You may remember I mentioned in my recent house update post my plans to change the dining room floor. As this room flows through into the kitchen I wanted to replicate the same slate tiles in the dining area to create more of a seamless flow.
However a bit of investigation at the weekend revealed the current wooden floor is placed on top of original quarry tiles. Ripping up the floor to expose these pretties would be a nice touch but wouldn’t do anything to help the eye glide from one room to another. Removing the quarry tiles looks to be a time-consuming, labour intensive job so it’s out of the question at the moment. Especially with the long term plan to have one hell of a fancy kitchen and dining area in about five years time with a much lighter floor flowing through the whole area. We’re just after a shortish term option to tide us over while we save up for the kitchen of my dreams. Enter the floor paint option.
We painted the floor in our old bathroom. The floorboards were in a bad state of repair and no manner of belt sanding could revive the tired and broken boards. After knocking in any stray nails, a quick sand of the boards left them ready for two coats of Ronseal Diamond Hard Floor Paint. Despite it being a humid area, I was always impressed with how the paint stood up to the job and gave us an inexpensive update to the bathroom.
This time around we’re going from one extreme to the other and in order to attempt to match the slate floor we’ve got to go dark. Oh yes, hello black paint and slightly intimidating dark floor. The images below taken from JJ Locations persuade me back floors don’t have to be scary.
In fact they can be downright sexy. Check out 47 Park Avenue if you don’t believe me. These boards have gone over to the dark side with Farrow and Ball’s Pitch Black floor paint which I’m off to purchase at the weekend.
I’m well aware the look can be a little stark if it isn’t combined with a load of warmer elements; lots of wood, a splash of greenery, so I plan to include both, as well as a rug or two to stop the space feeling chilly. Cushioned pads are going to be a must for the bottom of the chairs too. I don’t want all that hard graft going to waste with a scraping chair leg. Do follow me on Instagram if you want to see the progress and please let me know if you’ve painted any of your floors? How did they hold up and which paint did you use?
Oh how exciting. Very brave! It’ll look amazing I’m sure, go for it girl x
Thanks lovely. Hoping it will look okay! x
Oh wow I think this will look amazing!! Can’t wait to see how it turns out! xx
We have just revealed floorboards under lino in our main bathroom and so having a similar dilemma – do we sand them back, do we stain them or do we paint them white like your lovely bathroom picture above? Not sure I am brave enough to paint the floor black but the pictures do look amazing! What have people done about the gaps between floorboards? Particularly worried about this because it is the bathroom so the floor is bound to get wet.
Thanks! 🙂
Hi Rose – re floorboard gaps you can get a filler from most DIY shops. We had it done professionally when we had our hallway floorboards sanded and stained, I must admit it isn’t 100% as, when the floorboards move and bend slightly as they are wont to do, the filler can come out, but it does help enormously and you can always refill if you buy the filler in the same colour as the paint (or repaint). Plus the hallway is obviously prone to much heavier traffic than a bathroom so I imagine the movement would be less pronounced. Hope that helps!
When we sanded back our dining room floorboards we used a product called draughtex http://www.draughtex.co.uk/?fga=true&gclid=CjwKEAjws5zABRDqkoOniLqfywESJACjdoiG0Xm-y_S6Hv-njdt815wE0zMXfSQiTyE1hdxjsMxsVBoCXznw_wcB which is a kind of round rubber strip that you push into the gaps. It’s black so for unpainted floors it just looks like the gap and we’ve been really happy with it.
The best way to fill floorboards is to keep all the sanding shavings you get when you sand the floor and then mix with a little wood glue. You can then run this mix along the gaps. It won’t move once it’s in especially once you’ve stained or painted it xx
Ooh thanks ladies. Fab suggestions for filling the gaps x
I think the dark floor will lovely. It’s good to try something different, especially if you know it’s going to be temporary. I got round to decorating my dining room last week and we had decided on a green on the wall our pictures are going on but as the rest of the room has come together I really think a dark wall would work really well. I might be tempted to cross over to the dark side and try inchyra blue at some point.
Do it Claire! The dark side is such a good place to be!
We painted our hallway and kitchen floors with one of the Farrow and Ball grey colours (I can’t remember which one right now!). Its come out really well and looks lovely – also help up really well as these are both high traffic areas! Good luck! x
So pleased to hear you’ve had a good experience with F&B Emma x
I really recommend the farrow and ball floor paint, we used Cornforth White in the dining room, really nice coverage and colour, a similar priced floor paint we used upstairs has not held up so well.. the paint is so robust it has managed to withstand our toddler bouncing up and down on his bike on it!
Now that is robust Liz!
I love a dark floor, I think it looks really really pretty. I’m not sure if you watched the latest George Clarke programme thing on Channel 4, but there was a really pretty living room which they painted a dark colour and the floor was stunning. It sort of looks a bit distressed, which might match in rather well with your slate? I’m pretty sure it was painted not stained, you could rewatch the clip to check but either way it perhaps provides some inspiration?
https://c4oldhousenewhome.wordpress.com/episode-4-leicester/
Btw just been nosing around on your Instagram feed and I LOVE your charcoal alcove shelving unit/cupboard. Amazing work!!
Oh thanks Annie. Will check out. I do like a bit of George Clarke but must have missed this episode x
This is going to be epic!
I hope so Laura! x
Hi Lauren – We painted our spare room floors a dark grey – they are lovely – holding up well but planning to carpet there eventually, so this was just a temporary measure. We also used Ronseal Diamond Hard floor paint.
[…] is almost complete so we moved on to decorating the dining room. Hopefully we’ll have the floor painted soon and can then move on to the kitchen makeover during November. My dad is going to help us with this […]
Great idea! Love it.