After perusing countless finished garage photos online, I decided to attempt the look of a vinyl floor liner.  There are different types, colors and patterns, with one popular choice being black and white checkerboard like this example from the internet:

It does make a statement, but I wanted to go with something more subtle, like the look of grey coin-patterned vinyl floors.

If I thought dollhouse garage lights were limited, flooring options beyond paint were even tougher to find.  To my knowledge, there wasn't any material out there that I could use as is to mimic the look of vinyl flooring, so I decided to use black and white hexagon tile sheets by Handley House.  They are made of heavy embossed paper that I thought would translate well after some grey paint and matte sealer spray.

Here's the paper layout along with two test swatches of paint.  The one on the right is the same medium grey I used to paint other portions of the garage.  The one on the left is medium grey toned down with an equal amount of white paint.  Overall, the scale of the hexagonal pattern works well.

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The sheets weren't large enough to cover without piecing.  I used Yes! paste to affix the paper to the plywood floor - great stuff!  :D

My two pieces could have lined up better, but I didn't do too poorly for my first attempt at seaming tile sheets.  And, I learned a couple of things during the process that will help with wallpapering the rest of the house.

I didn't like either of the color swatches I had done so I mixed mostly medium grey with some white and a dash of Payne's grey.  How's that for an precise recipe?  ;]  The paint disguised the seam fairly well but caused some minor buckling in the paper where I hadn't put enough paste, so I lifted the paper while it was still flexible and put more paste down.  Problem solved.

After the paint dried, I sprayed on a light coat of matte sealer.  Contrary to the name, the spray creates a fine satin sheen and becomes glossier the more you spray.  The effect turned out exactly the way I had hoped.

For the most part, I am pleased with the end result.  I'm a perfectionist so the seam line bothers me a bit, but there really isn't anything I can do about it.  Even if I started over, there would be seams somewhere on the floor.  There isn't a tile sheet on the market large enough to cover the entire surface area.  I could have perhaps chosen a better location for the seam, but the finish turned out so well that I hate to tear it all up just to end up with seams again.  Besides, as more items get added to the garage, it should be less noticeable.  If I find a better solution in the future, I can always renovate!  :D

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