In this post, we’ll share how we created beautiful DIY whitewashed solid wood floors VERY inexpensively! And spoiler — we did not paint ourselves into a corner – which is a huge win! We hope you enjoy this final work-in-progress because next week we will reveal the completed project!
We have come a long way! We’ve dreamt, calculated, planned, discussed, analyzed options, and worked long hours to get this project finished. Not surprisingly, we would not have done it any other way. The satisfaction of doing this project ourselves is truly priceless. We successfully transformed an empty, useless attic space into a bright, functional office space. And now, our house has 3 living levels (including the basement).
Purchasing the Wood
The wood we used on the attic floor was purchased from a wood flooring specialty store. It’s solid wood, 3/4″ x 5″ x 8′, tongue and groove, unfinished pine. And the best part, it’s only about $1.30/sq. ft. Yep! Really!
With the underlayment, the paint we used on the floor (leftover), the topcoat sealer, and the nails we purchased for our nailgun, the flooring project cost around $500 for the 22’x12′ finished floor space. THAT is a bargain friends!
For anyone who’s used pine before, you may already know that pine is NOT a hardwood. We were looking for flooring to balance the sleek, white ceiling in this room. We did add a few coats of sealer to protect the finish, but this floor will age and give a slightly more rustic feel. For perspective, if we had purchased unfinished solid oak instead of pine, we would have spent 2-5x as much per square foot, which didn’t make financial sense for this lower traffic office.
After purchase, we brought the bundles of wood home and let it sit in the attic for about a week before we installed, so it could acclimate to the space.
Installing the Floors
First, we got all of the tools in place. Some of the flooring even served as a temporary workbench. In addition to the flooring and underlayment, we needed our chop saw, air compressor, nailgun and mallet, stapler (for the underlayment), tape measure, pencil, sawhorses, and sense of humor! LOL
We laid boards all the way across the room to get an idea of how they would fit. This is a good way to prevent having one small piece of wood on either side of the room and previewing the best way to layout the tongue and groove. We also rolled out the underlayment (blue sheets) and began stapling them to the subfloor.
Melissa starts the third row, nailing the boards down with the nailgun. With one person cutting pieces and the other person nailing this process goes fairly quickly.
These boards have some knots in them. Truthfully, there weren’t very many “bad” ones. If we ran across a board with a large knot like this one, we just cut it out and used the wood around the knot. We purchased extra wood to account for these issues, but it wasn’t really an issue overall.
The first 8 rows are installed and we really started to get in our groove! Almost halfway done!
Chris looks like he is really ready to get this floor finished! Just a few more boards, then we’ll start figuring out the right mix for the whitewashing.
The finished install – but before we painted on the whitewashing. As you can see in this image, the pine has a yellowish/reddish hue that, while pretty, wasn’t exactly the aesthetic we were going for. If your space is more rustic, this might be perfect for you.
Chris did one last vacuum of the floor to ensure all the sawdust and stray nails are picked up before we started painting.
Whitewashing the Floors
We had quite a bit of leftover paint from the interior walls and ceiling of this project. So, we used that paint for the floors. The trick was figuring out what paint to water ratio we wanted to use. More water equals a paler, more transparent white color. Less water equals a more opaque white.
After trying a few paint to water ratios, we actually decided on a 1:1 ratio (1 part paint to 1 part water). Brush on – then wipe off – SUPER easy. But depending on the look you’re going for, you may find 2:1 or 3:1 works better.
Here is Melissa lightly wiping off the paint after she applied it with a paint roller.
Here’s another shot of how different the DIY whitewashed wood flooring looks versus the original unfinished wood.
Roll on —- wipe off! Simple and effective! We were able to paint the entire floor in less than two hours.
Sealing the Floors
After the paint dried completely, we finished the floors with a water-based polyurethane floor sealant. To roll on, we just used a foam roller brush. Five coats of sealant ensures the floors are finished and sealed well. It dries quickly after rolling on, so sealing can be finished over a weekend.
And that’s it! Inexpensive DIY whitewashed solid wood floors to finish the new office in the reclaimed attic space. You can take a look back at the other phases of this project here: getting started, stairs, insulation, and ceiling.
Next week, we’ll show the final reveal with the 100% completed room!!
If you found this post useful and inspiring, save THIS PIN to your Floors board on Pinterest.
Priya says
what color did you paint the walls and ceiling?
Melissa Metzger says
Hi Priya – Out of the can white! 🙂