Ok, So I have had SO MANY amazing questions lately about our painted floors & have had so many people want to paint there floors as well needing advice. I thought I would gather up the most asked questions here today on the blog to help those wanting to tackle a project like this. Spoiler alert: We are obsessed with our painted floors, I would do it again, I have no regrets, & our process worked for us. If you have any more questions find me on Instagram [HERE] & I will try to help you out even more.. that’s what I’m here for! Here are the questions so far & I will be adding more as they come…
1. What color did you paint your floors?
We went with Benjamin Moore tapestry beige. You can read more about that process [HERE] & see the other colors we almost chose.
2. What kind of paint did you use?
We are using Behr Porch & Floor paint. It’s the same paint we used when we painted our office floors & we are in love with the coverage & the durability of it. The application of the paint is so easy to use & it really adheres well instantly.
3. Did you seal your floors?
Yes!! We are used Pro Finisher Polyurethane for floors in the low luster finish [Found ours at Home Depot]. We also used this on the office floors and are super happy with the application & how it has held up. I also love that it adds a little sheen to the floor to give it a finished look, but that it’s also not super glossy.
4. How do you plan on keeping them looking perfect?
We aren’t planning on that. The plan is to let them get ware and tear over time and age with our house. We are hoping that they age beautifully and can tell our families story over time with each dent, scratch, & flaw. But this could change.. who knows we could give it a fresh coat every 5 years? Who knows.. but my hope is to let them age with us.
5. Does Jose love the painted floors?
YES! He is equally in love which is the only way I would ever paint them. Every time we put a coat on he sighs and says how much he loves it which warms my heart.. we both love how warm and cozy it has made our house. He is also on board to let the floors age with us & that is the part he is most excited for.
6. Are you painting the floors in every room of your house?
For now we are doing the sunroom, the kitchen, the dining room, the front living room, & the front entryway. That may seem like a lot of rooms, but there are plenty more in the house we haven’t started re-doing so we will see when we get to those what we decided to do with the flooring.
7. Will Grace Be Able To Come Back In The House?
TBD. Just kidding, I could never not let her back in, but maybe this spring when she get’s cleaned up & isn’t such a hot mess.
8. Does stuff get in the cracks?
The short answer: Yes. The longer answer: It’s not as bad as one may think, & a simple pass with the vacuum gets it all up. No big deal especially for this neat freak who would freak about something like that.
9. What was your prep work before you painted?
We didn’t have to do much besides cleaning because we started with raw unfinished wood. If you are starting with stained/sealed floors you will want to sand prior to painting for sure. Or if you are feeling frisky you could simply prime & then paint. But for us we vacuumed the floors really well & just got to painting.
10. How do you clean your painted floors?
So far I have been doing a mix of sweeping, swiffering, vacuuming, & spot cleaning with water and diluted vinegar when needed which hasn’t been much. Now that we don’t wear shoes in the house the floors are so clean all the time! I haven’t had to do a huge deep clean yet, but will share what I come up with asap. A damp rag has done wonders when I have needed it for dirty paw prints and such, but a good broom & swiffer has done wonders as well. You can mop painted floors, but I don’t have my process down yet so I don’t want to share something that I haven’t tried yet. Stay tuned!
11. Did you paint inside the cracks?
No. Just the top of the boards.
12. How did you pick the color of the floors?
Well, great question. It was tough! We started by picking 6 of our tried and true neutral colors from whites to grays and anything in between. We put them all on the raw wood floor & lived with it for a few days and decided what color family we wanted… in this case we wanted either a beige or a greige. After that we went out and got a million color samples [exaggeration.. more like 24] & we placed them all on the floor & again lived with them for a few days. We slowly narrowed them down by eliminating them by undertones. If one had a pink, green, blue, or purple undertone we eliminated them. After many days we narrowed it down to our final pick: Tapestry beige by Benjamin Moore.
13. Aren’t white floors impossible to keep clean?!
Thankfully these floors are not “white”. We have had white floors before and yes they were pretty hard to keep clean by the doors & in high traffic areas. These floors are a beige color and SO MUCH EASIER than white. We have not noticed that it’s been harder than any other floor to keep clean & in fact it’s much easer than when we had dark wood floors at our last house because that was near impossible. The only thing hard about these floors? You can see my long dark hair on the lighter floors.. but everything else? So clean & easy!
14. Did you hire someone to install your pine floors?
Yes! We found a local company to install the pine floors. Best decision ever.. they were so quick & we were able to work on other things while they did that. They basically just nailed each board down to the wood floor below to secure them. They did leave a slight gap for any movement over time that may happen & they also put a lot of nails in to prevent against cupping. They sunk the nails in the boards so that they were not sticking out which is great for so many reasons, but it also adds a lot of charm to the floors as well.
15. How long did you wait between coats of paint and primer?
We waited about 1 hour in between each coat [sometimes longer, but at least an hour].
16. What kind of pine floor did you use?
We used #2 Gorman pine from West Michigan Lumber for all of my local friends. I highly recommend getting your wood from a local & knowledgeable lumber yard. They will be able to tell you exactly what you need. Also, I would be picky about the pine that you use because not all pine is the same. We chose to go with 8 inch pine boards because the larger you go the more “cupping” may happen… I originally wanted to go with 10″, but compromised.
17. How long did you wait to put your furniture back?
The sealer container said to wait 1 to 2 days before any heavy traffic on the floor. We waited about 24 hours to put furniture back in the spaces & I think that was the perfect amount of time.
18. How many coats of paint & sealer did you use?
We did about three coats of paint & three coats of sealer in each room.
19. How will you keep your floors from scratching? Will you repaint when it’s scratched?
We are hoping that the sealer we used [see #3] will prevent most of the damage.. so far it has done wonders because we live in this house friends. I’ve been dropping things, puppies have been being rough on them, I’ve spilled more than one coffee [don’t ask], & we haven’t been extra gentle on them… so far they are still perfect. I will of course give updates on our painted floors often!
20. Do you regret painting your floors?
NOT AT ALL! Best decision we have ever made in our fixer upper journey.
21. How many square feet did you end up painting?
In total so far we have painted 1,800 square feet between the front living room, dining room, kitchen, & sunroom. We plan on painting more floors as we go, but we need a little break first. It was a lot of work, but very rewarding!
22. Did the paint drip in the cracks & is it noticeable?
Surprisingly no & no!! I think the roller method is the best for this!
23. What tools did you use to make painting the floors easier?
We went with the roller method so… rollers, a roller extender [HERE], a paint pan, & that’s about it. Simple & quick!! For sealing the floors we used [This] applicator to apply the sealer & honestly we just wiped it on with the applicator at the end of the extender & it was way easier than the painting process.
24. How will you stop the furniture from scraping the floors?
Rugs & furniture pads [HERE] are what we are going with! The rugs obviously guard the floors, but the furniture pads on furniture like chairs, tables, & anything with a hard leg will also be preventative and help the furniture slide easily across the floors.
25. Did you prime the floors first?
We did not. Since we were going straight on to raw wood we didn’t see the need, but if you are going over another surface I might recommend it just for a cleaner & longer lasting finish.
26. Does the paint color look the same in every room?
That’s a great question! It does change a little from room to room with the lighting & all of that, but since we lived with the paint samples on the floor for weeks I got to see how it looked in every room, in every light, at every time of the day, & this is why we landed on this color.. because I love it in all lights in every single room.
27. Have you had any cupping occur?
Cupping is when the boards almost curl up on the sides & this can happen with boards like this, but thankfully after many months of these boards being in our house we have had very little to basically no cupping occur. This was one of my fears, but I think this goes back to choosing a good lumber yard & good pine when doing a project like this.
28. What did you do with your furniture while you painted?
This process would have been easier to do if we hadn’t been living in the house while painting the floors, but that wasn’t our case. Since we lived in the house & have furniture in every room, we simply moved the furniture room to room as we went. It was a little bit of a pain to move all the dining room furniture to the living room while we painted it & then vice versa when we got done with the dining room.. but it worked & we got a little workout in the process.
Seriously, when I say I’m in love with our painted floors I’m not exaggerating… it’s made me fall in love with our farmhouse again. Now comes the fun part… let’s decorate! I truly hope this post helps those that want to paint their floors. I hope our experience can help you in some small way!! Thank you guys for cheering us on during this big project! Y’all are the best & kept me motivated. Thank you as always for stopping by the blog today & everyday to see what we are up to. It means the world to me! Be sure to find me on Facebook & Instagram for more behind the scenes and updates. xx
so for the floors buy the Behr porch and floor paint at Benjamin Moore?
and then the polyurethane pro finisher low lustre at home depot?
What size gap did you leave between boards? Did you leave a gap on the ends where the boards met?
Love the painted floors— we have done same!