Remember that time that we had a wall separating our dining room and living room?
I hardly remember either. Even though it’s been less than two years, it’s still hard to remember the room being that closed off.
Nick did an AMAZING JOB putting up the load-bearing beam, re-routing the duct-work, framing in the arches and pillar, dry-walling, and mudding. This had been such a long/messy project that when we he was finished… we just left the wood floors this way.
It’s been that way for so long that we didn’t even notice it anymore. THAT’S BAD! I think we were intimidated by the idea of trying to match new wood to the old. We really just didn’t know what to do. Kind of like that entire post we wrote about unfinished projects.
So when Duluth Trading Company announced their ‘Kick in the Pants’ initiative, we decided to jump on board and help inspire others to tackle that lingering/unfinished project.
We got lucky and found the same Fir flooring boards at Menards… only they were unfinished.
After pulling up the plywood, reinforcing parts of the floor, replace the subfloor, applying resin paper, and installing the actual hardwoods… we planed with a hand-planer, and sanded it within an inch of it’s life.
Then we had words with our friends at Sherwin Williams, and they were confident that they could mix up a custom stain to perfectly match our existing 114-year-old flooring. So we brought in a scrap piece of flooring, and they did their magic!
After one coat I was not convinced, but the second coat was almost a PERFECT match! And the village people rejoiced.
Granted, it doesn’t have the nasty cracks that gather nastiness like the original planks. But you can’t have everything, right?
We sealed with glossy oil-based poly… 3 coats in all.
When you’re up real close, you can tell that the new boards don’t have the same ‘character’ (BLEMISHES!) that the original floorboards do, but that will come with time. If you’re not looking closely, you can’t even tell we patched the floor!
We still need to put trim around the pillar, but I think we’ll go ahead and procrastinate that for another year at least. (NOT!)
Our friends over at Duluth Trading Company are giving you a ‘Kick in the Pants’ by encouraging you to finally tackle that unfinished project in your home (whatever it may be!) by giving away $200 Visa Giftcard, as well as $200 worth of Duluth Merchandise of your choice! In order to enter… 1) Snap a picture of your procrastinated project, 2) Upload your pic here and tell us why you’ve been putting it off!
10 lucky guys or gals will win! 5 will be chosen on April 23rd, and 5 more on May 1st. Entries will be selected based on quality of submission. Open to US residents 18 years or older.
Good luck to ya!
This post is sponsored by Duluth Trading Company. I was compensated to promote the giveaway, but was not told what to do or say.
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Hey friends! Nick here... I think I can speak for the entire world when I…
You did a great job. I got some very good idea about patching & matching hardwood floors by reading this article. Thanks for sharing.
Is color matching stain something all sherwin williams stores do? or do you just have the right friends? Our house was built in ’27 and at some point before we were here it had termites. It’s a craftsman with its original woodwork but there is some that needs to be replaced and making it match makes me nervous!
I’m pretty sure they do it at all SW Stores!
Sweet! Thanks for a quick reply! I even saw a SW store in my normal driving pattern yesterday 🙂 Now, I told my husband if I figured out how to match the stain he had to figure out how to match the trim but if you have any tips it would greatly be appreciated!
YAY it’s done!
You did a really great job patching that floor. I would have just thrown a rug or something over it because I get scared of those kinds of projects. But you are fearless, so good job!
There was a wall there? good looking repair … a project I’ve had to tackle myself on occasion though for me I’m usually dealing in pine. Love Duluth too. well done guys! Happy Easter. ~jb
Yes there was a wall… it feels so much more open now! It was a lot of work, but we’re so glad we did it. Hope you had a great Easter too!
We post the pic straight on their Facebook page? There aren’t any others out there, so I wanted to be sure! Thanks… Jealous that your patch job is seriously so much better than whoever tried to patch our hardwood! I have to put a rug over it!! Ahh someday…
Hi Kristin… sorry it took me so long to reply! For some reason the link takes you to their FB page when you’re on your smartphone or tablet. But on a computer it works. I don’t know what’s up with that. I’m super sorry! I hope you’re able to get entered.!
We live in a ~100 year iowa farmhouse too, and we have almost exactly the same floors! Complete with grody cracks and orangey stain.
Haha! I’m glad I’m not the only one. We’ll just call it ‘character’… 🙂
Awesome you guys got the kick in the pants too!! Floor’s looking good… good job! Is it warming up out there now??