White Decor

white decor

I asked this question on my Instagram and wanted to ask the rest of you on here too for your thoughts….

Michael and I live in a small space. You can check out this older summer blog post to see it. We painted all the doors, the walls and ceiling white to make our small space feel bright and airy and to let in as much light as possible. Mission accomplished except for one glaring exception: I’ve considered painting our brown parquet floors white to complete the white airy feel. Should we? Or should we keep the parquet floors brown?

Note: Under the parquet floor are the original wood floors for the house which neither of us have seen.

Do we paint the brown parquet white to get closer to the above feel or leave it? Or strip it and expose the original wood beams underneath (assuming it’s salvageable) because we have no idea what type of wood it could be underneath, look here for the differences between Solid vs Engineered Hardwood floors. If I do decide to keep the original wooden flooring, what I do know for sure is that having the best hardwood floor cleaning machine is so helpful when trying to keep these kinds of floors clean. That is what my friend tells me anyway. It might be worth doing some more research in the future so I don’t can make the right choice to keep my homes floors clean.

I’ve heard both sides on Instagram:

@just_sinead: “Don’t do it! This could affect the resale value of your house down the line.”

@theawkardblog: “I did it – best thing I could have done to our flat!”

Has anyone painted parquet wood white? I realize that there would be possible chips over time but to be honest I sort of like an imperfect white wood floor being a shabby chic girl at heart.

So keep brown wood floors or go all out with an all white living space?

25 comments

  1. Lisa Campbell-Lown says:

    If you scratch the floor after its been painted, the old floor will show thru is my only concern

    • Karen Blanchard says:

      Right but I’m ok with the odd nick. I think it adds more character but my concern is maybe how many nicks before it becomes annoying. Ugh but it looks so good to have all that white.

  2. Caroline Howden says:

    The guy next to me at work painted one of his bedroom floors white. He
    said it’s fine, but you do have to re-paint it…every now and
    then…I’m actually now intrigued about your original flooring
    underneath…could be a hidden gem or maybe you’ll find out why it was
    covered up :-/ also looking at your parquet – might be worth testing an
    area to see how the paint takes? Might not have the same ‘look’ as the
    above image. We compromised at home with some white wash DIY wall
    cladding 😉 and now we pretend we live in a snow lodge 🙂

    • Karen Blanchard says:

      Clever idea with the wall cladding. I like that actually. Yea I realize that the above photo I am showing is on wide planks of wood. Our parquet is small squares. The original wood floors UNDER the parquet is planks. I think we *may* have an expert come over and take a look. He did our upstairs (we rent up there) and it’s amazing. We stripped off their carpet and exposed the original wood floors up there. I’ll try and attach a photo. Michael said that the same wood should be what we have on our level too being it should’ve been used for the whole house

      • Karen Blanchard says:

        So these are the original wood floors for the house but this is UPSTAIRS where we rent to tenants. It was covered in carpet but we stripped it and exposed the original wood underneath (had it glossed). We are hoping that because it’s a house, our lower level SHOULD have these same floors?

      • Caroline Howden says:

        £55 burd to do the wall cladding ourselves. We looked at http://www.stikwood.com/ but plus shipping costs from the States £700. For me and my 😉 Michael we ended up having to GTS (google that shit) and save a bit of money and do it ourselves. Anyhoo I agree I think the best plan is to get your floor expert to come and take a look first – see what condition the original flooring is underneath? Then you know whether you can have the original flooring or stick with the parquet, depending on that – tell the floor expert you’re keen to have white painted floors and he’ll probably give you the pro’s and con’s. I also have two mad cats, so the white floors wouldn’t last long here, but if you don’t mind a little upkeep…;-)

  3. Veniece Wesson says:

    I did it once for my Aunt’s home. The flooring looked awful and she wanted to tile over it. I suggested painted it white and I did. It came out gorgeous! People who came over afterwards could not believe that it was the same floor. You are right. It did chip some over time. However, the chips added to the beauty of the flooring. It gave it a casual elegance. My suggestion to you, do what you like, because in the end you two are the ones who are going to be living in the space. Yes, it may lower your resale value but having a living space that you love is not about what realtors deem as worthy. It is what you love and appreciate. You seem to have a great eye for design. Do what your gut says.:)

    • Karen Blanchard says:

      Yea the chips do add character and make it more appealing to me. I agree on the do what you like I know that we will be it’s nice to hear it if that makes sense. I can only imagine the before and after of your Aunt’s home!!! I LOVE before/after pictures.

  4. Sinead says:

    Now I want to know what’s UNDER those parquet floors! If you have gorgeous hardwood underneath the parquet, then I would say rip up the parquet and show the beautiful hardwood (my first choice OR paint the parquet, knowing that you have preserved the gorgeous hardwood underneath. If, OTOH, the hardwood under the parquet is crap, then I stand by my original statement about not painting the parquet. Whew! I’ve almost confused myself here, lol! 🙂 The thing about an older home is that in fixing one thing, one almost always encounters (or uncovers, as the case may be) another, more expensive problem. I love my home, but if I ever have to move, it will be to modern, brand new construction.

    • Sinead says:

      PS: I wanted to add that I think all opinions are valid. I have no need to denigrate another simply because I may not agree with them. In the end, I am sure that you and Michael will choose the option that best speaks to you both, and that will be the “right” decision.

      I can’t wait to see photos of the finished product. You have great style and I’m sure that will be reflected in your ultimate choice.

      • Karen Blanchard says:

        I don’t think you did so don’t worry. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out what OTOH meant. Great shortcut. Michael is fine to do whatever I want to do so ultimately he lets me decide so I figured I should get some opinions from you guys being that its a major decision. It’s not like painting a wall as you well know. We could go either way to be honest. I think we’ll sit on it longer but we ARE curious to see what the original wood floors look like especially since we exposed the original wood floors of the tenants apartment upstairs.

  5. antonia says:

    i saw keep the brown, i think it grounds an all white space.

    • Karen Blanchard says:

      I’ve now been looking at THIS photo. We don’t have chevron wood flooring like this unfortunately but I LOVE how this looks.

  6. Lolitta Mylove says:

    My home was built in the 50’s and I have the original oak hardwood flooring. I would not trade them for the world!

    • Karen Blanchard says:

      Yeah that must be amazing. It’s sacriledge to remove original OAK floors!

  7. AverageMe says:

    Personally I love old original floors…….but that’s me. Is there a cabinet or closet that you can pull up a bit of the parquet at least see the original floor? What room is the parquet floor in? If it’s the kitchen I think I would pull up that and not paint it white. Being in the kitchen can you imagine how dirty and yucky that floor will get in white?

    • Karen Blanchard says:

      The parquet is all over in every room that we use (except bathroom). There are a couple of loose squares so we could easily take those off and look. In the basement where Michael works, he can see the underside of the original wood floors because that is the ceiling of the basement. He said the floors look in good shape. Again that’s looking at the underneath of them if that makes sense.

      • AverageMe says:

        Sounds like fun figuring it all out!!

  8. Natasha Bowen says:

    I say check the floor underneath… if it’s in good condition then restore it. Would break up the total white. I love that pic below (chevrons). Mind you… I think I’d go all white if I didn’t have children!!

  9. Dee Gray says:

    Would you us epoxy?- At least it wouldn’t chip – I say do it if the floor you have not seen is trashed

    • Karen Blanchard says:

      Ok I need to google epoxy LOL. Right – I can see that the next best move is to see what the floor we have not seen is like

      • tsp says:

        HAHA I had to google it as well!!! Very interesting concept!

  10. Stef DeMarco says:

    My mom is currently repainting some of our house FROM white to color after several years. She needed a change. I definitely think all white makes the space appear larger. However, I can’t help but fear dirt and stains on a white floor. I actually really like the photo you posted in the comments with the chevron wood floor. Even if yours isn’t chevron, I think the shade of natural wood would look nice against white.

    • Karen Blanchard says:

      That’s like me: I needed a change. Our place was beige and brown forever. We are loving the brightness now so it’s the same as your Mum but the reverse. Yeah no gorge chevron like that photo. Ours isn’t half as nice as that is but yes it is a good color combination

  11. Show Must Go On says:

    For some reason my comments that I posted earlier did not show up. I was suggesting keeping the floors as they are or sanding them down and re-polishing them. Or even using a layer over with interlock parquet. I think painting it white makes it look cheap and you have to worry about scratches.

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