Ok, So I have had SO MANY amazing questions lately about our painted floors & have had so many people want to paint there floors as well needing advice. I thought I would gather up the most asked questions here today on the blog to help those wanting to tackle a project like this. Spoiler alert: We are obsessed with our painted floors, I would do it again, I have no regrets, & our process worked for us. If you have any more questions find me on Instagram [HERE] & I will try to help you out even more.. that’s what I’m here for! Here are the questions so far & I will be adding more as they come…

1. What color did you paint your floors?

We went with Benjamin Moore tapestry beige. You can read more about that process [HERE] & see the other colors we almost chose.

2. What kind of paint did you use?

We are using Behr Porch & Floor paint. It’s the same paint we used when we painted our office floors & we are in love with the coverage & the durability of it. The application of the paint is so easy to use & it really adheres well instantly.

3. Did you seal your floors?

Yes!! We are used Pro Finisher Polyurethane for floors in the low luster finish [Found ours at Home Depot]. We also used this on the office floors and are super happy with the application & how it has held up. I also love that it adds a little sheen to the floor to give it a finished look, but that it’s also not super glossy.

4. How do you plan on keeping them looking perfect?

We aren’t planning on that. The plan is to let them get ware and tear over time and age with our house. We are hoping that they age beautifully and can tell our families story over time with each dent, scratch, & flaw. But this could change.. who knows we could give it a fresh coat every 5 years? Who knows.. but my hope is to let them age with us.

5. Does Jose love the painted floors?

YES! He is equally in love which is the only way I would ever paint them. Every time we put a coat on he sighs and says how much he loves it which warms my heart.. we both love how warm and cozy it has made our house. He is also on board to let the floors age with us & that is the part he is most excited for.

6. Are you painting the floors in every room of your house?

For now we are doing the sunroom, the kitchen, the dining room, the front living room, & the front entryway. That may seem like a lot of rooms, but there are plenty more in the house we haven’t started re-doing so we will see when we get to those what we decided to do with the flooring.

7. Will Grace Be Able To Come Back In The House?

TBD. Just kidding, I could never not let her back in, but maybe this spring when she get’s cleaned up & isn’t such a hot mess.

8. Does stuff get in the cracks?

The short answer: Yes. The longer answer: It’s not as bad as one may think, & a simple pass with the vacuum gets it all up. No big deal especially for this neat freak who would freak about something like that.

9. What was your prep work before you painted?

We didn’t have to do much besides cleaning because we started with raw unfinished wood. If you are starting with stained/sealed floors you will want to sand prior to painting for sure. Or if you are feeling frisky you could simply prime & then paint. But for us we vacuumed the floors really well & just got to painting.

10. How do you clean your painted floors?

So far I have been doing a mix of  sweeping, swiffering, vacuuming, & spot cleaning with water and diluted vinegar when needed which hasn’t been much. Now that we don’t wear shoes in the house the floors are so clean all the time!  I haven’t had to do a huge deep clean yet, but will share what I come up with asap. A damp rag has done wonders when I have needed it for dirty paw prints and such, but a good broom & swiffer has done wonders as well. You can mop painted floors, but I don’t have my process down yet so I don’t want to share something that I haven’t tried yet. Stay tuned!

11. Did you paint inside the cracks?

No. Just the top of the boards.

12. How did you pick the color of the floors?

Well, great question. It was tough! We started by picking 6 of our tried and true neutral colors from whites to grays and anything in between. We put them all on the raw wood floor & lived with it for a few days and decided what color family we wanted… in this case we wanted either a beige or a greige. After that we went out and got a million color samples [exaggeration.. more like 24] & we placed them all on the floor & again lived with them for a few days. We slowly narrowed them down by eliminating them by undertones. If one had a pink, green, blue, or purple undertone we eliminated them. After many days we narrowed it down to our final pick: Tapestry beige by Benjamin Moore.

13. Aren’t white floors impossible to keep clean?!

Thankfully these floors are not “white”. We have had white floors before and yes they were pretty hard to keep clean by the doors & in high traffic areas. These floors are a beige color and SO MUCH EASIER than white. We have not noticed that it’s been harder than any other floor to keep clean & in fact it’s much easer than when we had dark wood floors at our last house because that was near impossible. The only thing hard about these floors? You can see my long dark hair on the lighter floors.. but everything else? So clean & easy!

14. Did you hire someone to install your pine floors?

Yes! We found a local company to install the pine floors. Best decision ever.. they were so quick & we were able to work on other things while they did that. They basically just nailed each board down to the wood floor below to secure them. They did leave a slight gap for any movement over time that may happen & they also put a lot of nails in to prevent against cupping. They sunk the nails in the boards so that they were not sticking out which is great for so many reasons, but it also adds a lot of charm to the floors as well.

15. How long did you wait between coats of paint and primer?

We waited about 1 hour in between each coat [sometimes longer, but at least an hour].