I’m 99.9% sure my living room floors are swapping from one of my fave colours (black) to my other fave colour (white). Ever since we ripped up the carpet six years ago and discovered the rubber backing had not only been glued down all over, but that the rubber had meshed into the floorboards in parts to make it a splotchy stained floor, we knew we had to go dark. We originally stained it with Black Japan (but missed a step so over time the stain would stick to our feet and come off. fun.). Then we just painted it black. Twice. Now, I’m sooooo incredibly tired of it not looking clean ever – even immediately after it has been cleaned – and am thinking white is the way to go. It’ll make the whole space feel lighter too. Steve actually agrees – I showed him numerous pictures of beautiful Scandinavian homes with lots of white and then last week showed him this before/after comparison of black to white from Hashai. I think it sealed the deal: the whole room looks so much fresher, brighter, lighter (and yes I realise the kitchen itself had a makeover, not just the floor, but a glance only draws your eye to the floor change). We’d agreed on painting the cabin floor white and so it’s going to be our trial before we go ahead with the living room makeover. I think I’ll love it! Anyone have white floors? What do you think? Here are a few of the other pics I used to convince Steve we need to be walking on white too…
{images: 1 by Hashai; 2,3,5 & 6 by Skona Hem; 4 by Living Etc}
i loooveeee white floorboards!!
oh my I love white painted floorboards too. the one time we did it, it didn’t work out so well, and ended up looking pretty dirty most of the time. but thats not to say that yours will – probably make sure you get the best quality floor paint though, that might have been our downfall… good luck!
I have admired white floors for so long now but have always worried about how practical they would be. Clever idea to try them in a small area first. But if you don’t like them you can always paint them black again:)
I agree – white floors seem to open a space up. Love all the images you’ve posted especially the one with that comfy looking sofa.
I really really really really like white floors. That is, in other people’s houses. Childless people’s houses.
They get dirty soooo easily and it shows. However not as much or as quickly as on black floors…! That’s why I opted for a rather blond-greyish-retro style with veins floor and never regreted it.
It’s good that you are giving it a try on a smaller area.
Enjoy either way! It’s something fixable so totally doable!
hi kim – thanks for letting me know. i’ve got the top primer and apparently a good paint, so we’ll see.
calliope – i did think of a pale grey but… i don’t know. we’ll see how we go with the cabin. the furniture is similar to that of the living room so it should be a good mini test site!
Hi Belinda,
Have been following your blog for a while now! Love it!
I am a huge fan of anything white, you will not regret the white boards, stunning!
I’m not sure if it will happen with your paint but I noticed that with the white concrete paint I used on the stairs that it is getting black scuff marks from the soles of our shoes. If you don’t wear shoes around the house then it might be okay and it could probably come off on glossy floorboards easily. The concrete paint is lumpy and it is harder to get off. I bet i could get it off if I used one of those white eraser sponges.. what are they called.. hmm, you use them to get marks off the walls.
Not meaning to discourage you at all. I think white is beautiful and I hope to paint ours one day too.
How funny! That picture at Hashai was the clincher for me too! I was up in the air about light or dark until I saw that, and then BAM! I knew white was the answer!
SO excited!!! It’s going to look fabulous!
You asked on my blog the other day how mine were holding up? Beautifully. We re-did them after all the work we had done, but used an oil based high gloss paint this time round, and WE LOVE THEM. Spills and dirty doggy footprints just wipe straight off, the light hits them and looks stunning and they give our whole house a brightness that could not have been acheived with dark stained boards.
Oh you HAVE TO do it!!! Yes!
Just don’t use regular acrylic paint, whatever you do…
Exciting.
oh my! so lovely!! such an exciting thing to be doing
I dream for white floors. I have a dark matt timber and it SHOWS EVERYTHING. BOOO.
Without a doubt the thing I am looking forward to most in our new home in Denmark is white floors! Our house in Morocco had the ugliest, busiest floors ever which was terrible for photos. Plus every time we dropped something we could never find it because it just blended in. Now THAT is a busy floor! LOL!
Oh well done on the convincing work – Love white floors.
Hi Belinda
I say go for it and do as the Greeks do with their whitewashed homes. If it gets dirty, just paint over it!! Too easy.
Nice work convincing Steve!
Di x
I’m crazy about white floorboards, so am crazy jealous that this is a possibility for you. xx
we have checker board floors in a soft green and creamy white on petit-petit’s floors and they have been fabulous. honestly. we used porter’s floor paint, can’t remember the actual name and it seems to have seeped right into the floors. we painted them 4 yr’s ago. so anything dropped is simply a nick on the floorboard ( and, as you know, plenty gets dropped on a toddler’s floor) – we do not have any black scuff marks as yet. x
Hey Belinda, I completely agree with Rosie, we had matt white floors which i had to keep repainting then we tried the oil based Gloss and it is THE BEST, spills wipe off easily they look fantastic and surprisingly when they do get slightly grubby its not so noticeable. I have two very energetic young boys and its stood up to their rough treatment with no problem. Good luck, i think its going to look amazing.
I love my white kitchen floor, but if you were worried about it looking dirty immediately when it was black, just wait till it’s white – nothing is disguised. But it does look lovely straight after a vacuum, and a wash… it probably depends on the paint/finish you use. Good luck with the painting!
I say go for it!! I’d love to do white floors somewhere in the house. I did a post on it too. It’s not a priority for me so it’s on hold but i LOVE the look! Lovely blog!
did you notice the new Real Living has a feature on painting the floor white??? i subscribe and got mine yesterday but I think it comes out next week. having worked there though, i assume it still comes to you???
I love white floors! Go for it! I just had the house re-tiled in gloss white tiles and it looks fantastic. Yes, the dirt/grass shows up quite easily but they still look better dirty than what our old floors looked like clean. Plus the gloss makes it so easy to clean so I would do as the others said and use a gloss paint.
yet another post. find stuff like this with such detail. working on some research, and I am on the look out for.