If you follow me on instagram you may have seen in my stories that our portable dishwasher flooded our kitchen July 30… which means we have lived for over a month just hand washing dishes. I know lots of people do it- but with such a busy summer season, it feels like a task that takes just that much more time. It also means that our old floors took a bit of a beating, even though the water wasn’t standing for long.
They had been refinished (poorly) at one point, and a barely there layer of poly was all that was between the wood and water. So the grain lifted, and is splintering off in spots. That means I have been looking at flooring options. We would love to match it to our new white oak hard woods in the addition, but it’s just not in the budget for us right now. Something I love about this old house is the character in the old floors- but I sometimes struggle with how to merry the old and new!
Matt suggested painting them… I know?! A man, suggest painted wood? Well… he’s my man and fully supports that painting of wood. haha. So I did a sample swatch- but the thing about wood is once you paint it, its not really ever going back to wood without a lot of work. So I pulled out my sander and stripped an area that will be covered by cabinets eventually. I just had to know if I could achieve a color other than orangey red.
This is a shot of the floors with 2 different paint samples- grey is the route we would go if we paint them. And then above is the raw wood without anything. I really wish I could just go with that, but it needs some protection with 4 kids and a cat, and I think that clear poly will just bring out the red/orange again, which I am not a fan of. My concern with white washing is that they will actually end up looking pink, something that is common with fir.
So I hauled out a piece of our new flooring, and tried some stain colors that I already had on hand. A dark walnut and driftwood.
The bottom stain portion is driftwood, and while it’s no a perfect match, it has a similar tone and doesn’t give off the red vibes.
So call my crazy but I’ll be renting a sander and trying my hand at refinishing these floors! There is currently no place in the kitchen for a permanent dishwasher, and so we will be renovating the kitchen… but before we fill it with pretty cabinets, I need to deal with the mess of sanding, staining and poly!
I feel pretty confident… I mean we have built a house, stained a bazillion cedar shakes, and done a multitude of treatments on wood. Ha! But, of course it’s still a little bit new to me.
So, that is how a dishwasher has prompted our kitchen renovation! I am going to do my best to blog alllll of the things, and I’ll be sharing behind the scenes on my instagram stories too- so be sure to follow me there if you aren’t already!
I’d love to hear any tips for refinishing floors- and of course your must haves for a kitchen. I can’t wait to put all the ideas together and share them with you guys- you know this has been a long time coming!!
-Miss Ash