I’m back again this week sharing my kitchen renovation and sharing over at the ORC.
This week I’m sharing how I refinished the wood floors in our cabin. Almost 3 years ago we purchased our cabin with the knowledge that the flooring on all three levels of the home would need to be addressed- some sooner than others… hello stinky dog carpet.
We pretty promptly removed and replaced the carpet on the upstairs level and now that we are renovating the kitchen and completely demoing the island it is the time to refinish the floors.
After moving out all of the furniture and taping off vents, returns and built-in shelving I rented a sander from The Home Depot and set about sanding down our pine floors.
Our floors were in pretty rough shape. You head to my previous post HERE to see before photos. They are pine, which is a fairly soft wood that can wear easily and to be honest I don’t mind the dings, smallish gaps between the planks and the knot holes. We do live in a cabin after all (and not a super sleek modern cabin, a Lincoln Log type, very traditional cabin) and I think these attributes give our floors character and story, they make the home feel much older than it is (it’s 15 btw). I like that.
But what I did not like was the barely there (or not there at all) very orange varnish. Because the varnish was so incredibly thin it was a breeze to remove. A few passes with the floor sander did the trick and I finished up with a palm sander around the edges and corners of the rooms. I previously mentioned that the old varnish was very orange but it was probably a clear varnish that had ambered over time. Pine will do that when varnished and I wanted to make sure that I cancelled out the orange undertones in the wood before I moved on with the stain.
To do this I mixed a paint wash of 1 part paint (Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray) to 3 parts water and applied this to all of the sanded floor surfaces. This completely neutralized the orange tones and gave me a beautiful light starting point.
Then it was time for a statement moment in the kitchen. I decided that I would paint a bordered checkerboard pattern on the kitchen floor. T square and painter’s tape in hand I taped the entire floor and painted the checkerboard pattern using porch and floor paint in the color “Black Mocha” by Behr. This color has very warm undertones that look cozy instead of stark.
Next it was time to stain the floors and I came in with a custom mix of stains. I wanted a neutral not too gray not too brown medium color and I wanted it to be very translucent. I used varathane floor stain in the colors “natural” and “western oak” to create my mix and then I just followed the manufacturer instructions for staining floors. Below you can see part of the floor has been stained over the white wash, it’s very subtle and just a hair darker but it does look beautiful!
Lastly, I sealed the floors per the manufacturer’s instructions using varathane floor finish.
To say we are thrilled about these floors is probably the understatement of the year. They turned out so well, the shade and tone of the stain is just perfect. The floors retained a time-worn look while getting a fresh makeover and they are thoroughly protected!
Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out this post, would you do me a favor? Would you consider pinning the last image on Pinterest? It really helps growing blogs gain traction out here. Thank you so much!
