Apparently floor finishing is my thing these days. Like plastic surgery is to Joan Rivers and kid adoption is to Angelina Jolie. We all have our things. My kind of thing these days involves an orbital sander in my hand. But I wasn’t without my reason. While our entry floor is “new” as in we installed it within the first couple months of moving into the pad back in 2010, it isn’t in great condition.
You can chalk it up to newbie home owners who didn’t know any better to install a hard wood floor (if you can call pine hard wood) in a main entry, with only a couple coats of poly by a door that drags across the floor leaving no space for an entry mat. Three words…recipe for disaster. Since things were drying out last week (emphasis on were…it seems to be monsooning here today) I deemed it entry floor refinishing day. It was time for a refresh. So I cleared out the room and went to work.
Well slap me silly and call me Magellan because I made two seriously awesome discoveries in the floor refinishing process…80 grit sandpaper and a vacuum attached to the sander.
I can’t believe I haven’t used 80 grit before when sanding/refinishing floors! It was a dream! I went over the floor with the 80 grit paper making sure to take out all the imperfections. Then I ran the sander over the floor with a finer grit to get a nice and smooth finish. And can we talk about my vacuum system contraption? I learned how to hook up our Dewalt orbital sanders up to our Shop Vac (it’s not a perfect fit but it’s nothing that a little duct tape won’t fix) to suck up all the dust. It was so nice not having to clean up the house of all the dust afterwards or breath in all that gross wood dust. I have a new, sunny outlook these days about sanding. But anyway, here’s a progress pic for ya so you can see the difference sanding down the floor made.
The only area that REALLY needed sanding down was the area around the door. I pretty much left the deeper section of the entry as is.
Five coats of poly later the floor was done. It’s not perfect or as good as new but gosh darn close to it. There are still some blemishes and scratches visible but it’s sooooo much better than before.
I also took full advantage of having the entry all cleared out and touched up the paint. The entry trim paint could definitely be classified as one of those nagging projects of 2012 since most of it had only been primed. I put a couple coats of paint on the baseboard and the door trim and also re-painted the entry door window trim. A certain dog named Goose completely wore off the paint.
Post floor finishing and trim painting, I set the entry back up and had some fun playing with the accessories.
I love fluffing a room. It’s so much fun. I usually “shop” our house and walk around and pull accessories and items from other rooms or sometimes from the basement storage area until I get the room just right. Or close enough to just right as I’m going to get.
The antique fisherman’s floats have been living in the living room and they came from our flea market shopping down East, the fern is new, and the aloe plant has lived in the craft room and the parlor.
The spider plant came from the parlor as well as the coffee table books, the cowbells are from Uncle Marcus’s gift, and the pig tray (which is getting a little makeover as we speak) was a yard sale find from Colby’s mom. And by the way…when I say “pig tray” I’m referring to this tray which has pigs painted on it…I know you don’t have x-ray vision glasses to see through the books but trust me…that tray is covered with pigs
The mirror was also a gift from Colby’s mom which I also painted. I gave it a minor makeover with an antique bronzing paint job which I dig. Oh…and the basket underneath the vanity table has been holding crocheting projects in the living room but now will be serving the purpose of holding Colby’s shoes which seem to be all over the place. The basket is there for my sanity so I can just throw all his shoes into the basket as I clean up the house.
I’m sure the entry will change, scratch that, it’s already changing as I’m painting the poor pig tray. Farm animals just isn’t my thing. That’s floor sanding.
Pssst…You can read a little bit about our entry makeover take one way back here in our early days of blogging. It’s not pretty. The old room or the blog writing, but we’ve been learning.
What color paint is that in the entryway? Is it the same color thats in the hallway you just finished (if not, what color is that?) i love it, its subtle but not too white. I am painting the hallway on our second floor, idk whether to go with a pale yellow or a gray/blue like yours. Whats your philosophy on all the rooms/floor walls matching in color? I’m torn about mine.
The paint in the entry is the same as our kitchen. It’s Hint of Mint by Valspar. It’s this really awesome, perfect, light minty color that I still drool over. It’s my favorite paint color in house. The hallways, dining room and parlor (and hopefully soon to be re-painted living room) are all Baywaves also by Valspar. It’s a light gray with a bluish undertone. Also a color fave of mine. As for my paint philosophy…I subscribe to the same color throughout open spaces philosophy. Thus why our halls and most of the first floor (minus the kitchen) are all (or soon to be) light gray. I swear it makes the rooms feel bigger and really connects our spaces. Our hallway upstairs is also gray and I couldn’t imagine it any other color. It unifies the second floor with the staircase and the rest of the downstairs. However, upstairs our bedrooms/bathroom are all very closed off from each other. In those spaces, I want them to be a bit brighter, different from each other, but still complement each other. Thus the bright, sunshiny yellow bathroom and deep navy craft room. I like the idea of a whole house color scheme and ours seems to be beachy blues and greens with pops of color here and there. Thanks for your comment! It has inspired me to start working on an “our paint colors” page for the blog! Happy painting! Let me know what you decide on! My vote is gray/blue…but I may be bias!