We did it.
Oh yes we did.
We painted our front hall wood floor and I am in love.
Now, before we pitch fork the lady painting the wood floor, a little bit of back story to how this decision came to be.
When we moved into our house we tore out the horrid broken peach tile flooring in our front hall and really wanted wood. Our budget only allowed at the time for the unfinished pine from Home Depot that we installed ourselves and then stained to make it look like a higher end wide plank floor. Hindsight of course and young decisions, having multiple wood mismatched floors on one floor of the house wasn't necessarily the right decision cal nor is a soft wood great for a front hall.
Live and learn.
Over the years, 2 re-stains and 2 doggies later the floor was beyond another stain session without some extreme sanding. The colour would have come out almost black and I really didn't want that.
In the grand scheme of spending money on our home, the pot is done for the year so we wanted a budget friendly option that would make our floor look QUITE a bit better.
Over the years, 2 re-stains and 2 doggies later the floor was beyond another stain session without some extreme sanding. The colour would have come out almost black and I really didn't want that.
In the grand scheme of spending money on our home, the pot is done for the year so we wanted a budget friendly option that would make our floor look QUITE a bit better.
I casually sidled this idea up to Trevor and the initial response was a no.
Crap.
New idea or wait for a period of time and try that sidling again.
I waited and had a photo example this time and I also ordered some large paint chips.
Have you heard of this great company?
It's called Hello Paint and they have most of the big name paint companies paint chips available to purchase to allow you to get more of a sense of what colour you'd like to use before you even get to test pot stage. Unless of course you're like me and head straight into wing it stage after deciding on a colour.
Either way these large paint chips are from this Canadian company, and have a sticky back if you want to adhere them to your wall and watch how the colour changes but in our case I just put the chips under the rug and we walked on them for a few days and eliminated the losers until landing on Benjamin Moore Coliingwood.
This isn't a sponsored information snippet. I found them on instagram and the rest is history.
Alright let's move on to the juicy stuff and explain how we did it.
Our front hall was stained only. No extra sealers on the wood over the years so we did NOT sand prior to priming. We super cleaned, washed well multiple times with vinegar, re-caulked any large areas that needed it around baseboards etc and went right into priming. We did two coats of Zinsser primer prior to any painting.
In the before photos you can see the wear from the dog doing burnouts to get out the door. Yes of course we know that this may be an issue again but like I said, we have a plan for this space and what we want to eventually do, so this painted floor is looking at a two year turn around in wear. I think that's feasible as we aren't overly rough on things at all. Barricades and everything to keep everyone out while we were working and waiting for drying.
And now the pretty,
In the before photos you can see the wear from the dog doing burnouts to get out the door. Yes of course we know that this may be an issue again but like I said, we have a plan for this space and what we want to eventually do, so this painted floor is looking at a two year turn around in wear. I think that's feasible as we aren't overly rough on things at all. Barricades and everything to keep everyone out while we were working and waiting for drying.
And now the pretty,
The walls in here are Benjamin Moore White Dove, my go to white with our lighting.
I wanted the floors to have some contrast so they didn't just completely blend but also not be super beige and "country".
When re-thinking this space I of course re- thought the whole space.
The walls right to the floor.
We touched up all the trim and got everything spiffed up again.
Instead of the large wine barrel and chair that had been here for a long time I decided to go forward with a long console table. This table is exactly our style with that vintage flair, the heavier than an elephant requirement I seem to put on all of our furniture as well as a hit of gold.
I was more than pleasantly surprised when it arrived so it will also likely become a stocked item in the store. Like I said, wing it. And this one wung perfectly.
We decided to take down one of our tiger prints and move this one into the basement and then hung up one of the very large Parisian Page prints from the store.
I was more than pleasantly surprised when it arrived so it will also likely become a stocked item in the store. Like I said, wing it. And this one wung perfectly.
We decided to take down one of our tiger prints and move this one into the basement and then hung up one of the very large Parisian Page prints from the store.
The huge wall of vintage team photos is not moving anytime soon as I love these old photos and looking at all the people in the photos.
I also planned to scoop the vintage rug for the basement and since the timing was right for the new Loloi rugs we carry in the store I add a full size rug for our main space and a runner for our front door to catch the muddy feet as they come in.
These shown are the Layla in Olive Charcoal
I also planned to scoop the vintage rug for the basement and since the timing was right for the new Loloi rugs we carry in the store I add a full size rug for our main space and a runner for our front door to catch the muddy feet as they come in.
These shown are the Layla in Olive Charcoal
I am a true vintage rug lover and have tried my best to kill a few to no avail. They are worth their weight in gold but these new rugs are proving to be up to some challenge and of course they are an eighth of the cost so even if you do manage to murder the thing it isn't the end of the world.
Then of course once the main pieces were in play it was time to play with my world of accessories and momentos.
Then of course once the main pieces were in play it was time to play with my world of accessories and momentos.
My favourite part of course if we are being honest.
The large bust on the table hasn't seen the light of day in over 12 years. We bought this bust before even owning a house almost 18 years ago [ yup, we were those weird kids shopping for our home pre-home] I kept it through many a storage room organize and move arounds, because I loved it so much and now it has a great place right on our entry table.
Well, that's about it for this adventure.
Like I said we are super happy with how it turned out. It fixed the main issue which was the scratches from dogs. It looks fresh and cost very little in the grand scheme of things [new table not included] versus completely replacing the floor.
Onto the next adventure,
Well, that's about it for this adventure.
Like I said we are super happy with how it turned out. It fixed the main issue which was the scratches from dogs. It looks fresh and cost very little in the grand scheme of things [new table not included] versus completely replacing the floor.
Onto the next adventure,
