This is a shot I took of our living room before we moved in. We knew immediately that the blue carpet needed to go, so we ripped it out the first chance we got. Of course, the previous owners had lots of cats, so the carpet left a potent stench in its wake. Still, what we were able to uncover was well worth the torture.
These are a couple shots showing the floorboards covered in a thick layer of sticky brown stuff that took hours to sand down. Luckily, the wood underneath was really promising.
Finding the perfect stain was a little rough for us at first. On impulse, I picked out the American Walnut color (Minwax) from Home Depot, but discovered it was way too red for my taste. Thankfully, we were able to take it back and exchange it for something else.
After doing a little research, I decided I wanted to go with a dark stain that didn't have as much red or yellow; something that looked a little rustic. We chose to go with a light coat of Jacobean (again, Minwax), and to finish it off with a few coats of satin polyurethane. I'll admit that I had a little freak-out moment wherein I thought the stain might be a touch too dark, but it didn't last long. After we added our clear coats, the wood-grain detail popped right out, and the boards began to show more pronounced variations in color. In other words, perfect.
After waiting the obligatory 3 days, I went over the baseboards, window frames, and doors with an almost-white color called Tailor's Chalk (Martha Stewart interior) to help brighten up the space and make the existing wall color pop. After the paint dries tonight, we can finally hang our curtains and move in some furniture.
This makes three rooms in the house we can use! Next up: the bedroom. Peach walls and all.
