Get that terracotta tile-look in a flash with a quick-and-easy painted finish.

It's time to do something about that boring concrete floor. If you don't want to fork out on a stack of pricey tiles (and don't fancy the hassle of hard labour), then fake it.

Get creative! Customise your paint colours according to the size and shape of your floor.

You'll need:
Filing compound for any cracks in the concrete
Sandpaper
Sikka cleaning compound
Graph paper
Coloured pencils
Berger Jet Dry Paving paint (see our colour guide for list of colours)
1 litre Viponds paving paint base (see our colour guide for list of colours)
Piece of chalk
5cm medium density polyurethane foam and glue
3mm-thick customwood
Wood off-cuts to make handles
Contact adhesive

Tools:
High-pressure washer or wet sandblaster
Ruler
Large sea sponge
Paintbrush
Paint roller and tray
Garbage bags
Newspaper

Our colour guide:
For the background: Berger Jet Dry Paving paint in Sandstone
For the terracotta-look tiles: Berger Jet Dry Paving paint in Nickel Clay, Terracotta and Ferric Red
For the detail tiles: 1L Viponds paving paint base tinted to Dulux colours Seven Lakes, Verdi Blue and Moroccan Gold.

Here's how:
Preparation
1. Draw your pattern on graph paper, and colour it in with pencils (you can use our design below as a guide).

2. Prepare the surface by scraping off any excess flaky paint, lumps, etc, and sand it thoroughly. Alternatively, use a high-pressure washer, wet sandblaster or Sikka cleaning compound.

3. When completely dry, fill all cracks in the concrete with the filling compound and wipe over with a wet rag or sponge. Leave to dry.

4. Apply one coat of Berger Jet Dry Sandstone with a roller and allow to dry. Note: one litre of paving paint covers 10 square metres.

5. Measure up the pattern and mark the centre of design using chalk. Also mark terracotta tiles using the chalk line.

Making the stamps
6. To allow for the grouting detail, make the large and small stamps for the tiles slightly smaller to fit within the chalk lines. To make the stamps, cut foam pieces and customwood to the size of the desired tiles. Make a stamp for each colour. (Our large tiles are about 310mm x 310mm and the small ones are about 120mm x 120mm). Cut a corner off one of the large stamps to fit around the small coloured details tiles.

7. Glue the foam pieces to the boards.

8. For the handles, cut two pieces of timber about 100mm long for each large stamp and one about 80mm long for each small stamp. Glue them to each piece of customwood using the contact adhesive.

Painting the design
9. Using our design as a guide, paint the central design first, using Seven Lakes, Verdi Blue and Moroccan Gold with a brush, or if you like, make stamps to the correct shapes.

10. Roughly mix the Nickel Clay, Terracotta and Ferric red in a variety of quantities to make shades of terracotta.

11. Line the paint tray with the garbage bag and pour the paint into the lined tray. Press the stamp into the paint and blot excess paint on newspaper. Applying pressure evenly, stamp out the tiles using the terracotta colours, making sure you leave gaps in between each tile to represent the grouting.

12. Stamp out the small feature tiles in the Seven Lakes, Verdi Blue and Moroccan Gold colours with the small stamps. Leave to dry.

13. Hand brush and sponge highlights and shadows, to give extra dimension and shading using different tones of terracotta.