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How We Painted Our Wood Floors in the Stucco Farmhouse Property

Last summer, we purchased a 1930’s historic fixer upper stucco farmhouse style triplex rental property that we’ve dubbed #stuccofarmhouse so you can follow along on my Instagram! If you have no clue what property I’m talking about, read here to get caught up and tour this historic farmhouse!

When bought it, we did showings right away and were surprised with how many people were interested in renting with a short-term lease. A lot of people wanted to move in by August 1st, so we had to react quickly! Our plan was to rent out the two units from August to end of March while we did exterior work for our Phase 1.

We now have until June or July to complete the interior remodel with Phase 2! Can we all admire at how far this exterior has come??

BEFORE

AFTER


How We Painted Our Wood Floors in the Stucco Farmhouse Property

For the purpose of this post, I’m focusing on the controversial temporary solution we did with the wood floor after we ripped out the carpet.

With our Phase 1 renovation, we intended to do some minor updates to the exterior (mainly landscaping) and deep clean the interior.

The triplex came with dingy carpeting. We were so excited when we first bought the property and looked underneath the carpet to see hardwood floors! We were hoping that there would be decent hardwood flooring throughout. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Before:

After:

*The image all the way on the right is the dining nook and is actually linoleum flooring.

We had to act fast because one of our tenants needed to move in ASAP. We had two nights to come up with a solution and execute it. The best solution for our case was to paint the floors which we relayed to our tenant. Although this is only a temporary solution, I think if done right, painted floors could be so beautiful.

Just like my friends Melissa and Katie’s kitchen floors!

Melissa @theslowerhome

I reached out to Melissa to see what her process was for painting her floors. She started with a new floor that was not pre-finished and used Farrow and Ball floor paint. She used a roller for the primer and a brush for the paint. Also, she didn’t use a sealer because she didn’t want it to turn out yellow.

Her kitchen is right by heavy traffic areas (her garage and backyard doors are right off the kitchen) and her floors have held up super well! They look SO good!

image via @theslowerhome instagram

 

image via @theslowerhome instagram

Katie @florencerevival

My friend Kaite, an amazing Instagram DIY’er, also painted her kitchen floors and they look gorgeous!

She started by sanding them with 150 grit sandpaper to make sure the primer would have something to adhere to. Then she vacuumed and mopped them and put on a Zinsser water-based primer. She used a brush around the edges and then a microfiber roller. She used Behr’s porch and patio paint in low lustre with the color match to Accessible Beige at 50%.

She loved how they turned out, but the only thing she wished she had done was to finish with a clear coat. It would have made it easier to clean in her opinion!

image via @florencerevival

 

image via @florencerevival

At first, we were hesitant about painting the floors but we browsed some articles and came across this one from Country Living Magazine. There are so many beautiful painted floors in their gallery! It helped convince us that painted floors were the way to go.

photo by David Tsay via Country Living

This article from Zillow is also a helpful resource if you are thinking about painting your floors. It talks about the history of painted floors and gives you tips on how to pick your floor color. We know it is controversial to paint hardwood floors but we have a plan and you just have to trust your gut!

We were a little nervous about picking a floor color because the walls are painted two different colors and we wanted to make sure the space looked cohesive. We ultimately, decided on Sherwin Williams Alabaster.

Our Process:

Day 1: Rip up the carpet and clean floors thoroughly. Apply first coat of porch and floor paint and primer combo.

Day 2: Apply second coat. Since this was a last-minute solution (and late at night) all the paint stores were closed so we went to a hardware store. We had them match Sherwin Williams Alabaster and ended up using the brand Dutch Boy for the first time. The porch and floor acrylic paint we used is formulated for wood and concrete surfaces with a durable enamel coating. Only time will tell if we will recommend it for durability, but the application looks really good!

*Update: 7 months in and the floors looked good. There were some scuff marks but overall held up well.

 

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A post shared by Patti Wagner (@patticakewagner)

This project got some people a little heated as you can tell in my reel’s comment but we LOVE how it turned out! Let’s look at the before with the wood floor condition.

AFTER

The floors look bright and fresh! I love hardwood floors, but just like any design element, I think variety makes each interior unique.

Phase 2 Renovation Plans

We chose to break the renovation up into two phases.

This helps us

1) not use all of our funds at once and 2) gives us more time to thoughtfully plan out what we want to do.

In phase 2 our goal is to open up the main floor and renovate the majority of the interior. We hope that the hardwood floors can be saved. Did you know that sometimes with wood floors that have been sanded beyond repair, people will actually paint them to retain them?

We didn’t want to have to sand twice, so we went with the nice temporary paint route. Our long term plan is to sand off the white paint and feather in new wood flooring into the dining room and kitchen for a seamless transition.

This article from the Spruce is a good reference on how to remove paint from painted floors.

Thinking about painting your wood floor? Here are some helpful links:

The paint we used:Dutch Boy Paint

Article: 18 Brilliant Ideas for Painted Floors from Country Living

Article: 3 Reasons Painting Your Wood Floors is Not as Crazy as You Think from Zillow

Article: How to Get Paint off Painted Wood Floors from the Spruce

Article: How (and When) to Paint Wood Floors from Hunker

Sweetest Regards, Patti