Multiple oak wood floors throughout 1st floor
Hello. This post is time sensitive as we start sanding our first floor in a couple of days. First we are about to start month 5 in our 1st floor reno and we are struggling as we are now to the point where we just have access to the minifridge and toaster oven in the basement. Ahhh!
Now, due to wall moves and the prior homeowners mistakes, have to deal with harmonizing 4 oak floor types:
-Old red oak (right-side of house study, back hall, and coffee room)
-old white oak (center of home - foyer, kitchen)
-old white oak no 2 with a lot of dark swirls on it (left side of house - family room which is an open floor plan to the kitchen)
-new white oak (interlaced in some of the right-side of house rooms, the kitchen, and in a small section of the transition to the family room where a feature sliding window will be installed)
We really want to use the bona nordic seal in image and HD traffic matte ($$$) (in image #2) but don't want to spend the money/time on something that will look horrible when we go full out.
Please review the images to understand how the flooring transitions:
1) upstairs view of foyer and study
2) stain sample board of kitchen cabinet and samples in foyer transition to study (top is bona nordic seal & HD traffic matte and bottom is pickle)
3) study (red oak) with new white oak transition to back hall
4) study to back hall transitions between white and red oak to coffee room
5) coffee room (red oak) with transition to kitchen and family room (new white oak interlaced)
6) old white oak no1 and no2 mixed with the small new white oak patch (transition from kitchen to family room)
Thoughts?
Goal #1 - Keep Bona Nordic Seal & HD Traffic matte for look, durability, and UV protection
Goal #2 - Make the most on $ spent on Bona Nordic/HD Traffic due to $$$ - improve this look however needed (ie. replace all no.2 white oak with new white oak) within reason as we likely will never redo the floors again while in this house and we are running out of time and patience
Goal #3 - floor should go with the rest of the reno and kitchen cabinet
I am ok with natural variation room to room if not too jarring and if it adds interest of character without looking crazy.
Thanks!! SA
Comments (25)
Sabine A
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoRelated Discussions
Different door hardware on 1st/2nd Floor OK?
Comments (7)Okay, so I was set to listen y'all and do the levers on the first floor and simple knobs on the second and the handyman (and handywoman - they're a married couple working together) and she said "Oh, that antiqued brass finish is so outdated. You should do a pewter finish." And I went "gulp" and was thrown into total indecision so they didn't install any of it! I know the silvery finishes are in but they look super contemporary to me. Uh oh. Who thinks installing antiqued brass is a mistake? Haven't I heard that the gold tones are coming back???...See MoreWood floors or cabinets 1st?
Comments (7)It depends on whether it's solid hardwood or floated, engineered wood, I think. Regular hardwood has to go under the cabinets, but the floated kind goes in afterwards. Like Zelmar, I have 90-year-old full wooden floors, and when we remodelled you could see where various cabinets have been installed and removed. If it's real wood, it can be sanded down for infinite remodelling choices, which is a huge plus. I also agree that what you might save in materials, you'd more than pay for in terms of the floorlayer having to fit his installation around the cabinets. I doubt it would be more economical, and would also pose some risk to the cabinet finish. Yes, you have to be careful vis-a-vis the DW when you float a floor only up to the cabinets -- I think it's standard practice to put matching-height plywood under the DW space in that case, so that you don't create an inaccessible hole for the DW. If you want lower counters, I'd definitely think about getting shorter cabinets! I wanted mine slightly higher, so my carpenter built my toe-kicks a tad higher -- although this was with custom cabinets that were built on top of freestanding toe-kick bases. But even with standard pre-ordered cabs, this might be an option for you when you have them installed (have your guy/gal shorten the kicks a bit)? :)...See More1st Floor Plan Feedback
Comments (106)No arguments about the awful pantry. We had it changed before we even started this thread. I'd go with something like this, which gives you a way to get groceries into the pantry without carrying them around the corner and through the kitchen's main workway; however, as shown, it's too close to the back door and would create a bottleneck: Still smaller than we want. Obviously not a MUST have with the amount of cabinet space we have, but I'm definitely a buy-in-bulk shopper, and don't want to have to store it all in the basement. I don't like to store food in cabinets. First, it's easy to "lose things" in the back of a dark cabinet. Second, cabinets are expensive storage, whereas pantry shelves are very cheap to build. I'd gladly give up some cabinet space to get more pantry. The living room is the room we question. I'm sure we'll sit and read in it cause it's there and nice, but obviously not entertain formally every week. But we want to be able to entertain away from the kitchen & family room. Should we shrink it a couple feet and add that to the used every day family room? Definitely worth debating, but it's the first room people see coming in after the foyer; should it be small? I think the proportions of the house would be off if we shrunk the foyer and living room a lot, and you entered into our large house and saw such small spaces. But we're here for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 100th opinions, so feel free to disagree. The Not So Big House series has been recommended over and over. It will address this issue -- in detail -- with photographs. That just didn't make sense to us. The #1 thing that just doesn't make sense is moving forward with a project when you're not 100% dead sold on the house. And I don't hear that from you. Whatever sunk costs you have in these plans, the building of the house will be exponentially more -- so don't hurry. playroom So in addition to the great room - living room - study - basement, we're talking about a playroom? I think the real issue here is that the OP hasn't really defined how each room will be used -- aside from expressing a desire for an adult space and a children's space. THAT is the issue. If you have a nice wall of cabinets in the family room, it could contain toys for now, and it would be convenient for toddlers while the parents are cooking. Or you could contain toys in the study for now and later it could become a teen space or an actual study. Or you could have an all-toys-to-bedrooms-by-dinner rule. The mudroom is big enough to contain a desk and work space, and it's convenient to the kitchen. All sorts of things could work ... but more rooms, more rooms, more rooms without definition isn't the right answer. Will each space have a TV? Where will books and board games be stored? Where will the kids have video games one day? Where is a quiet place for an adult to sit and read or work? Where can a kid practice a musical instrument? Once you clearly define how each room will be used, you can efficiently decide how much space each room needs. I'm not convinced that's really been addressed....See MoreWarm oak trim throughout house What color lux vinyl flooring?
Comments (7)What color flooring would work? Thanks! Inverse how you're looking at the doors and trim. Instead of focusing on the main, all-over blonde color, focus on the smaller grain areas of darker browns. Try to find flooring that matches the darker browns. Plain, simple, solid(ish), not busy pattern. It will go with what you have now and a wide range of options in the future....See MoreSabine A
3 years agoThanks SJ - I know, why are we dealing with 4 different floors so late in the project! ;)
So just to clarify. At this point I haven't been too stressed by the slight pink on the red oak side, but when we do the whole thing you think that will be the biggest clash, right?
So you are thinking we may just like the HD Matte in general and that possibly could look more uniform? This is why I should do one variable (product) at a time to see which gets me the goldilocks effect, right?
Also, as background I think we may have made a mistake when we suggested that they do the samples in the same spot as prior samples as I think there is some bleed through... seems like where gray (likely has some green in it) was before on the red oak looks more uniform...
version 0 on samples
version 1 (current round) on samples:
Thanks!Sabine A
3 years agoSabine A
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoSabine A
3 years agoSabine A
3 years agoHi all! Update - we sanded down and are leaning back toward Nordic Seal + HD Matte - Still looking ok with Bona NordicSeal + HD Matte The samples in the first pic are just HD Matte at the top, 1 coat Nordic + HD Matte in the middle (we like this one), and Naturele on just the white oak with HD Matte at the bottom (biggest mismatch in look). Hard to tell where one stops and starts in the picture though....
Sabine A
3 years agoWe did the biggest transition in the coffee room with just nordic seal 2 coats + HD.
we think we can live with this...
Sabine A
3 years agoThanks all for the help! Here is an update floors with 2 coats Nordic Seal + 1 coat HD traffic. The cabinets, stairs, exterior doors, and paint will be worked on starting next week. Then, they will do a final coat of HD traffic.
Sabine A
3 years agoSabine A
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoSabine A
3 years ago
dani_m08
3 years ago
SJ McCarthy
3 years agoSabine A
3 years agoSabine A
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoDMAC... this is red oak
The part in front of my stairs (you can barely see in the above and below images) is white oak...
Sabine A
3 years ago
Eleanor Snickelfinger
2 years ago
SJ McCarthy