Making Our House Our Home, Step 1: Refinishing the Floors!

There were  million things we loved about our new home, the color of the floors was not one of them! Our hardwood floors were in decent condition, but I could not envision my decor with the yellow natural wood shade that they were. I kept seeing ORANGE, YELLOW, ORANGE! My decor style is one that is cool with a touch of warmth. I knew I wanted to use existing pieces (like a gorgeous area rug that I bought last year), and I knew that I would have to refinish and stain my floors to make my desired style for the house cohesive. My husband gladly agreed because 1. he wasn’t into the color that much either and 2. he knew that he would never hear the end of it if we didn’t do this mini renovation 😂.

Step 1. Find a reputable floor refinishing company

I don’t know anyone who has had their floors refinished recently so I was really starting from scratch with this one. It took me about two weeks to really nail down the company I wanted to go with. We closed on our home on the 18th and had this work started the 20th. This is important because it is SO much easier to refinish the floors in your home if there is no furniture to move! Getting them done so quickly meant that we weren’t moved in yet and the job would be easier to execute 👍🏽

I searched Yelp, Google reviews, and even utilized Facebook Recommendations in order to come to my choice.  I found a company that offered “dustless” refinishing which as super cool to me. Essentially, they vacuum the dust as it happens into a vacuum bag that is in their truck outside, it’s amazing! There is nothing worse than having dust all around your house after getting work done. After getting several estimates and comparing price as well as time for completion, we chose our guy and booked the appointment!

Step 2. Choose your finish color

When I was asked what color I wanted you should have seen my face…ummm, I’m not sure, one that’s not yellow? lol The man actually wanted me to know the colors and that was not going to happen because I do not trust picking a color based off of a website color 🤷🏽‍♀️ He was nice enough to bring three that I was interested in and show me samples directly on my own sanded floors.

We ended up absolutely loving the two colors mixed so the right is what we went with! Don’t be afraid to ask for a mixture of stains, our guy didn’t offer this but when we asked him he had no problem doing it. Sometimes its neither one color or the other that is what you are envisioning, rather a mix of the two and that’s what you should get! I love that the color isn’t too dark as I didn’t want to make my rooms look any smaller. I also love that they aren’t too dark so they won’t show dust as easily as say the dark walnut on the left. This final color is also cool enough but with subtle hints of warmth still, just what I wanted! We finished them off with a satin topcoat for a semi worn in look, perfection 😉

Step 3: Love and protect your floors!

Here is our finished product! Don’t you just love how he wood grain pops so much?! I love a natural wood grain, I also love how my floors now changed the entire look of my home with just one renovation!

Here are some tips I am using to protect my newly refinished hardwood floors and get the most out of them for years and years to come:

• No shoes when possible! I hate to be a stickler about wearing shoes in my home so you know what, I won’t be, but I will be more cautious of when I am wearing shoes. My new house has a nice little entryway with a coat closet which has made storing my shoes as soon as I walk in the door much more doable. Dirt and debris that stick to the bottom of your shoes can really damage your floors by causing tiny scratches that, over time, accumulate and ruin the look entirely!
• Protective furniture pads! I place tiny felt pads on the bottom of all of my chairs and furniture that are directly on the wooden floors. This protects from scratches and makes movement much smoother. They can be found at any local hardware/home improvement store, and they even have them at the Dollar Tree! You can see them HERE
• Vacuum and mop regularly! Make sure you are maintaining the cleanliness of your floors. If you let dirt and grime build up, it can cause discoloration and make the soil harder to remove. The goal here is to make your cleanings more routine so that you only have to use something like light soap and water to clean the floors. Some of the harsher cleaners can seriously compromise your floors. Aside from mild soap and water, here are some of the cleaners I recommend: HERE and HERE .

I have some new changes currently being made in my house as I write this! Make sure to subscribe to my blog so that you don’t miss my future updates 😊

Sincerely, The woman who may or may not be putting up her Christmas tree right now 👀,