worried me. I think I will try this using the strips and wood grain tool to get the effect I want. You really explained it well!

Absolutely STUNNING!!

I really like the look, thanks for sharing such a cost effective way to finish floors

Omg you mod podged a whole floor! Effing brilliant!!!! 😲

2 days and $60 is awesome. My new cabin will look great,Thank you. For heavy traffic areas I am using vinyl pieces that look like bridges over a stream. This technique was all I was missing.

WOW, that is really nice looking and cheap to do... “A Joy of Beauty and a Sight to Behold”. I like it when the parents get their children involved in projects like this. Thanks for the “AWESOME” step by step video.

I worked at an interior design store and they had stained concrete flooring that looked very similar. Creative. Do you and have fun.

This is so COOL! I grew up around all art types and I have to say that this method is a new take on an old type! Thanks for sharing this ... I want to use this in the future.

Great, great job couple! Thank you for sharing

Hey! Thank u for this! Going to try this😁. Great helpful video.

I've used this technique on canvas board as a background for a collage picture, and as a book cover. You can also add a bit of stain to it. I like the darker leather look, but your floors look great.

I personally don't care for this look,but it is an interesting idea. It is your home,if you like it then that is what's important.

Decoupaging the floor, brilliant idea!

I once did a room this way, only it was on the walls. But doing the floor was pure genius!!!!!! I would never of thought of that on my own. Great job, great look, great tutorial!! Thanks for sharing.

I wish you'd show more of the finished product. Most of it was covered by furniture and the lighting made it hard to see what it actually looked like.

A fun option is to save interesting paper bags and display them on the floor. You can top a finished floor with scrapbook paper, or a story; just glue and refinish.

You and your husband did an awesome job on your floor, absolutely beautiful!❤🙏

You have done a beautiful job, and at the same time shown a lot of people who don't have the resources to do a wood or carpet floor. I've done this and simply love it. Now go rest for a long time!!

You can definitely use leaves of all shapes, sizes and colors to cover table top or counter top, etc. Once you poly it, there is no chance of having a problem of decomposition. You can also use a spray can to make the job go faster. This is what we did in the seventies. My husband showed me how to use small pieces of eggshells on a table with a coating of polyurethane.

The reason the paper “bubbles” is the glue on the top is exposed to air so the clue on one side is drying fast then the glue on the backside.

I've seen this same technique done on walls and it's fantastic looking!

I didn't know floors like this ever existed. It is very thrifty and we all have to be creative because when money is tight, we better save it for something that is necessary. Thanks for sharing.

I live in germany,and I never ever heard of it! interesting!

colour paper would look cool

I really really love this idea! So innovative and creative! It's a giant collage :) Who knew? Thank you for sharing.

This is brilliant !Thanks so much for this phenomenal tutorial !

Looks more like flagstone than hardwood floors. Nice job

LoL! This happen to me while watching this video lol. I wanted to know if this was going to look good so I paused the video and jumped forward to see if the end result was any good before watching the video in its intiraty and after a quick tap on the progress bar I ended up randomly on 8:10 but had to keep the video on pause and place my cell down on the table to run out and let my Cats inside. My better half asked me what I was watching and I told her I was going to build her something that I know she would love and would be a nice addition to our bedroom (she had been asking about wooden floors for our bedroom for sometime) I told her I wanted it to be a surprise and I was watching a video tutorial a young lady had uploaded on RU-vid on a affordable way to do this project. She said she wanted to see what it was and I said no it will ruin your present, but knowing she would look at it any way I walked out of the house to bring my cats in and to my surprise as I turned the door knob to comeback inside the Door was locked and she was MAD! something on the video got her mad and was letting me have it trough the door "OH I BET YOU WERE THINKING OF ME! MORE LIKE YOURSELF!" and I was like what is she talking about? Well we went back and forth and when I got back inside she handed me my phone and told me if I put that in our bedroom she would sleep on the couch! I couldn't belieave she would get this upset over paper wood floors I thought she would Lo💘e the idea knowing how much she liked "do it yourself home decorations" and saving money but then I looked at my phone and it all became clear to me lol 8:10, I will let you go to 8:10 on the video to see what she was screaming about lol in the end though I was able to let her see the complete video and she understood the mix up lol and we had a good laugh out of it lol go to 8:10 and let me know if you see what she was thinking and what she thought I had in mind for her bedroom gift lol.

Great job explaining! Thank you for an eye opener

WOW I never would've guessed - a brown paper floor. Great Job & so pretty.

Looks great use a fat nap mini roller on floor and paper both then brush it out if it creates any air bubbles it works great for the finish too

Many years ago I did the same with a wall and I used news paper. At the time every body thought I was nuts, and I may have been as it was a rental.. But it was like no other, and that suited me fine.. I did put multiple layers on as news print is pretty thin. I had never really thought about it again till now since I have a reason to approach this idea again .. thank you for sharing your idea....

I love the way you guys explain the steps. Well done and easy to follow.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS!!!

This is amazing!!! I love it!! If and when I ever get the chance to create my dream home, I am definitely going to use this method of flooring! I will most likely tint it darker though!

Would be really great if you could dye the paper and do an "inlaid" geometric design or a compass, or even paint the design into the floors and add gold touches like a kintsugi style floor. Has a lot of potential.

colored construction paper in my kids room would look way cool! just shared this with the wife who has been crying about flooring in the family room. I am willing to bet she will start on this tomorrow whole I'm at work! looks alot easier than laying wood or linoleum. Thanks guys.

Iw never heard of such a idea.. Great job.. Well done

instead of ripping the paper random why not cut it so it looks like planks then it really would look like wood

Could you do the same process with the heavy white packing-paper material provided by UHaul? Thanks you for your response. This is such a super idea - and I hate having carpet in my house. yuk. ;-)

This is fabulous. I have been stressing over how to create an attractive floor rehab for my home and this hit me where I live. I am going to try this in my upstairs bedrooms and see what I get! Thank you so much for this great video!

Ok I’m not going to lie...I said to myself “these people are nuts!” I thought this was a joke! Until I saw the finished product! Wow! 👍🏾 nice job this turned out beautiful!

I happend to watch this video. I´m a sewer. So i have the idea to use fabric scraps insteed of paper. I´ll keep it in my mind.

You're a lucky guy to have such a smart wife.

Wow.. unbelievable !! Looks great ! 😊

I did a whole basement floor but used brown and red craft paper and stained it a darker color then poly. It’s gorgeous!!!

Warning for Aussie diy-ers, old homes with lino may have asbestos underneath it.

When you tear out carpet, make sure to wear a good dust mask, at least. The dust from those old carpets is nasty stuff.

Wow...Amazing...never heard of this...but Gorgeous...

Oh & I love it wrinkled too!