When we last left our wood floors, they had just been nailed down and in a gorgeous raw state. This was pre painting as you can tell from the walls and doors.
They partially covered the floors while painting. Mainly near the baseboards, so when it was time to finish the floors they looked something like this. Hot mess of paint and grim on all the uncovered portions and still the raw beauty on the parts that were covered.
Even though the floors had been down for months. We had to wait for them to acclimate to the space with the air conditioner on. It was a painful wait since we were delayed electrically, and there was nothing going on at the house.
First order of business was to use wood filler to well fill the holes and what not throughout the floor. Not pretty but necessary.
The floors were sanded to get all the filler and other nastiness from the painting and etc. Then they hand scraped them. You can see the guy scraping them here on the already sanded floor for our stain samples.
Our floor guy who is awesome (locals can email me if you need his contact info) started with a chestnut stain. It was lighter than our previous floors which was great because we wanted something different. Nutmeg went on. Lighter but still not sure if it’s exactly what we wanted. Honestly I liked both and would have been happy with either, but I like to see ALL my options.
The lightest we could have gone would have been to just seal them with poly. The problem with that option is we have red oak floors, so there was too much red tone to be a beautiful blonde Scandinavian floor. Golden Oak was slightly lighter than the Nutmeg. It was actually the color I wanted for the kitchen shelves, but that wood took the stain in a very unattractive way. Think smeared poo.
Look at our pine stain board and see the difference between the Golden Oak on pine there and red oak here. Isn’t it amazing how woods react to the same thing in such different ways? I liked the Golden Oak the most. I thought it gave us the lightest floor possible but hid the majority of the red tones.
We chose to hand scrape them with the wood grain and just a medium scraping. I wanted just enough scrape that scratches (hello 2 dogs + 2 kids + Nick) could hide but not a heavy scrape that wouldn’t fit with the modern vibe we are trying to throw down.
These shavings were all over the floor after they finished.
The final product. Beautiful light floors. You can tell they still have red undertones which would have disappeared with a darker stain. I’m glad we went lighter though.
They look great with the white walls/trim and the black doors. Beckett’s closet has a pocket door. It looks so small here, but it’s not that much smaller than a typical doorway.
How cute is Beckett hanging out in his empty nursery? Answer: Very cute. Poor kid has been lugged around this house in a carrier his entire life. We didn’t bring him in when they were painting and staining, but he’s watched the progress all from his Chicco.
He may look unimpressed, but it’s just his poker face. Or he is generally just pondering when we are going to live here.
OMG those doors are divine with that floor. I love it all. Can you give me your builder’s number so I can crack my whip over his head. Because I want MORE. NOW
Beckett is adorable. Just adorable. Poker face and all!
I don’t think he can handle any more whip cracking. We have to be in the running of most difficult client ever. It’s hard when you have a very specific vision or idea of how things should be! Pickiest clients ever!!
It looks fantastic! I regret not getting wooden floors when we replaced our carpet upstairs. They’re so gorgeous.
I really think they make a room. We put them everywhere downstairs except the bathrooms. They are just so lovely.
This might be an insanely dumb question (new reader, forgive me!) but where are the stain samples located? Are they still visible after sanding, scraping, and staining or are they underneath an island or other piece of furniture? So many questions.. 😉 I’m loving your site and house!
Not a dumb question at all. They did the stain samples in the living room then sanded that area again to completely remove the samples. I know it sounds weird, but woods take stain so differently. Plus humidity and lots of other uncontrollable factors play into the final stained color, so you pretty much have to see it on your actual floor to get the most accurate representation of the stain. It also helps to see it in the space with the colors on the walls and everything to make the right decision. Does that help/answer your question?
Yes absolutely! Thanks!
i can tell beckett totally loves his nursery.
He totally does. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t realize it means he can’t sleep with mommy and daddy anymore. Game changer.
lovely! It looks like you’re getting close! (from what I can see; for all I know if you’d turned the camera around there’d be a exterior wall missing or something ;))
Crap how did you know!! I really thought I hid that missing exterior wall.
I heard smeared poo stain was making a comeback.
But for real, your floors are to die for. I’m happy you can see so much wood grain and detail. It looks so timeless. And geez, how cute can Beckett get?! Evelyn just told me he’s more handsome than Jude Law.
Oh that Evelyn, she’s already smooth with the moves. Beckett is making baby grunts of approval back at her.
Looks great. I like the hand scraped distressed look, especially for kids and pets. The color really pops too.
Thanks! We had no problems with the same floor but darker stain at our last house, so we are optimistic about these even though they are lighter. We did a mixed stain on last time. I think it was 2 parts chestnut and 1 part ebony which made touch ups impossible.
The floors look totally amazing in Willsmansion 😉
Haha I’m going to have that stuck in my head as I walk our long corridors.
Love that baby and his poker face. Yes, your floors are delicious (sorry divine and gorgeous were taken) and watch out…technical question coming at you…what width boards did you go with??? I am loving on oak right now…
They are 4 inch. There was really no significant price difference between the sizes. I love the way smaller planks look. They are a little more classic to me. When we saw them in older homes, the spaces were choppy or the areas were small. I wasn’t sure how they would feel in such open, large rooms.
Send me a key, I’m moving in. I love those floors! And those doors! And that Beckett!
As soon as I get copies made, it will be in the mail.
These floors. Are. Amazing. Wow. Not that I’m surprised. You guys are awesome and have amazing taste.
Love the stain you chose. Stain is always the hardest choice for me. So permanent. I’m also so interested in the idea of hand scraping – we’ve refinished lots of floors but never done this. Maybe something to try at some point. Love the idea of making it less horrific when my heels dig huge divets in the newly-finished floors. Hypothetically. That obviously NEVER happened. 😉
Thank you Kim! One great thing about these floors is they are actually oak planks that are nailed down. We could sand and stain them pretty much indefinitely. I won’t though obviously that would be crazy, but it’s good to know I can if I’m every feeling adventurous.
I hear you’re building a house soon, so you can try it out…
Floors look amazing!!
Thank you! They feel pretty amazing too. Yes I pet them.
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The floors look great! I have a flooring guy coming this week to see if he can bleach our oak floors. I would love to go lighter with our floors if I could. Love the nutmeg colour you chose. It looks like it helps decrease the orange tone that red oak can have. Beautiful!
I never even thought about being able to bleach the floor. That’s pretty genius! Ours are definitely more red than I’d like, but I think with the right pieces it will be perfect!
Beautiful!!! I am in love with the black doors. Please tell me where you found those!
Our builder ordered them from his supplier. I am not sure who he uses, but any door supplier should have these as an option. We just asked for craftsman style doors. He showed us a picture of these, and we loved them!