The wooden part is a raised platform, and the grey part is where I installed the "slate".
To make it, I cut a bunch of thin cardboard into 1" squares, 1"x1/2" rectangles, and 1/2" squares. I wasn't sure what I wanted for a pattern, so today I played around with them and decided to use these.
Since I wanted it to look rustic, after I glued them down, I sanded the bare cardboard to lift off some of the plies in places, to make it look like chipped slate.
Next, I spackled it to make the grout, smoothing off the spackling compound with an old credit card, and sanded it some more while it was still damp. This separated the plies a little more.
Next I used slightly watered down slate grey to color the slates, and ran the credit card in the grout lines to deepen them.
After the floor was dry, I applied a light coat of water based poly.
In person, they really look like slate, much more than in the photo!
The cardboard sheets I used were quite light weight and were used as stiffeners in packages of Walmarts economy sheet protectors. They seemed to be a very good thickness for this house. (I always save nice pieces of cardboard because it's great for all kinds of crafts)!
I cut them with my Fiskars paper cutter. They dulled the blade really fast, but it didn't matter, because I didn't want them to be perfectly smooth on the edges.
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