Renovating an old house is almost certainly going to raise some issues. One of the biggest ones we discovered in our house was rotten floorboards. Glorious, rustic, textured wood boards, rotten to the core. I could have cried. In fact, I think I did cry. Some could be salvaged and reclaimed, but a lot had to go.
The concern at the forefront of my mind was…new floors? How are we going to lay new floors and keep them sympathetic to the age of the property? Enter my Pa (and a whole lot of Pinterest searching) and together we made a plan to turn our new off-the-shelf floorboards into something with a big of texture and oomph.
Here it is! It comes down to 4 steps, each very important to the process. Give it a go. If you don’t fancy a read, check out the how-to video below
1. The Boards
You are going to be roughing these boards up a lot, so honestly, off-the-shelf tongue and groove does no harm here. Pin or glue the boards in place, whatever is your preference.
2. The Markings
Get a hammer, a chain, a bag of nails or all of the above. Hit, bang, smash, drop from a height…it all works. We even got the children involved. The words “wait, you want us to make dents in the floor?” were asked repeatedly. Trust me, kids, it’ll never happen again, so enjoy it while you can.
Remember, your new boards need to look like they have character and age, and that means intentionally making them look like they’ve been in place 100 years. It’s a weird concept, but one you’ll get used to pretty quick. It’s therapeutic too.
3. The Stain
A crucial step. The key here is to test before you stain your entire floor. We used an off cut of the floorboards and gave it 24 hours to soak in to the wood before we made our decision.
The stain we chose (Ebony) was almost black in the tin. I got hives, had a mild panic attack, but I got over it. Why? Because mixed 50:50 with white spirit, this stain worked in giving the wood the age we wanted it to have. And all of those markings you had fun making in step 2? They darken and stand out after this step, so the more the merrier.
Always remember to wear gloves and use painters tape to protect skirtings / walls when you’re staining. It does what it says on the tin!
4. Time
Have patience, little grasshopper. Give your stain at least 7 hours (longer if you can) to settle and dry before you even think about walking on it. We left it 24 hours before putting any furnishings on it.
That’s it! It really is that simple. Let me know if you try it out.
Kelly x
fiveandafarmhouse.co.uk 
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