Here’s Why I’m Going To Sand My Newly Finished Floors Again
Y’all are going to think I’ve lost my mind, and maybe I have. When I told my mom of my potential plans, she definitely gave me that “you’ve lost your mind” look. But I am strongly considering sanding our bedroom suite floors down again. Now before you freak out, let me state my case.
We’ve had dark floors in our house for almost twelve years now. When we bought our house in 2013, the first thing I did was remove all of the carpet to expose the original red oak hardwood floors. They were already dark.
And then I sanded them down and refinished them. And once again, they were dark.
And then four years later, I went even darker on the finish in an effort to get rid of some of the red. After all, they are red oak floors, so they have a tendency to have red/orange/pink undertones unless steps are taken to remove those undertones.
Anyway, all of that to say that I’ve lived with dark wood floors now for almost 12 years. (It will be 12 years this August.)
I don’t dislike dark wood floors. In fact, I really have liked having dark stained floors. But over the last couple of years, I’ve found myself being drawn to lighter, brighter, natural wood floors more and more. In fact, they don’t even have to be a natural wood color. I’ve just tended towards lighter floors in general. You’ll notice that every time I have the opportunity to do something different, I go light and bright.
When I decided to paint the floor in the original guest bedroom, I went light and bright.
When I originally finished the floor in my studio, I went light and bright with a whitewashed finish.
And when I did the final painted finish on my studio floor, I once again went light and bright.
So my love for light floors isn’t completely out of the blue. It’s what I seem to naturally gravitate towards every time I feel like I have the opportunity to do something different. And for at least a couple of years now, I have wished that we had light, natural wood floors throughout our house instead of the dark stained floors that we’ve had for almost 12 years now. Every time I see a house with light natural wood floors, I get a little jealous and wish I could have those in our house.
However, the task of redoing all of our floors seemed so daunting, so I figured I was just stuck with dark floors from here on out. I plan to live in this house for the rest of my life, so I’d just have to have dark floors until the day I die because refinishing the floors seemed completely unreasonable, right?
So when it came time to finish the floors in our master bedroom suite, I didn’t even consider another option. Naturally, I figured my only option was to try to match the floors to the rest of the house since I’m stuck with dark stained floors until the day I die. There are no other options at this point. So without even considering any other options or our longterm plans, I just went with it. I bought the stain and finished our newly installed red oak floors to match the rest of the house.
These are the areas with the new hardwood floors that I just stained and polyurethaned to match the rest of the house…
But over the last week or two, I began to realize what a huge opportunity I missed. Had I thought it through, I would have realized that this was my opportunity to go light, bright, and natural with our hardwood floors. Yes, it would have to be done in piecemeal fashion, but this was it, and I missed it. Let me explain.
As you know, our future plans include turning the current kitchen into the dining room and turning the current breakfast room and pantry into a much larger kitchen than the one we currently have.
Well, when I get to that project, it’s going to affect the flooring. Right now, part of the kitchen peninsula (the half that sits on the breakfast room side) has no hardwood flooring underneath it because of how I had to build it and the order in which I did those two rooms.
So when this area is redone, new flooring will have to be spliced in so that it has hardwood flooring throughout.
Also, when I divided the original den into two rooms — a breakfast room and pantry — I built the wall first and then installed the hardwood flooring around it.
That means that when that wall is removed, that hardwood flooring will also need lots of work to make it continuous throughout.
Once those repairs are made, this whole area will need to be sanded down and refinished. What better opportunity to make them light, bright, and natural?
And then after that’s done, the plan is to build an addition on the back of the house. That means that these areas will all need new hardwood flooring that has to be finished. (The bathroom will have tile flooring.) It would be so easy to just keep them light and natural as well.
So what does that leave? That basically just leaves the living room and music room. And since the new dining room and kitchen have to be done anyway, that would be the perfect opportunity to just go ahead and do these two rooms as well.
So over the last week-and-a-half, I’ve been beating myself up for missing this opportunity. I initially thought I had passed the point of no return, so I just forged ahead on my closet and tried to put it out of my mind. But over the last few days, I’ve realized that I haven’t exactly passed the point of no return. The point of no return would be once I finish the bedroom, fill up the bedroom suite with our new furniture, and get us fully moved into the new bedroom. Once everything is moved in and Matt is settled in, that would be the point of no return. If I don’t course correct before that point, then I truly am locked into having dark stained floors until the day I die.
But right now, I still have the opportunity. This area is still completely “under construction.” We’re not living in these rooms yet (although we’re passing through to get to the bathroom), and the rooms are completely free of furniture or any other hindrances.
Of course, I have built the cabinets in the closet, but I could still change course even with those cabinets in place.
So my opportunity is now, and it’s either now or never. And I think I want to take the opportunity. When I look at our hardwood floors in the rest of the house — the floors that have been stained and lived on since 2017 — I can see some wear and tear on the finish in the high traffic areas. So dark stained finishes don’t last forever, and they’re harder to repair. A light, bright, natural wood with just a clear coat would be so much easier to repair and keep looking good for the long haul.
I think I’m going to do it. I wish I had thought of this a month ago, and I wish I had thought it through more thoroughly before just deciding that I was stuck with dark stained floors for the rest of my life. But if my choice is now or never, I’d rather choose now. I’d rather choose a bit of hassle and inconvenience now than be stuck with something forever because I didn’t take my opportunity to course correct when I had the chance.
(I realize I’m writing this post on April 1st. I’ll let you decide if you think I’m joking or not. But just keep in mind, when I remodeled our kitchen back in 2014, I refinished that floor three times over the course of that remodel. 😀 So if you’ve been around here a while, and you’re a betting person, I’d suggest putting your money on “not joking”.)
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
Go with your gut instinct! That way you’ll never have regrets.
Go for it!
Now’s your chance!
When I moved into my house 32 years ago, I refinished the red oak floors. I also wanted light and bright, so I kept them natural. On the recommendation of the refinisher, I used a colorless, oil-based polyurethane. I loved my floors…for first few years. The finish has held up well, but they have gradually become darker and VERY orange. The same thing has happened to my natural alder cabinet, although they had the finish applied at the factory 30 years ago. I did not want an orange oak kitchen, but except for smooth grain, that’s what it looks like I have. As with the floors, the cabinets and finish are still in great shape, but the color is so bossy.
I know now there are wood bleaches and color correctors that you can apply to fresh wood to supposedly keep them from turning orange and there are white stains that would lighten the look. And I know you, Kristi, are not afraid of a lot of extra effort to get the result you want. But, I think your floors are a lovely mid-tone brown now.
I’ve been looking at a product called Bona Red Out that is made for red oak. It bleaches out the red and makes it look more like white oak. And they say that out it to stay like that, you have to use a water-based finish. I’m not thrilled with that, but I’d rather do than than apply something that will turn them dark and/or orange again.
Kristi, I get where you’re coming from. Now’s your chance. Take it and enjoy! As always, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
We had light floors in our house for a decade and we hated them every day. They show all the dirt and scuffs. No floor is without wear and tear or maintenance no matter what, but we have gone from sweeping and mopping (or more often just using spray and a rag to spot clean) almost daily to sweeping a couple times a week and mopping twice a month or just once. Yes, we are just as dirty, but our floors disguise the dirt. I’m fine if you judge me, but I am never going back to light floors again.
I agree. I have had both, and will never do light floors again. They show so much dirt. I think a nice, medium tone stain, like you have now is much more timeless.
You definitely are NOT pranking us, lol! I say GO FOR IT!
I love your rich dark floors but you’re right, you do tend towards light and bright and now is the best time to make the change. May I suggest some Bona Red Out or similar to help get rid of the red and pink hues of red oak? By the way, I haven’t seen solid red oak flooring at HD lately and wondered if you would please provide a link to the flooring you chose? I’m house hunting and it looks like I’ll probably have to replace the vinyl plank flooring that seems to be showing up everywhere.
I was looking at the Bona Red Out just yesterday and watching videos about it. It looks like a great product! I’m going to try it out.
This is the flooring I bought: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Beasley-Unfinished-Solid-Red-Oak-1-Common-3-4-in-T-x-2-25-in-W-x-Random-Length-Hardwood-Flooring-19-5-sq-ft-case-RO214-1CSE/320608877
I’m with your Mom, I think you have lost your mind 😂. But I love medium dark wood floors and dislike light wood floors. Light floors show everything. I’m not a light wood kinda gal even though our house came with light maple cabinets. One day those will be painted. All that said … It’s your house and if you want light floors I am sure you will get light floors. Happy sanding.
Go for it, this is your chance. One question though, will you have to remove the cabinets from the wall or can you work around them?
I can sand around them, but it would be better to do it before the baseboards go on.
Haha! April Fools! That’s a good one, Kristi!
I have orange kitchen cabinets that I’m struggling with what to do about them. There are 50 of them, so it’s not a small task :/ My husband and I can’t agree on a paint color so I have 5 doors that have 9 or 10 different colors of paint on them right now.
You’re a hero!
This is how I do it but my OCD makes me hurry up the process.
MKH
I’ve been at this project for 4 years now. I do have some degree of OCD but apparently it’s not in the kitchen :/
I agree with your Mom. You must be cray, cray.
But I agree with you about now is the time to go crazy or forever forget the light, bright floors. You showed a picture of the natural wood right after the floors were put in. Have you looked at that picture? Your floors are absolutely beautiful. Seems like it would be crazy to go to all the work to sand them down.
This would be a great April Days April Fools joke. What are you thinking? You must have a mental block about finishing your bedroom so you are thinking up projects that will keep you from finishing the bedroom. Honestly, why all that work?
I know when I have a “bright” idea, it is hard for me to get it out of my head. I have dark floors. Would I like pretty light ones. Yes. But I would be CRAZY to redo all my floors. Of course I would have to hire someone to do the work.
Maybe you should pray really hard about this and listen for the answer.
Whatever you do, I love you just the same.
Go for it! I have light floors, previously I had orange oak floors. Light is much easier to live with.
Very light and very dark floors show every speck of dirt.
I came to say this – either extreme shows EVERY speck of dirt, dust,dog hair. We did our white oak in provincial to cover stains (1949 rancher). Just a nice medium brown and I love it. Had pale tile in most of our FL home and dark tile in dining/living room. The whole house flooring was pretty much a pain.
Go for it!
I say do it now! I love my lighter floors, they don’t look dirty with pet hair and lint as dark floor. I can see where they would look great with your color palette.
I love the current color of your wood floors and wouldn’t call them dark. I know you have no problem redoing things that you aren’t happy with so I’m sure you’ll be refinishing the floors you already have throughout the house. It definitely would be easier to refinish the bedroom suite floors now before you install baseboards and move appliances and furniture in.
I totally can see you reversing course on the flooring! I don’t mind your darker floors, they sure aren’t as dark as mine (husband insisted on these and I HATE them)! I am just not surprised, as you do have a habit of putting the cart before the horse on your plan of action! (maybe you should plan on paper???) But in the vein of knowing you as I do, it’s your call after all, since you must live there. Can’t tell you how much I wish I had fought my husband more on the floorings, but home building choices were getting to me by then, and I threw up my hands to avoid yet another prolonged discussion!
At this point I’ve renovated more than 10 homes of my own (I’ve always been a vagabond). I’ve had every tone of flooring. In my last home I went a deep dark rich brown and regretted it every day we lived there. Every spec of cat hair, dust, and dirt showed. In our current home I went the opposite and now have super light flooring. I’ll never go back to dark, I love the lighter floors. You lose some “richness” but you gain that brighter look. I do think the floor color you have now is really nice, but I get wanting that change, and if you want it you should do it.
I am all in on the “not joking!” Great idea and does NOT hem you into anything…like you said, you can change it at any time. Use a polyacrylic, I found it does not turn wood orange.
Personally, I love the darker floors. They just strike me as more grounded and give the room a more balanced look in my mind. Compared side by side, I prefer the darker wood over any of the painted light ones.
Oh, I thought for sure you were doing a Silly April Fool’s joke post…… wait are you serious?
Haha! Perhaps I should have waited until tomorrow to share this. But yes, I’m serious. No jokes here. 😊
Oooh….that’s gonna be a lot of work. Good luck!
I think redoing the floors is perfectly reasonable under the circumstances! I’d just like to mention a few considerations.
Make sure that the older floors in your house, which have been sanded several times already, have enough thickness left on them to be sanded a few times again. That will be necessary in order for them to “keep up” with whatever is done to the newer floors, as well as being sanded down for the newer color.
It would be a good idea to work on some sample boards first to make sure you can get a color you love with the wood that you have, before
sanding. (I know you would probably do this, but just mentioning. )
It is my understanding that oil based polyurethane will always amber over time, and water based poly does not. What I learned when we did our floors, (with water based) is that depending on the type of wood you have, the sanded wood itself may darken over time, regardless of the finish. The flooring guys told us to expect it,
(We have something called “red fir pine” in the Philadelphia area) and it has happened. We think it’s beautiful, but I’m glad we knew beforehand. Our neighbors who used a rich, medium stain when refinishing now have really dark floors. Our floors seem to have darkened in both areas exposed to sunlight and not. Your wood may not behave the same way, but maybe look into it so you can plan your floor treatments accordingly.
I think it’s totally worth doing for the sake of your happiness!!
I choked on my lunch when I read the title of today’s post.
I’m just here to keep y’all on your toes. 😀
I understand your desire for light and bright floors, but I also think that light natural wood is the current design trend and I wonder how much that is impacting your desire for lighter floors – it’s what you are seeing in media right now.
I’d consider whether fighting with the natural color of your floors (red/orange) is going to turn out as you hope. Seems like a huge headache with an uncertain outcome.
Yes, was coming to say the same thing. Before you do anything, look at the materials you’ve chosen and already have in the house and make sure you like them together. I have a light/med tone floor in this new (old) house, and every hair, dirt, EVERYTHING! shows up on this lighter floor. I wish I had gone a little darker, but this is it till I’m gone too!~
It’s mostly elbow grease… Won’t regret doing it.
We have Bruce hardwood in Gunstock color, 2 dogs and live in the woods off a gravel road. I damp mop twice a week with Bona hardwoods cleaner. I dust mop more often. I think about lighter colors colors but they do show every mark, and hate the thought of additional cleaning. The scratches don’t show up either. You just have to decide how much cleaning you want to do as you move forward. I have no doubt that it will look beautiful no matter what your decision.
Oh Kristy, I KNOW you’re not joking. Go for it!! It will be beautiful!!
I love your floors! Didn’t you especially work on them to blend in the grain of the new wood? That being said, I have had light oak floors for 20 years and I want to stain them darker now. Medium dark. This would be a really good opportunity to stain with Rubio Monocoat and save yourself all those steps and fumes. I did that 8 years ago for a luxury rental unit on a lake and it still looks new. Worth thinking about.
I sincerely hope this is an April Fools joke because your floors are a classic beauty that will stand the test of time in decor. They give an elegant, rich feeling to your home. From experience, I can say that lighter will bring you to cursing even if you have never done it before. They show every speck of dirt, and with animals, it is worse. I made everyone remove their shoes and put on slipper socks that I kept in a basket by the doors, but it didn’t help much. Needless to say, I learned my lesson. Light floors are lovely to look at but not good if you don’t like to sweep and mop daily. JMHO. I know you will do whatever you decide, and it will be beautiful, as per your usual. God Bless.
This is your forever house. I think you should have everything just the way you want it. While darker floors look rich there are personalities that need light things to be happy. I don’t like dark either, it just feels dreary and depressing. I do wonder tho especially on your older floors, will sanding again remove too much of the top wood that is what causes the lines between planks to remain close to the next board? Not sure I’m explaining this right. I have read that you can only refinish tongue and groove flooring a few times. Maybe yours is not that type? I had a dark floor in my big dining room in a previous house and that was the entrance. It looked a mess every time my dogs came in and out and just mopping does not remove that dirt film after they’ve tracked it all up. Then you end up with rugs to try to catch the dirt and no longer see the floor anyway. I’m so sorry these things didn’t come to mind before but that’s the story of humans. Some things just don’t occur to us at the right time but I’m glad it niggled at you before you got any farther.
I have also heard that you can only sand them a certain number of times. The floors in them music room and living room have been sanded twice by me, and I’m sure they were sanded when they were installed 70-ish years ago. I’ve heard that they shouldn’t be sanded with the big drum sander more than four times. With that in mind, I probably shouldn’t use the big rented drum sander to sand those floors in the music room or living room. I should just do the bare minimum necessary to remove the current finish. The rest of the floors will be okay with another sanding with the drum sander if that’s what it needs to make the job faster.
You should definitely do it! I wish I had!
Having lived in 16 different homes, with all varieties of floors, I agree with the others, I hated my light-colored floors, whether they were hard wood or not. It shows everything. We’re shoes on kind of people, that is why they invented the vacuum cleaner and mops. But those light-colored floors were a lot more work all the way around and then to turn the house back over after we had lived there for a few years, OMG, the work to make sure the floors looked good. When we moved into our forever home, 14 years ago this November, we had wide plank hickory installed, it was called “Gun Stock” in the finish department and they were also distressed to look old, like they came out of a mill or something. We love them, they’ve held up well and don’t begin to show the multitude of sins that these floors carry with our house being on a farm. Go for it but chose wisely. I can’t wait to see it.
I predict you’ll change your mind at least 3 times but it’s your house so you have to do what you want. But it would be so sad if you sanded/refinished everything only to hate it for any reason and have to replace areas that can’t be sanded yet again and go through the work and expense to return to dark floors. Plus, I was wondering if Cooper’s nails will make scratches on the finish of a light floor in years to come. I suppose you’ll cross that bridge when you come to it.
Kristi, I follow your thinking step for step. And I agree. If it were me, and I were you, I would redo them too. (I don’t have nearly the stamina, stubbornness, or energy that you do though!)
Enjoy your lovely light floors starting in your master suite!
“Until the day I die” three times? Hah, that says go for it lighter definitely! I will say that we have white oak floors with a water based finish in part of our house and they have gotten a bit lighter over time where the sun hits. Otherwise, I love them – dirt and dog fur balls don’t show. In the other part of our house, we have white oak floors with shellac finish – they are more orangey.
My mom and dad have red oak hardwood floors, originally with no stain and just the polyurethane finish. They turned orange over time. They ended up perfectly matching their orange-y oak stained cabinets. It was legit hideous.
When they remodeled their kitchen, they refinished the floors and stained them a medium brown to take the orange/red tones out. They’re now beautiful.
I think if you had white oak you could get away with it. But red oak without a stain will look dated. I say stick with what you have. They’re beautiful already.
I have been aroundnlong enough to know you are not joking! I say go for it! I appreciate seeing your process finishing the floors, but I will be just as excited to see you take this opportunity to jave what you really want. I love this about you, Kristi! So aspiring!
NO regrets, just like your closet….if you’re having second thoughts, get it done. I’m with you, I love the lighter look. We do have hand scraped hard wood floors, but darker. They won’t get changed as they were expensive and here when we purchased two years ago, but I would love a lighter look. I so get it!! Do it!!
Do it. How I envy all the work you do. Between you & Tia Weston, on YouTube, with her series My $1 house. I wish I could do all of these projects.
Light floors AND very dark floors are both a pain to keep looking clean. Stick with the beautiful medium color that you have! Also, if you go light and have to use a water based finished you’ll be sorry! As far as I know, there is NO water based floor finish that will hold up as well as the solvent based does.
I think the darker floors ground the brighter colors throughout your home. JMHO.
Dear Kristi,
Will you also be changing out your window blinds, redoing your desk top, refinishing the bathroom vanities and cabinet, piano, and other various furniture pieces that are darker as well?
I personally think the color of your floors are Goldilocks. Not too dark, not too light, just right!
The closet is coming together quickly and looks great!
YHWH Bless You : )
I won’t be doing any of that. I don’t know why changing my floor color would necessitate any of those other items being changed. It’s perfectly acceptable to have different wood tones in the same house.
Before you commit to this, would you consider to paintshop pictures of all your existing rooms with the lighter floors you have in mind? Because I actually don’t think you will like the look…
I’m convinced that high contrast is a huge element in your personal style, and the medium (to dark) floors are such a big part of that. I truly consider you an expert in getting it just right when it comes to repeating certain elements/colours in your rooms so they turn out balanced and still vibrant. But if you would let go of that darker foundation that contrasts to the white ceilings and millwork, I fear the balance will be gone. And a tiny detail: what will your beautiful blinds relate to when the floors are no longer repeating a similar hue?
I don’t think I’ll need to change the blinds. I’ll still have dark wood throughout the house. But if the blinds don’t work in one particular room, perhaps I’ll experiment with bleaching them! I’m always up for an experiment and using items in my home as Guinea pigs to test out ideas so that other people can benefit from the information.
That’s a fun idea! Even so, would still love to see a couple of photoshopped pics with lighter floors… (And sorry about the confusion with “paintshop” in the original comment, must have been too late here in my corner of Europe when I wrote that.) Excited to see the progress on the walk-in closet, it looks amazing. Thank you for sharing your work so generously.
We always had dark reddish floors until our latest house in the Pacific Northwest. This time around, I did a white oak with a matte finish. I don’t think there’s any stain on it so it’s a very very light brown. And I absolutely love it. It keeps the whole room light. I think you’ll be very happy with the results if you lighten your floors.