The existing yellow pine flooring on our second story is, well, yellow. We’ve sampled many off-the-shelf stains and they all come out a strong yellow-orange color – something I’m personally not too crazy about.
Our raw yellow pine floors today (after sanding).
Painting our second story’s existing pine wood floors is something we’re I’m considering. (Blaine is on the fence.) The decision must be made soon!
Our yellow pine floors today.
In the 1700s when decoratively painted walls became popular, the same idea applied to wood floors. When carpet became economically available, wood floors that were not painted were meant to be covered in carpet. The idea of painted wood floors has been around for centuries, but today I am getting a lot of flak for this consideration, even from our own flooring crew! But why? What is so sacrilegious about painting wood floors today? Could it be a big mistake?
INSPIRATION:
William McLure apartment with white flooring.
Notice the painted wood floors under the seagrass rug of this historic Maine home.
Painted floors of a farmhouse kitchen on Long Island. (Scanned from How to Decorate by Martha Stewart.)
Gingham painted wood floors by Eve Ashcraft. (Scanned from How to Decorate by Martha Stewart.)
Creamy opaque wood floors of a drawing room designed by Albert Hadley.
Andrea painted their upstairs hallway a light gray to lighten the space.
Gray-blue floors found in a Minnesota Greek Revival, circa 1855.
High-gloss gray painted wood floors with modern styling.
A geometric checkerboard pattern, a popular pattern choice in the 1700s, in a French home.
Painted wood floors are in the kitchen of this Suzanne Rheinstein designed kitchen. Notice the small diamond pattern.
Am I crazy for wanting to paint our old yellow pine floors? I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic! (Comments are welcome below.)
By the way, our new white oak flooring is being installed downstairs week!
Sneak peek:
~Miranda
Trust your intuition. I do love all your painted floor inspiration.
You will too.
xo
Patricia
Thank you Patricia, I appreciate your feedback! As we talked today, we’re going for it!!! 🙂
I love the idea of the floors being painted–you’ve done a good job of making your case!
Hi Andrea! Thank you – we are painting them! Eeek! It’s a bit scary but I am confident they will turn out nice. By the way, I like following along on your house project. Can’t wait to see your second set of French doors installed in the dining room. It will be so light & bright in there and make for a pretty view of your yard.
I think both painting them or refinishing the yellow pine floors will be beautiful. The thing about painting is that you will have more maintenance over the long run in terms of keeping them painted. But it’s only your upstairs so that’s not so bad! If you leave the yellow pine you can always cover them with light or neutral colored rugs and they will help to lighten up the space. Such a tough decision!
Hi Megan, We are applying the final coat of sealer today on the painted pine floors! So needless to say, we went for it. I’ll share some photos soon. You’re right about maintenance – and like you said it’s upstairs with low traffic, so hopefully it will hold up quite a while. 🙂
Hi Miranda!
I adore painted wood floors and get the itch to paint mine too. In our last cottage we painted all the floors white bc they were in too bad of shape to even have them refinished. I really loved the look but hated the upkeep. Not the peeling paint but they showed dirt/dust so easily. I would have to get down on my hands and knees and clean them every 2 days! My husband stands firmly against them here but I still love them crazy! xo
Hi Janet, Thanks for stopping by! They are finished (painted) and we love them! We’ll see how the upkeep/cleaning goes. Since it’s the second story where the bedrooms are with lower traffic, hopefully it won’t be too bad. Have a good week. ~Miranda
Can you please send photos of it finished? I have a cabin with yellow pine floors and white pine walls and was thinking about painting the floors and/or walls.
Yes, I’ll email you!