Living With White Floorboards.
Long before I had my own place, I always knew that I would one day have white floorboards – I love bright, airy rooms so it was always a must. We have two rooms with white floors, and I love them – they’re a nice change from wood floors and they really create such a lovely space.
Our home has real wood floorboards throughout, there’s no carpet at all which suits me as I’m not a huge fan. When we moved in, the second bedroom (now my office) had white floors, and the bedroom (above) had dark blue floors – they were hideous. Both rooms required repainting so we got to work on making them as nice and homely as possible.
As the floors were already painted, we didn’t need to do a huge amount – we just sanded down any flakes, made sure there were no nails sticking up, and then cleaned the whole floor really well. We used the Ronseal Diamond Hard White Floor Paint, which is great stuff – and quite perfecting if your floors aren’t in the best condition. Personally, I don’t mind the knots and other lumps and bumps as it fits in with our old flat – we didn’t want them to look like laminate as it defeats the purpose of having real floorboards.
Two or three coats of the floor paint is usually ideal, just grab a big brush and get to work – I can paint our large bedroom floor in about ten minutes, then I just wait a few hours for it to dry and do another.
The first time we painted the floors, we didn’t use varnish – but when we repainted the floors in the bedroom this month, we followed up the floor paint with one coat of varnish. It made a huge difference and I really recommend it – I thought it would be too glossy for me but it actually looks super clean.
I guess the dirt puts most people off white floorboards but I don’t think it’s an issue – it certainly doesn’t make me want to get rid of them. One of the questions I get asked most is how I keep my floors clean. We have a fluffy cat, and I’m not exactly someone who spends their weekends cleaning but I don’t think it’s a nuisance! I’d say a good hoover is a must, but that’s about it. We have this Dyson cordless hoover, you basically charge it up and you can zip around and clean without too much hassle – it makes life SO easy, and it’s probably the reason why I don’t think of floorboards as being a hassle to maintain. Consider getting a microfibre mop too, otherwise you pretty much just chase the dirt around.
If you have a large space, I recommend filling up some of the area with rugs. Having some sort of carpet in the room will keep your feet from getting cold, and it also means the room looks a bit more homely. The one I have above was just £85 from eBay, and it’s beautiful – so soft and comfy and really works with the white floors.
I’m still just in love with my white floors as I was when we first had them done eight months ago, they’re clean and bright and really create a warm, homely space. They may take a little more maintenance than wood floors or whatever, but I never feel like I can’t keep up with them.
What are your thoughts on white floors?
