Brocato Remodel :: Wood Floors

Besides painting the entire interior (details and before photos in my last post), we also refinished our existing red oak floors and replaced carpet on two levels of our house.  All in TEN DAYS!  Yes, we were crazy.  Thankfully everything was done exactly on schedule.  

Now, for the wood floors + more color discussion -- Tyler wanted to stain the beams in our main level dark, but we would have had to frame over them to stain them because it would have been such a pain (and way more $$)  to strip the current paint.  I was not-so-secretly glad about this since I craved an all-white main floor space anyway.  We compromised by staining the red oak floors a darker gray-walnut color.  The floors are red oak with a cherry inlay, and the existing stain was very yellow + red (aka not pretty).  However, they were/are in great condition, which we were super thankful for!  Here are some process shots —

Look how pretty the natural floors are 😍 I was veeery tempted to keep them like this, but Tyler had his heart set on dark. And it was definitely the right choice! 

We painted the risers and handrails white, and we replaced the iron balusters with wood. So only the treads were sanded and stained. They are actually a different wood, though, than the rest of the floors. They are hard maple instead of red oak, which means that they took the stain pretty differently than the rest of the floors. You can see what I mean in the after pic.

I worked with Del, the owner of Eagle Hardwood, to mix a custom stain color. I have no idea how we even got to the final color! I think he mixed six renditions of the stain and actually ended up mixing in whitewash, so technically it’s a “gray wash”, according to Del. 

This was the winner!! 

And now for AFTER PICS ::

Gorgeous right?!?  We love them so much!! 

You like our pouty princess? 😂 

This last photo shows the difference in how the maple on the stair treads took the stain differently than the oak on the rest of the floors. This REALLY bugged me at first (even though Del told me it wouldn’t match perfectly, as hard as he and the guys tried). But I’m used to it now, and it doesn’t bother me as much. All the crumbs and dirt on the stairs DOES still bother me, however! Probably an uphill battle 😬

Overall we LOVE our new floors and love how the color turned out.  I have noticed that they scratch fairly easily, or that you notice scratches more because the natural wood is such a different color than the stain. But I think it is worth it for the richness the gray brings!  When our contractor for our kitchen and bath remodels saw them for the first time he thought the floors were brand new!  So I’d say that was a win!!  Stay tuned for carpet reveal up next!