Hi peeps, happy Friday! If you’re new here, we’re serial-movers, updating the house that we just purchased at the beginning of the year. One of the biggest projects on the radar for this house was staining the existing orange-ish hardwood floors. The wood is installed in all of the main living areas, the kitchen, and the hallway. It was a major undertaking, and we knew the color that we chose would set the tone of the whole house. We asked your opinion in “The Perfect Grey Wood Stain” post from a few months ago, and did an annoying amount of research. Here are the results of our choice of grey wood floor stain, why we chose what we chose, as well as a bit about the painful process, and some before and afters!
This is what the floors looked like when we first saw the house:
Listing photo. High quality wood, but the color was a little too Cheeto.
Listing photo… p.s. bye bye window above the fireplace! (More on that later!)
THE STORY OF OUR GREY WOOD FLOOR STAIN PROJECT
We knew we wanted something grey-ish, that would work with the coastal/farmhouse-ish feel that we were going for in this house.
Because of the ridiculous, anxiety-inducing time delays with the buyers of our old house, we ended up and moved the WEEK before Christmas, oh and I was also in my first trimester of pregnancy. Good times! Staining the floors was obviously something that needed to be done before we moved every bit of our furniture in, so our timeline looked like this:
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16TH – CLOSE ON NEW HOUSE.
The week leading up to this, we packed like mad, and on closing day, we had three trucks full of our entire life tucked away in cul-de-sacs in our neighborhood, just waiting to be unpacked at the new house. Long story short, it was a Christmas miracle that this closing actually happened.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17TH & SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18TH – UNPACK AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
We put all of the bedroom furniture (in the carpeted areas) inside the house. The rest went in the garage and attic.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 19TH – THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22 – STAY AT BEACH CONDO FOR THE WEEK WHILE FLOORS ARE BEING REFINISHED.
More delays meant that the crew didn’t start until Tuesday. This is typical of construction labor at this particular moment, and in our particular area of the world. We thought that staying at a condo on the beach would be a nice, relaxing little break for our family. Only in all the chaos we forgot the pack and play, so LC slept in the bed with us (by “slept” I mean somehow found a way to stretch her tiny body out to roughly the size of a baby elephant, whilst simultaneously flailing random legs, feet, arms, and hands that impressively always seemed to land smack on the bridge of your nose), so we didn’t sleep. I was also deathly ill with some type of 24 hour stomach bug the first night we were there, and had other pregnancy-related nightmarish things occurring for pretty much the rest of our stay.
Good thing she’s cute.
The dog also came with us. The dog was definitely not supposed to be with us.
Playing stickers with Daddy!
Shirt pretty much sums up my feelings at this point.
We got word on Wednesday that, surprise, surprise, they would not be done by Thursday. So we rented the condo for another night. I was getting MAJOR anxiety that we would not be home for Christmas. We had no tree, no presents were wrapped, and we didn’t even have a place to sit at that point. I was borderline hysterical knowing that we’d be home on Friday, December 23rd at the earliest.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23RD – TRY TO REMAIN CALM WHEN ARRIVING HOME AT 8 P.M. AND THE TOPCOAT OF STAIN HAS NOT YET BEEN APPLIED.
At this point, after unloading an entire SUV full of presents, groceries, and our suitcases, and hauling it around to the back of the house, since we still could not walk on the floors, I was sweaty, tired, and furious. I closed our bedroom door (since that is where all three of us had to huddle for the night) and screamed to my patient husband, “THEY HAVE TO GET THE **** OUT OF HERE!”
These poor men had been working their fingers to the bone all week and I’m sure that they wanted to be home (they were from Atlanta) with their families for Christmas as well. I’m very thankful that after my mental breakdown they did not just pack up and leave.
Have you ever tried to take a long winter’s nap hiding in your bedroom with your toddler, husband, and nervous dog while two hard-working Russian gentlemen slave away until the wee hours of the morn’ just outside your bedroom door? #beenthere
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24TH – CLEAN UP CREW. (ME.)
At some point during the night, the Russians called Lane and told him they were done. He wished them well and sent them on their way in their one horse open sleigh/well-loved Chevy work van. I got up at 5 a.m. and started cleaning.
EV.ER.Y.THING. was covered in dust. If someone tells you that anything in construction (wood sanding, tile removal, drywall work, etc.) is a “dustless” process, please know that they are liars. They may not mean to be lying, but they are. What they should say for any so-called “dustless process” is “there will be dust, but it could be a lot worse.”
Though they claimed that this was a dustless process, from the beginning Lane and I knew that it would not be. So at 5 a.m. I arose, and began dusting the walls, light fixtures, blinds, everything. When Lane and Lila got up, we started moving furniture in. By that evening we at least had a cozy spot to sit in our new family room. We hung the stockings, got the presents wrapped, and I’ll be damned if Santa didn’t find us! We had a great Christmas and the best present that Lane and I got was pretty new floors!
If you wait until December 23rd to buy a tree they only cost $1!
DETAILS OF OUR GREY WOOD FLOOR STAIN PROJECT
THE TIMELINE:
From start to finish, to install 150 sf of wood, sand 1,000 sf, and fume, stain and top coat 1,150 sf, this project took five days.
The sanding portion of our job took much longer than they originally thought because of the super high-quality finish on the wood. They ended up and had to hand-sand many places, which put them way behind.
All of those dark spots they had to sand out by hand.
I LOVED the wood in it’s natural color.
THE MATERIALS:
Natural Monocoat Oil Plus 2C Finish (Pure) with 5% White added.
We chose this product because it is Zero VOC, and protects and colors the wood in one step, PLUS it dries in 24 hours and cures in seven. While it felt like an eternity to us, that’s pretty quick when compared to other wood staining processes out there.
Rubio Monocoat Fumed.
This is a “creative effect” that is done to the wood after it is sanded, but before it is stained. It reacts with the natural tannins in the wood, therefore creates a different look for each individual board. I LOVED the wood after it was fumed, and kinda wish that we could have left it like that, but a top coat is necessary to protect the wood, and in this case, also make it waterproof.
Floors after fuming. #swoon
Floors in kitchen after fuming, next step is stain application. This pic shows how each board reacted differently with the Fumed product based on the amount of tannins in the wood. So cool!
THINGS TO KNOW:
As with any home renovation project, have FLEXIBILITY WITH YOUR TIMELINE.
THIS IS NOT A DUSTLESS PROCESS.
Close the doors of the rooms that won’t be touched, close the vents, pull up your blinds, plastic off your cabinets. Plan accordingly!
YOUR FLOORS WILL DRY IN 24 HOURS, BUT TAKE IT EASY.
We started moving furniture in right away because it was Christmas. No permanent damage was done to our floors, but ideally, wait 24-48 hours before walking on them. They cure completely after seven days.
THE COST:
To install 150 sf of wood, sand 1,000 sf, and fume, stain and top coat 1,150 sf, this project cost $8,300.
And it was worth every penny. This was a major investment that, in our opinion, was best left to the professionals.
Here is a look at our kitchen as it sits today!
Don’t forget to PIN IT!
We love that the 5% white really brings out the grain of the wood. So far, the floors have been very durable. We have a toddler and a neurotic dog that wear them out, and so far not a mark to be seen. Even water beads up just the way they said it would.
We’re so happy with the floors and if you’re on the hunt for a grey wood floor stain, I’d highly recommend our installers, Just Floored, and Rubio Monocoat.
Leave any questions in the comments, and as always, thank you for stopping by the blog today and for joining us on all of our adventures! Have a great weekend!
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