We carpeted the bedrooms. The L-shaped kitchen/family room was harder. We gutted the VCT kitchen part to walls and subfloor, and tore out 4′x10′ of oak and subfloor in the family room water-damaged by the leaking toilet adjacent. The DH put white oak in those areas, sanded the whole, applied 4 coats of natural water-based poly, and it looked great. You could only tell old from new by age gaps between the boards. Total cost under $500 for about 300sf.

Nine years of life/dogs/kids later, that floor’s not so attractive. The finish was too thin and wore through in spots. There are a few water stains. Really, not so bad for first-timers, but it needs refinishing, and this time the bedroom floors are joining in.

After researching, well, let’s say extensively, I’ve decided to remove the old finish with stripper, sand the floors with a random orbiter, and refinish with shellac followed by Wood Preen (a self-cleaning wax).

They were very dirty at first (all the fine dust that couldn’t be vacuumed out of the carpet apparently filtered through), and needed a good waxing once they were cleaned, but they came out a lovely natural honey-tone in the end. Here is a photo (showing my unglamorous but effective polishing method in addition to the floor tone):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60889345@N00/3784441286/in/set-72157621715163904/

And here is a shot of the living room (never mind the paper temporary shades, those aren’t staying!):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60889345@N00/3784441290/in/set-72157621715163904/

And, on a different but still site-relevant note, here is a picture of one of my favorite features of this house — the original garage door with cool design on the front!:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60889345@N00/3666904000/in/set-72157619665208405/

Also, just in general I have been reading this site ever since I found out my new home was a “mid century modern”, and I am so glad I found it because I’ve definitely come to recognize and appreciate a whole slew of design features I’d not previously considered.

we refinished our floors when we moved in. went with a cherry finish, and it looked fairly similar to the floors’ color beforehand. perhaps a little more reddish, but the same medium tone. i’m not sure how historically accurate the original floors were, though, as they were in pretty awful condition when we pulled up the carpet (and the house was remodeled once between building in ‘45 and now – i think in the 60s).

Also, when we had to replace part of our kitchen floor, i found parts of it still had the original hardwood flooring under the plywood – it was a very dark walnutty color, but that most likely only tells you that is had years of water damage (hence replacing), not much about the original color.

Even in that sort of disrepair, i just love the thought and quality of craftsmanship that went into building my house (and many of y’all’s, i imagine) originally.

Homes are built to the liking of the builder OR the desires of the customer. Natural matte wood floors in a room of Cushman Colonial furniture would seem be out of place…yet with a set of Dunbar or Eames furniture would be perfect. If the doors are unpainted, I would try to harmonize.

I once had maple floors and did them Minwax Special Walnut with a gloss varnish…gorgeous, but it was a very formal room. I now have oak with Early American- not a big fan, but they were in good condition. They are honey colored, I prefer dark floors.

Remember that for years most floors were covered with orange shellac.

One more thing…do not let someone dump a can of stain in the center of the floor and mop it around. The original dumping site will absorb of the stain and create a “Map of South America” in your living room. I have found that by starting in one area-brushing on and wiping the excess off-you have more control of the color…AND you can shade and blend previous damaged areas. Good Luck!