I think the MOST frequently asked question I get since laying our pine floors [like a month ago?] has been… WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO YOUR FLOORS? You can see the flooring we put in [HERE] Guys it keeps me up at night. Do we paint? Do we stain? Do we do a combo of both? What color paint? What color stain? Gahhh. I blogged here some paint color options [HERE]. & today I wanted to quick pop in with the only stain color that I have liked since starting the stain sampling process…
Ok, don’t mind my lack of pedicure, but here is the stain color on the floor in our guest bedroom where we are testing all the paint and stain samples because we are ultimately going to be painting the floors in this room. But we are testing all of the paint & stain colors for the rest of the house that these pine floors are in [front living room, dining room, kitchen, sunroom, & guest bedroom]. The stain color is Minwax Early American. I’m not going to lie, I think this is the one. I apologize for the terrible lighting in these photos & will try to document it better later, but this color, the warmth, the rustic vibe, I love it all & I think it will go so well in the large part of our lower level.
Like I said, this was a terrible time of day to take photos, but you get the idea. I will be sharing more on My instagram & Facebook this weekend, but I think I will be painting these floors this weekend in the guest bedroom as well! So stay tuned for what color we ended up choosing. What do you guys think of this stain color? Would you like to see more stain samples? Let me know in the comments below, find me on Facebook, & chat with me on Instagram. xx
See our first round of floor paint samples [HERE]
Yes! Perfect choice!!! Getter done!!!! Can’t wait to see you enjoy some “finished” spaces, I love those floors… ? woohoo!! ~Kim
This is the perfect stain! I had something very close to this on my hard pine floors in my last house and it’s great at hiding dust! The floors in my new house are darker and show everything! Not a fan of seeing every piece of dust. Lighter painted floors show every hair and dirt as well. Thinking of this detail is important once you have kids which equals more mess and less cleaning time! Your home is beautiful!
We have minwax early american in our house too, I LOVE it! When we moved in there were very dark, brand new wood floors (kitchen only, the rest of the house has beautiful, old hardwoods). We HATED the dark wood. They showed every piece of lint, dust, water speck, outdoor debris (carried in by kids, dog). Awful. We ripped them out, found old hardwoods that amazingly matched what was already in the rest of the house and it has been HEAVEN. The early american is very forgiving and looks clean even when it’s not really. Have fun and good luck!
Liz,
I love the Shaded White or Old White. But then I’m obsessed with the “anchoring” idea, so you see why. The Maritime is beautiful, and warm, but would it look pink? It might, but that wouldn’t bother me as much as it would some folks. My first home had almost every wall painted Sugar Blush pink, and it looked white to most folks. It had a slight warmth that I loved.
This is exciting for you guys, and so fun to have your hands in it! Enjoy! Lela Mac
Love the stain, it’s so perfect! Very Liz Marie 🙂
Think I am liking the painted ones!
Perfect choice!
I love it! The perfect choice and it is going to make your furniture and accents just pop! I didn’t think your house could get any prettier, but this will do just that!
Absolutely love it!
We have to restain our floor since the original didn’t look that great – and wasn’t done correctly…bracing myself for this exercise.
Oh my. I keep hearing so many comments about dark wood and that is what I’m considering getting in my new house (actually LVP – luxury vinyl paneling that looks like wood). I have never considered Pine because I wanted something durable enough to withstand a nuclear blast (AKA four young kids). Is hard Pine something that will stand up to severe abuse without any maintenance? HELP! I don’t want to make a mistake we; could never afford to fix it!
Love the stain!
Love the stain. One more time, what type of flooring is that? I know you mentioned pine. I thought you mentioned somewhere they were just pine boards. How wide? I love your floors (and everything else about your house) and I need details, PLEASE!!!
Love the stain floor and the painted floor. Such a difficult task to choose.
I think it’s an ok color but if you rubbed on pickled oak it would be really brilliant… softer more character… food for thought.
Love the color! Definitely needs pre-stain to get rid of some of the blotchiness. It will still look imperfect and rustic with the prestain, but a little toned down. Otherwise your boards will have huge tone differences. Great color though!!!
Love your stain pick! I think it will add so much warmth and charm to your home!
PERFECT. It’ll blend so nicely with your home and will be in style for years and years!
I think too dark. Pine scratches very easily and the scratches show more when they expose the light wood underneath. I’m speaking from experience. We regretted staining our pine floors.
YES! Love the stain color. It gives it more of a homey warm feel, verses the white or grey painted floors. Can’t wait to see the finished product!
I love the stain!! It will always be timeless and brings warmth into the home!
One of my favorite stain colors! Reminds me of Rustic pine furniture!
I like provincial. Maybe just try a sample. It’s a little lighter.
Go with the stain!!! It’s timeless and versatile! Plus the color is, ON POINT.
Love the stain color you chose. I love that it brings out all that wood grain and texture. The lime white is nice too though. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.
Wonderful choice- this will look beautiful with all of your furniture and decor.
I love love love your floors. So much so that I would like them for my kitchen and landing area. I think it is something we could do ourselves. Are you putting these in, or are you having someone put them in for you?
Are they screwed down, or nailed? Is there any specific pattern to the way you laid them or adhered them? Any insights or tips you could share.
Much of my home is wood flooring or tile, with the exception of two bedrooms and my kitchen. I am loving the rustic charm of your floors. So much.
Thanks for anything you are willing to share about the installation process.
I love Early American! My husband picked it out for shelving we installed and now it has become our go to stain! It literally is the perfect shade! It goes with everything and is so natural and rustic. Plus when the stain sets in, it’s a flat stain and isn’t obnoxiously shiny. Love it!
Hi, April, I hope I can comment a bit to you, since don’t see a place for me to comment on the open line. We did actually and still do, have pine floors- I just noticed that you said HARD pine is that what Liz Marie is using? I am new here, just a couple of weeks on board, anyway let me hear if you could please find time or direction to a resource as well for me! The ones I have in the beach house are stained, and yes they will show stuff like dents from high heels, and dents if you don’t put the cushioning stick-ons for hardwood furniture feet like for bar stools and tables. I LOVED them. I would always recommend but also wondering myself, as we are selling the beach house w/ those floors, to move back into our farmhouse we have had for 25 yrs. Whenever we do sell the other home, I want to plan a budget for hardwoods or pine flooring (is there really a “hard pine floor”?, everywhere except the baths and maybe kitchen- I know a well-recommended contractor but haven’t engaged him as of yet, too early, so wondering about prices, and if you think pine or hard pine is affordable more-so than hardwoods? I wonder if you have an idea of diff. in price. I know our home at beach was 2,010 sq. feet. This house is older, smaller rooms & I may knock out a wall!, but anyway would like to begin investigating the price to do the floors before anything else that we haven’t already considered and budgeted for. THANKS! I will check back to see if you wrote, or you could ,seriously it’s fine , also write me on my email , Facebook where Liz Marie is- maybe notes there work better? I know that she would know the answers! I don’t even know if she has even already posted earlier about the pricing and differences, and of course it depends on other factors about the home’s condition etc. I appreciate any light you could shed on this AND yes good luck to you! A much nicer choice you are right, over the other flooring you mentioned. You would not regret it. Thanks again, have a beautiful time doing it! Debbie
There are hard pine varieties of wood. In Michigan, where Liz Marie lives, I am thinking the hard pine would not be a staple in the lumber yard, but would be a special order.
As I read the post, I was impressed that the boards were not specifically flooring??? May be wrong on this. But, if this is true, you could use any hard wood you wanted, if pine would not suit your needs.
Wood is wood, and if you like wood, you need to do some soul searching on whether you really want a vinyl plank floor, no matter how good it looks. Or a laminate. It is a matter of what you like. What you will not tire of. What meets your needs. Liz Marie embraces the rustic distressed look throughout her home, so her choice is a natural one. She and her husband are living with the wood unfinished, allowing some natural wear, I suspect. But this is not a problem when your preferences are for timeworn surfaces. Know yourself and your style, then the choice won’t be hard.
Thanks, I am in N. C., hadn’t thought about it being different in Mi. you now she lived in NC a long time. I do know and am sure” hardwoods” including also pine planks, may track down re-done old ones, are our choice throughout our farmhouse– not a vinyl plank girl , not the same, feels cold when the pine floors and others we have had did always feel comfortable, all year round. I never tire of hardwoods, it’s the money keeping folks away, like us for a long time; but I am willing to sacrifice to do the house w/ them after living in the past homes our family has had over the years, 3 homes had them- want them over any other . Our home atop this little mountain along a ridge near the Haw River, Chapel Hill, NC , (not far from where L. Marie once lived!), it’s been waiting to have them grace the floors. I loved the beach house and living and walking on hardwoods, beautiful wide pine plank flooring over entire house! We are just starting to research, now looking at doing hardwoods . This home was originally built on this locally historic hill, by the father and son who had the local wood plained from forest around the farm, in a nearby town, built a rustic home, in the ’40’s, “stick built”, changed and altered and updated a few times. I pictured hardwoods throughout, since we first bought this place 25 years ago! Now I am ready. I decorate w/ a style considered eclectic, have always been attracted to French Provencial not even realizing what it was; now through blogs and appearance of design around old homes like L. M.’s, learning about a more seeing and shopping online visually, keeping an idea record of stuff on Pinterest and Houzz, much is available now through stores like Pottery Barn, good linens are there; also surrounded here by vintage and antiques stores, using our own pieces to blend with more contemporary, yet farmhouse always works! Best to find where it serves us, like our kitchen, baths, laundry room, doors and porches and building off of what is here. I add vintage touches as I have some old pieces from grandmothers and greats; our upstairs can also be done in same flooring. I didn’t want to bother L. M., since I haven’t priced it yet, doing homework, wanted to ask her how much per sq. foot the pine flooring is there; it would be different from different states.
The beach house had already done the entire home in the floors. They are stained w. a natural warm color ; it’s beautiful. We use our Indian and Persian antique rugs from my mother’s home, throughout and it does show them well. I also like her ideas and it helps me in deciding, too. We have to wait til we sell the other house, the farmhouse has been our’s for 25 yrs., lived here w/ our young kids and horses, have rented it when we moved away to another country home Victorian this time, we bought when we lived in N. J. near NYC four years. Fell in love there w/ a very old home, a 1700′-1600’s large Victorian house w/ all hardwoods, 2 Tiled baths, w/ the large black tiles in the kitchen. If I find it, which I can surely, I may do that again if not the hardwoods in our kitchen , too. So, now returning after making beach home permanent for few years+,and going back & forth. We are looking forward to changes, and living full-time here again now. It’s really as my younger son says, “home”! I appreciate your response- still wondering what is hard pine! lol I will continue researching. Take care!
Hi, it really depends on the pine, loved our floors in 2 homes w/ it, one was better finished natural color and other, only before selling it did we have to replace or refinish areas of the flooring… no matter how she treats it, paint or stain will protect it further; no problem too much w/ scratches! Just the high heels will dent them, (you can as friends I know do, and ask people to leave them at the door nicely ,w/ some little socks in a basket to put on! I have a friend that does this, it’s more of a Japanese tradition very common in their homes. So when we sold the one that had been down since 70’s built and sold, before WE could sell it, we had to re-surfaced w/ taking the wood down a bit to sand, smooth where water was damaging also, covered by dog bowls, for example; but at least you still have the wood through and through, pine is great- especially beautifully used often in Carolina, especially if one can’t afford or don’t like dark, (like me) or other hard wood like oak. Cheers!
I believe “heart pine” is the hard pine. There are definitely different kinds of pine. I am expecting it can be ordered in, if it is not locally available.
Most of what I see in the home improvement places are the other hardwoods, such as hickory, maple, oak. I think any pine flooring would be a special order, unless you were not getting flooring, but using boards that have not been milled to fit into each other, as flooring usually does.
Observing Liz Marie’s flooring, it appears to be boards screwed down.
Yes, I, too, love wood flooring. I have only had maple and oak. I did not find the maple to be as durable as the oak. I did not stain either one, but enjoyed their natural color.