Spark At Home – DIY Home Renovations – Staining Our Living Room Wood Floors

Posted by Handmade Spark on 6/23/10   |   Categorized as DIY Home Renovations,Front Page Features,How To

Share |

We did not know what to expect when we ripped out the carpet in our living room.  The wood floors were in great condition aside from some stains that were going to be hard to cover up.  We want to pick a stain that would look good with the black office floor and the white dining room floor (post coming soon!), and at the same time would hide the stains. We chose a Minwax dark walnut stain.

Applying the stain is easy.  Make sure you have some clean rags and rubber gloves.  One pint of this stain covered the entire living room which is 28×14.

Minwax dark walnut

Here is a before shot of the living room before the carpet was even out!

Halfway through the staining process.  Keeping the stain even was difficult.  If you don’t apply enough you will have light spots.

DIY - staining hardwood floors

DIY - staining hardwood floors

After you stain your floor you want to sand it with 120 or higher grit sand paper.  Then use a tack cloth to remove any dust.

The next step is to add your polyurethane.  I used an oil based  Varathane product. Go through with a natural bristle paint brush designed for polyurethane and cut in all our edges with a 4 inch wide line.  You want to give yourself plenty of room for the applicator.

varathane

To apply the poly I used an applicator made by Varathane.

After every coat of Poly you will need to leave it dry for at least 12hrs.  I placed fans on each side of the room and would leave it over night.  Make sure to sand and tack cloth the floor after each coat except the final one.  I put down 3 coats on this floor.

Here are some shots of the final product!!

DIY Home Renovations - Hardwood Floor Finishing



  • http://www.mimimarie.com Barb Marie Broxson

    Loving all the DIY home renovations about hardword flooring. We live in a 110 year old home that we are taking up the carpets in our upstairs bedrooms and hallways. Floors are in good condition but this is giving us great ideas that we can do ourselves!! Thanks!!
    Barb

  • http://www.SassyBelleWares.etsy.com Steph

    I am loving the pics you are posting….the floors look awesome:)

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/hsblog Timothy

    That is awesome Barb! Good luck with your floors.. lots of hard work but it is worth it!

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/hsblog Timothy

    Thanks!!!

  • http://gilstrapdesigns.etsy.com Debra

    Tim everything is looking good. I know that ya'll are having so much fun remolding your new home to reflect you and your family's lifestyle.

  • http://intensedebate.com/profiles/recycledhippie recycledhippie

    I can't believe you have energy to keep going! You must be the Energizer Bunny! I'd have needed time to recoup from the first floor, then the second, and here you are already on the third! Our first house had beautiful woodwork like this one you have now and I can't tell you how many times I wish we were still there. It was perfect when we started out, but w-a-y too small when we had four kids, and now it would be just perfect again. Enjoy the rewards of your hard work. There is such a sense of pride in a job well done and doing it yourself. K

  • http://eightymillion.etsy.com Jennifer Schulting

    Tim, you need your own show on HGTV……the house is coming along. I'm looking forward to see what items you put inside. Is there any landscaping to be done? A garden perhaps, oh wait, maybe not until next year. First, get house done, then welcome new baby, then spoil baby, then……….

  • http://www.carpentersandjoinery.co.uk/carpenters-and-joiners_dunfermline.html Carpenters and Joinery

    The finished article looks ace! Really professional look. Always nice to find a hidden treasure under the carpet. I remember at an old house of mine the Lino we tore up covered a beautiful tile floor that we just had to restore! It was amazing!

  • http://www.bobscarpet.com/contentpage.aspx?Id=9499 Kathy Carbone

    Even though I prefer to use ceramic tiles for my flooring, I love how you did this new hardwood flooring. I’m so glad you removed that carpet – I mean look at that wonderful wood grain! It would be a shame if you won’t showcase that beautiful specimen. Using polyurethane for the clear coating is great too, though I think you should have mentioned that it would be better for the wood to sit-in first, so that it can lock-in all that staining finish, before finally applying the polyurethane layer.

  • Anonymous

    I was looking for a blog like this. Nice post guys! Kind of jealous actually, we haven’t got our blog up and running quite but we’re a hardwood stair refinishing company in vancouver, BC.

    ——————————–
    hardwood stair refinishing

  • Anonymous

    Great Stuff, Each and every point is good enough.
    house cleaning toronto

blog comments powered by Disqus