Was I Serious About Refinishing My Newly Finished Floors? Here’s The Truth…
When I said two days ago that I was going to refinish my newly finished red oak hardwood floors to make them lighter, the overwhelming majority of people thought that I was actually being serious about that. Y’all know me well. I’m the queen of the redo. If I’m not 100% satisfied with something, I generally have no problem at all turning right around and redoing it. But there were a few people who thought I was joking. I get it. After all, I did post that on April 1st, so it would have been a perfect April Fool’s joke.
But what surprised me the most was the overwhelming positive response I got. I thought that I would get so much more pushback than I did. The first thing I said to my mom when we sat down for lunch yesterday was, “Did you see the responses I got on that post?! Almost everyone said I should go for it!” She was rather shocked, too. She and I had already talked about it, and she was also expecting a whole lot more pushback on the idea of me redoing such a big project that actually turned out really pretty.
So was I serious, or was it an April Fool’s joke? I’m pretty sure 100% of you actually know the answer to that.
I was very serious. In fact, before I wrote that post, I had already sanded down some of the floor inside the washer cabinet just to see how hard it would be to get the finish off of the floor. I figured if I chickened out, at least it would be hidden under the washer and no one would ever see it.
But now I’ve passed the point of no return. Yesterday, after I finished all of the wood filling on all of the cabinets, I spent about 30 minutes sanding the finish off of the floor right up against the cabinets so that I can get the baseboards attached today.
I don’t have to have all of the floors sanded at this point, and I won’t be sanding all of the floors with my 5-inch orbital sander. 😀 But before I can attach the baseboards, I at least needed to get the areas right up against the cabinets sanded. As long as those areas are sanded, I can move forward with my plans to sand, prime, and paint the cabinets (hopefully this weekend), and then I can come back to the floors a bit later.
So last night, after I finished working on the closet, I started watching videos of different people refinishing their red oak hardwood floors with a natural finish so that I could decide exactly what I want to do with mine. What I decided almost immediately is that I’ll be using Bona products this time around. Those seem to be the most popular products used to get a natural finish on red oak flooring.
But that only narrows it down a little bit. That’s kind of like deciding to use Minwax stain to stain your dresser. Narrowing down the brand still leaves you with about 50 options of stain colors. Bona has so many great products, and there are lots of different variations that people use to get that natural finish. So I’m still trying to decide exactly which products I want to use. I’ll show you the three that seem to be the most popular to get a light, natural finish. I’ve taken some screenshots from my favorite videos to show you, and these are all red oak floors.
First, let me show you the products. The Bona clear sealers come in five different colors, and the two lightest ones seem to be the most popular, but I’m also very interested in the color right in the middle. NordicSeal is the lightest and brightest, giving the floor a bleached look. NaturalSeal has a tiny bit of warmth to it. And ClearSeal has even more warmth to it.
So let’s start with the lightest — Bona NordicSeal. This first one is from Arched Manor on YouTube. Here’s what their red oak floor looked like before.
And here’s what they looked like after sanding and with the Bona NordicSeal and Bona TrafficHD in a satin finish.
This next one is from Golden Key Designs on YouTube. Here’s what the floor looked like before…
They used Bona NaturalSeal followed by Bona TrafficHD, and here’s what it looked like after…
It’s really hard to tell what the real color is from a screenshot of a video, but to me, those floors look like they still have quite a bit of red to them. I think those floors are beautiful, but I really don’t want that much red in my finished floors.
This next one is from Weles, Inc., on YouTube. Here’s the floor before…
And here’s the floor with Bona NaturalSeal followed by Bona TrafficHD…
That one doesn’t have that red undertone to it even though the video description says that it’s red oak. And evidently, according to the description, they didn’t do anything special to remove those red undertones.
Here’s another one from Weles, Inc., on YouTube. This is the before…
And here’s what it looks like with Bona NaturalSeal and Bona TrafficHD.
I do see a bit of red undertone in that one, but it’s not too overwhelming. I think it looks really nice and neutral. And again, it doesn’t seem like they took any special steps to remove the red undertones from the red oak.
I haven’t found any examples of the ClearSeal on red oak flooring, but I’d really like to see an example of it. I think the ClearSeal may be a relatively new product that used to have a different name. I’ve seen a couple of videos (like this one) that use a color called ClassicSeal which has that middle color outlined on the container, so perhaps ClearSeal has replaced ClassicSeal. I’m not sure if it’s the same color with a different name, or if it’s a different color altogether. And in that particular video, he didn’t specifically say that his floor is red oak, although it looks like red oak to my untrained eye.
I’m pretty sure I’ve ruled out the NordicSeal. It’s just too white for my taste, and I fear that it’s a bit too trendy right now. I actually do like for wood to have a bit of warmth to it, so from what I’ve seen, I’d lean more towards the NaturalSeal. But I really want to see an example of ClearSeal on red oak before I make my final decision.
Bona also has a product called Red Out that bleaches out the red undertones from red oak flooring. Regardless of the finish I use, I’m about 99% sure that I’ll start with the Red Out first so that I don’t take a chance of those red/orange undertones coming through on the final finish. That’s a two-step process that seems to be relatively quick and easy. You simply roll Part 1 of the product onto the floor, and before it’s dry completely, you roll on Part 2 of the product on the floor and let it dry naturally. As it dries, it removes the red. And you can repeat those steps again if needed.
So all of that to say that yes, I was serious, as most of you knew very well. And if you have any experience with Bona products, especially the ClearSeal that I couldn’t find any examples of on red oak, I’d love to hear what you have to say about them!
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.
Yay! I am so excited you are doing this!
Trust me, we all knew you were serious, and while some of us have learned the lesson of it’s done let’s go with that, I love that you won’t quit until you get to your perfection. If you still have some of your flooring leftover, give yourself the opportunity to try these out before you are into the whole shebang. Allowing for differences in computer screens, cameras, and lighting, this way you will be able to hold it in your hands and say, ahh, this is the one I want. I love the 5″ sander. When I painted our barns, 3 of them, and one is 40’X60′, the other is 35’X75′, and the last is tiny at 20’X20′, I was walking back up to the house with some supplies in my hand and the UPS man had just arrived and saw this little paint brush in my hands and started laughing, I had to tell him I used a professional sprayer, but I use the little brush to clean up the cans and get all the paint off the sprayer. After that I should have had my husband take a picture of me on the scaffold with the little brush…it would have been a hoot. Most everyone who knows me knows how serious I am about my paint.
Cheers to you and Matt!
Ha! That’s funny. Imagine him thinking you had painted all of that with a tiny brush. 😀
Thanks for the laugh Lori Ann! :-))
We re-did our red oak floors using Bona. They’ve worn well. I like the look of traditional oil finished red oak, so we chose Amber Seal. We did a sample of Classic seal and it was straight up pink. I have a picture I can email if you like.
I’d love to see it! [email protected]
Sent!
The only thing I noticed in all but the first one is that the first one seemed more uniform in tones between the individual boards. Whereas the others had distinct variations between dark and light boards – some being very different, which I find as a negative. I don;t like that much difference in the shades, as to me that says a patched floor. But, I DO AGREE the first is too light for you. I don’t mind it myself, but it is quite modern.
I don’t put much faith in online before and after photos, as you can adjust to get whatever effect you desire. For example, the 4th set of photos: the before shows floors that are very orange and walls look very warm, almost yellow. The after, the floors are a beautiful neutral light wood but the walls are now green! Either they used a filter or the painted the walls but either way, green neutralizes red so the red tones are diminished.
I love the idea of lighter wood floors but it’s been my experience that red oak will be red no matter how light you go with the finish.
Good luck! I hope it turns out just the way you want!
Wow good catch! That photo was definitely manipulated to reduce the red tones in the after.
Don’t believe everything you see and read on the internet including reviews…..they are mostly manipulated.
Did you call Bona to see if it was only a name change of Classic to Clear? You may end up mixing your own color.
I try to not make any decisions based on trying to be or to avoid being trendy. If i really love something today, I generally will in 10 years.
The NordicSeal reminds me of gorgeous bamboo floors my family had when I was a child – they were warm and soft on the feet. I also love the more uniform look over the patchwork look of the others.
Whatever you choose will be perfectly “you” and gorgeous.
I agree with your thoughts on the 2nd one. The first one looks almost like laminate flooring, it’s so perfect! Too perfect. The third and fourth are the best in my opinion, but I know you’ll make the right decision for you.
So happy that you are going to change floor color. I know it’s a lot of work but you are gonna love it.
Just thinking about re-doing all your floors again makes me tired. I’m gonna take a nap! Could you use your little “green craft paint” trick to knock down the red in the wood?
I think this time around, I want to stick with products that are made specifically for floors to achieve the look I want.
Hi Kristi – I know that you will be testing the Bona products on scrap wood floor pieces, but my suggestion is to also paint some scrap wood and/or drywall in the teal paint color that will go on the cabinets.
I would want to see both the stained floor samples and cabinet paint samples together.
The Red Out products reminds me of the wood bleach process which I have successfully used when refinishing furniture in cases where I didn’t like the undertones or uneven grains in the wood. (I think it was poplar, showing greenish and pinkish tones on different pieces on same furniture).
Good luck with your sanding and color testing
I can’t even comment.