Ugly carpet gone ... I painted underlayment to look like tavern floors!

I'm going to share one of my favorite home improvement tricks on the cheap!  I'm on a limited budget so I can't exactly go out and pay thousands of dollars on hardwood flooring for every room in my house.  And yet the dirty and dated carpeting has got to go.  What is a girl to do?

I recently made over my cluttered guest room which was covered in Victorian wallpaper and green carpeting.  It all needed to go.   The rug found at Target was perfect - perfect color, price, and size.  But I didn't want to put it on top of the ugly green carpet in the room.  So I decided to removed the carpeting altogether.

Then I removed the padding below, the tack strips around the perimeter, all the staples and nails so the underlayment was nice and smooth.

The first thing I do is to paint the flooring with a brown porch and floor paint.

Once dry, I take a long straight edge and a Sharpie marker and make lines across the floor to simulate planks.

Next, I take basic black paint - even craft paint - and mix it with water in a bowl.  I then dip a rag into the paint and water in the bowl and wipe it on the floor.  I blot it and swirl it with a towel which I also use to towel to wipe the excess.

After the floor is covered, I simply let it dry.  Then I sweep it one more time in order to prepare it for the poly coating.

Then I simply add two coats of polyurethane.  To me, they look amazing.  I throw an area rug on top and I must say you really cannot the difference from actual hardwood floors and they actually cost me nothing other than one afternoon of work.

The icky, green carpeting is gone and the room feels updated and clean.  And if eventually I do have enough money for wood flooring,  the surface is ready to go.  But I must admit I like the painted underlayment so much, I don't feel the need to spend the money to get the same look.  :-)