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Trendy Whitewashed Hardwood Floors

Here we are, about 18 years after the last whitewashed hardwood craze that left us dazed with the peachy-white floors. Soon we were all sick an tired of the peach look.

Today there is a bit more selection and colour choices in the pre-finished flooring; it is not the case however when it comes to finding a right stain colour for your hardwood refinishing project. Trendy whitewashed hardwood floors are giving a bit of a headache to many floor refinishing professionals - simply because quality stains available to them are quite limited in the colour selection.

Whitewashed Hardwood Floors - The Look

The desired effect usually should convey the feeling of calmness, airiness and tranquilly. Most often, when we talk to our Clients, we find that they are after the "sophisticated shabby" look or the "up-scale rustic" feeling.

Even pre-finished plank flooring, quality laminate floors and the engineered flooring is made to look quite rustic, crating a cottage feel, a beach-front atmosphere or a shabby chic aesthetic. It is very rare that we see whitewashing on high grade, smooth hardwood with high gloss finish.

Found on gatherandbuild.com

Getting Your Whitewashed Hardwood Floors Right

You looked through the magazines, spent hours on Pinterest and you finally have a pretty good idea of the look you want for your floors. You LOVE, love, love the look of whitewashed Pine planks. You talk to your friend next door, who has just the floor you want and she assures you that the same look can be just recreated with stain.

You call us and we talk about your ideas. You know exactly what you want, and believe me... I just love you for it, as there is nothing more difficult to have a Client who really doesn't know what they want. We talk, and during the conversation I find out that... you have a high grade Maple strip installed in your home. It's 5 years old, and in really great shape - but you just don't like the colour any more.

What to do?

I now have to tell you that your perfectly imagined bleached, Pine floor look, will just not be possible unless we rip the Maple floors off and replace them with an actual Pine (or a man-made flooring that looks like Pine).

Realistic Expectations

We can do a lot with your tired looking floors... but there are certain limitations, and all we ask for is that you have a realistic approach to your flooring projects.

If your heart is set on gray floors with cool undertones - you will not get that if we have to work with your real Pine floors (as Pine naturally is a warm wood that will affect the final colour of the stain); if you love the rustic look of beautiful grain, there is no way we can create that on your Maple flooring; all we ask is that you keep that in mind when looking through the home décor sites and online-magazines.

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