Y’all are going to think I’ve lost my mind, and maybe I have. When I told my mom of my potential plans, she definitely gave me that “you’ve lost your mind” look. But I am strongly considering sanding our bedroom suite floors down again. Now before you freak out, let me state my case.
We’ve had dark floors in our house for almost twelve years now. When we bought our house in 2013, the first thing I did was remove all of the carpet to expose the original red oak hardwood floors. They were already dark.
And then I sanded them down and refinished them. And once again, they were dark.
And then four years later, I went even darker on the finish in an effort to get rid of some of the red. After all, they are red oak floors, so they have a tendency to have red/orange/pink undertones unless steps are taken to remove those undertones.
Anyway, all of that to say that I’ve lived with dark wood floors now for almost 12 years. (It will be 12 years this August.)
I don’t dislike dark wood floors. In fact, I really have liked having dark stained floors. But over the last couple of years, I’ve found myself being drawn to lighter, brighter, natural wood floors more and more. In fact, they don’t even have to be a natural wood color. I’ve just tended towards lighter floors in general. You’ll notice that every time I have the opportunity to do something different, I go light and bright.
When I decided to paint the floor in the original guest bedroom, I went light and bright.
When I originally finished the floor in my studio, I went light and bright with a whitewashed finish.
And when I did the final painted finish on my studio floor, I once again went light and bright.
So my love for light floors isn’t completely out of the blue. It’s what I seem to naturally gravitate towards every time I feel like I have the opportunity to do something different. And for at least a couple of years now, I have wished that we had light, natural wood floors throughout our house instead of the dark stained floors that we’ve had for almost 12 years now. Every time I see a house with light natural wood floors, I get a little jealous and wish I could have those in our house.
However, the task of redoing all of our floors seemed so daunting, so I figured I was just stuck with dark floors from here on out. I plan to live in this house for the rest of my life, so I’d just have to have dark floors until the day I die because refinishing the floors seemed completely unreasonable, right?
So when it came time to finish the floors in our master bedroom suite, I didn’t even consider another option. Naturally, I figured my only option was to try to match the floors to the rest of the house since I’m stuck with dark stained floors until the day I die. There are no other options at this point. So without even considering any other options or our longterm plans, I just went with it. I bought the stain and finished our newly installed red oak floors to match the rest of the house.
These are the areas with the new hardwood floors that I just stained and polyurethaned to match the rest of the house…
But over the last week or two, I began to realize what a huge opportunity I missed. Had I thought it through, I would have realized that this was my opportunity to go light, bright, and natural with our hardwood floors. Yes, it would have to be done in piecemeal fashion, but this was it, and I missed it. Let me explain.
As you know, our future plans include turning the current kitchen into the dining room and turning the current breakfast room and pantry into a much larger kitchen than the one we currently have.
Well, when I get to that project, it’s going to affect the flooring. Right now, part of the kitchen peninsula (the half that sits on the breakfast room side) has no hardwood flooring underneath it because of how I had to build it and the order in which I did those two rooms.
So when this area is redone, new flooring will have to be spliced in so that it has hardwood flooring throughout.
Also, when I divided the original den into two rooms — a breakfast room and pantry — I built the wall first and then installed the hardwood flooring around it.
That means that when that wall is removed, that hardwood flooring will also need lots of work to make it continuous throughout.
Once those repairs are made, this whole area will need to be sanded down and refinished. What better opportunity to make them light, bright, and natural?
And then after that’s done, the plan is to build an addition on the back of the house. That means that these areas will all need new hardwood flooring that has to be finished. (The bathroom will have tile flooring.) It would be so easy to just keep them light and natural as well.
So what does that leave? That basically just leaves the living room and music room. And since the new dining room and kitchen have to be done anyway, that would be the perfect opportunity to just go ahead and do these two rooms as well.
So over the last week-and-a-half, I’ve been beating myself up for missing this opportunity. I initially thought I had passed the point of no return, so I just forged ahead on my closet and tried to put it out of my mind. But over the last few days, I’ve realized that I haven’t exactly passed the point of no return. The point of no return would be once I finish the bedroom, fill up the bedroom suite with our new furniture, and get us fully moved into the new bedroom. Once everything is moved in and Matt is settled in, that would be the point of no return. If I don’t course correct before that point, then I truly am locked into having dark stained floors until the day I die.
But right now, I still have the opportunity. This area is still completely “under construction.” We’re not living in these rooms yet (although we’re passing through to get to the bathroom), and the rooms are completely free of furniture or any other hindrances.
Of course, I have built the cabinets in the closet, but I could still change course even with those cabinets in place.
So my opportunity is now, and it’s either now or never. And I think I want to take the opportunity. When I look at our hardwood floors in the rest of the house — the floors that have been stained and lived on since 2017 — I can see some wear and tear on the finish in the high traffic areas. So dark stained finishes don’t last forever, and they’re harder to repair. A light, bright, natural wood with just a clear coat would be so much easier to repair and keep looking good for the long haul.
I think I’m going to do it. I wish I had thought of this a month ago, and I wish I had thought it through more thoroughly before just deciding that I was stuck with dark stained floors for the rest of my life. But if my choice is now or never, I’d rather choose now. I’d rather choose a bit of hassle and inconvenience now than be stuck with something forever because I didn’t take my opportunity to course correct when I had the chance.
(I realize I’m writing this post on April 1st. I’ll let you decide if you think I’m joking or not. But just keep in mind, when I remodeled our kitchen back in 2014, I refinished that floor three times over the course of that remodel. 😀 So if you’ve been around here a while, and you’re a betting person, I’d suggest putting your money on “not joking”.)
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
