Dark Wood Floors

When it came time to talk about flooring for the main part of the house, it was a no-brainer for me to decide on hardwood floors.  The warmth that they bring to a room is what feels like home to me.

In our first house, we had hardwood flooring installed, and we went with oak wood with a lighter finish.  But pre-engineered flooring has come a long way in the last 15 years, and after shopping around we choose a dark, 5" plank, pre-finished, solid wood floor with an antiqued finish. 

I knew that the dark floors would mean more maintenance, but the other floors we liked: whitewashed or grey stained, didn't speak to the space.

So we rented a flooring hammer and went to work.  After my man did the math of the layout, I was design girl.  I laid out the flooring a few rows at a time and he nailed it down.  We've spent 2 weekends on this project now, and are 85% done.

It looks great -- so warm and polished, especially compared to the sub-floors. 

Sorry about the glare.  It's raining.

I love the depth this floor has.  One of the best things (other than the way they look) is they are so forgiving.  This was apparent only a few minutes into the project.   

These little chips happened every now an then, especially as my hubs was getting used to using the hammer.

This is what they look like after I touched them up with a black sharpie.

Like it never happened!  So awesome!

This dark color does show every.little.thing.  And due to the number of times I've mopped these floors since installation, we must be especially dirty people.  I haven't quite determined how I am going to deal with this.  I currently don't have a vacuum that I can use on these floors but I went out and bought a large floor micro-fiber mop to use, and it's great.  It doesn't take long to go around these rooms, and it's kind-of fun right now(even the boys enjoy it), but on the flip side I don't want to be a slave to my house and have to do this several times a day for the next 20 years.  So that being said, when it comes time to buy a vacuum (hopefully soon!) I am very tempted to try a robot one. 

Makes me giddy to even imagine I might have a robot vacuum someday.

I noticed too how much brown furniture we have.  I'm still feeling this out because there are still so many permanent layers to add.   

So much more work to do here.....but it's coming along.

Sharing with: AKA Design, Finding Fabulous, Jennifer Rizzo, Common Ground, Imparting Grace, Shabby Nest, Nancherrow, Home Stories AtoZ