It’s decision time. Stain our floorboards dark or paint them white?
The sanding equipment is booked in, so this weekend we will be taking our battered, paint covered (but lovely) original floorboards in our victorian flat and sanding them back to reveal them in all their glory. But do we go for rich, dark glossy boards..?
Or do we go for light, bright white ones?
Or even somewhere in between…?
Will white boards only look amazing for a week, then turn into a maintenance nightmare? Would dark floors fit with grey walls and white woodwork? Would a natural finish just look, well, unfinished? What do you think? If you have any advice please comment below. I need your help!
All images: Shoot Factory, House to Home, My Ideal Home.
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Modern Maggie 
It’s so hard to make this choice, isn’t it. I’ll comment because I’ve had experience with both. The really dark floors are gorgeous but they show every speck of “light” dirt and begin to look dusty really quickly. I’m always having to clean mine… like every day. The white would also look dirty quickly but it’s so bright and pretty in all the magazine pictures you see. The best floors we ever had were when we sanded our oak floors down to bare wood and then just topped with a clear coat and no stain. You end up with whatever the floor chooses to be, but I loved mine because they never looked dirty or dusty. And yes, dark floors would fit with gray walls just fine (I think). Don’t know if that helps any but it’s my experience. I’m sure they’ll look beautiful no matter what you do. Good luck with the sanding. It’s a fun few days!!
You’re right it’s a tricky one, in all the magazine pics everything looks so lovely and it’s hard to imagine actually living with what you choose. I like the idea of them never looking dirty though! Thanks for your advice!
My vote is with the darker wood floors. It will be a beautiful contrast to the grey and white and will keep the color scheme balanced. I think I would look into a not-so-glossy finish because it looks more lived-in and natural and prevents floors from looking dusty.
Thankyou! I think more of a satin finish would be good, it would drive me nuts if the floors always look dusty!
I agree with Stacey, my white floor got more and more worn and dirty in a very short space of time, even with constant cleaning! Our best floors are the sanded pine with clear varnish, pretty timeless and go with pretty much everything. (Also great at disguising toast crumbs left behind by 2 very messy little’uns!) Good luck with the decision making!
Thanks for the advice! I will post the finished results next week hopefully 🙂
I love all these photos! love! I can tell you as someone who put in dark floors and loves how they look, they are a nightmare to keep clean and dust. In my if I win the lottery dream house, I plan to get real wood pine or otherwise lighter floors. Despite me liking the darker floors more. HTH!
I love dark floors too! They look amazing, but because of similar advice to yours, that keeping them clean is a nightmare, we went for natural satin varnish in the end (although I still wonder what they would look like all dark and glossy). Thanks for your response, your blog is lovely by the way!