How to Create a Floor Monogram

To give the wedding ceremony area a truly personal look, this couple designed a custom monogram and painted it onto the basketball court, where their ceremony was held.

Materials and Tools:

slate concrete stain
quartz white concrete stain
dish soap
black tempera paint
paint sprayer
poster board
pencil
scissors or razor blade
painter's tape
paint rollers
chalk line
corn broom

Concrete should be sealed with stain, making it less porous, before attempting to apply tempera paint. A test patch of tempera paint must be applied in an area not readily visible and left overnight to make certain the paint will not leave a permanent mark once removed. If tempera paint does not disperse readily, your surface is too porous to attempt the following project.

Steps:

1. Prepare concrete surface as directed by stain manufacturer, and roll the slate stain over entire concrete surface to create a solid basecoat.

2. Using a paint sprayer, dapple white stain randomly over the slate tone for a mottled effect.

3. Lightly sweep the white stain with a corn broom for a marbled or veined finish.

4. Create a custom monogram design. (We used a computer to create our look.)

5. Enlarge the design on a commercial copy machine.

6. Transfer the design using tracing paper onto poster board and cut to create a template.

7. Once the concrete is dry, use the template to trace monogram directly onto it.

8. Measure the concrete surface and mark-off diagonal squares to cover the area.

9. Use a chalk line to snap off the lines, and tape off chalk lines with painter's tape.

10. Make the temporary paint by mixing one part dish soap to five parts tempera paint.

11. Roll temporary paint between tapelines and fill in monogram using a fine brush. Once paint is dry, remove all tape.