Do’s and Don’ts for Painting Wood Floors

A few months ago, on top of all the other craziness in our lives, Ryan and I decided to tear down the wall separating the two basement bedrooms. Yes, that’s right, we took on a massive home project. But before you shake your heads, I can explain! Living in a small 900 sq. foot home, every precious inch counts and we knew, with a little elbow grease, just how amazing our basement could be with the right design. So the wall came down and the plans for a dream home office began!

The hardwood flooring was original to the home but very poorly stained. And of course, where the wall used to be, there was lots of unevenness. We knew it had to be changed. Originally, we thought “hey, let’s just sand it down and re-stain it!” It seemed like a nice idea, but, after attempting the task, it proved virtually impossible. The stain was too dark and too stubborn. It would have taken months at the rate we were going. So, slightly saddened, we moved on…

The lightbulb went off when I saw an article in Style at Home suggesting painting wood floors. Right on!! I mean, it’s so affordable, relatively easy and a great solution to our problem!

I took some time to get inspired and after seeing images like these, I was sold.

| Images from My Scandinavian Home |

Off we went to Benjamin Moore where we were educated in the how to’s. We picked up this product, which is specifically for flooring, in a beautiful cool Boothbay Gray (Ryan wasn’t thrilled about even more white!!) and started to paint. I loved the colour and the paint itself seemed really great; but, here is what we, unfortunately, learned the hard way.

1. Even if they say you don’t need to sand, DO NOT LISTEN!

Always, always give at least a rough sand so the paint has something to stick to. Even better if you can sand the wood floors, prime, then sand the primer a bit too.

2. Invest in a really, really good Primer

We were under the impression that this Flooring Paint was sort of like a paint and primer in one. At this point, I’m still not sure if it was. But, even if you are sure, still get a separate primer, especially if you have these dark red floors like we did.

3. Make sure to really clean the floors

I suggest using the TSP that doesn’t need to be rinsed like the other one (which I have only found at Benjamin Moore). Makes for less work in the end and it is a safer product.

4. Make your coats extremely thin

And try to allow at least 24 hours in between coats. We got a little too excited and didn’t wait…my fault for sure. I get really impatient!

5. Allow the paint to cure for about a week

If at all possible, try not to place furniture or walk too much on the flooring for about a week. If you must, then socks only!!

Now, if you follow all these simple steps, then you should have a glorious painted floor! I admit, we may have skipped a step or two and realized too late. But here is the one thing we learned about painting hardwood floors and why we ultimately had to abandon the project…

If you have dogs, then just DON’T DO IT!

Unfortunately, no matter what we did, our dogs’ nails scratched the paint off in a matter of minutes. Why we didn’t think of that in advance, I’ll never know. We are smart people, I swear. But, the mix of paint and big dogs was a bad one and we learned our lesson.

Wanna know what we ended up doing?? I’ll be posting our finished office space veerrry shortly!

Good luck with those floors everyone!