The question I get asked most on Instagram is what colour my living room is. And if you care…it’s Down Pipe by Farrow and Ball, the most ubiquitous wall colour on the grid it seems. 

My next most frequent question is “what’s it really like to live with white floors?”. It seems crazy right? To paint your floors white. I must admit I did months and months of research before I went for it. 

I read countless blogs and ‘how to guides’ all written by experienced designers/homeowners and professionals.

THE THINGS  I LEARNT FROM MY RESEARCH WERE

1. You definitely shouldn’t do it. 
2. It’s a lot of hard work. 
3. The prep work is really important.
4. You’ll need to move out. 
5. You’d better love sweeping and mopping.
6. You definitely shouldn’t do it.

So why was I even considering it?

Well, I absolutely hated the floors as they were. They were solid oak, really really good quality but also really, really ugly. Orange and modern looking and not really in keeping with the house. 

Of course, we considered replacing them. We would have loved something like a lovely bleached parquet (which would have cost a small fortune). But our strongest reason for not doing this was the planet. I wasn’t prepared to lift up and discard all that wood to just replace it with prettier wood. It seemed wasteful and frivolous and I couldn’t justify it. 

So the perfect solution seemed to be to paint over them. But everything I read told me not to. I didn’t read a single blog in favour of it. 

But the thing is, in spite of everything I read, I really, really yearned for them. Every time I saw a painted floor I would stop scrolling. I lusted over other people’s floors like some weirdo stalker. I even nearly bought a house because I loved the painted floor in the dining room! So there was no doubt I had a thing for them, even though I had no experience of living with one.

So I decided to go for it. After all, it’s just paint. What’s the worst that could happen?

Here is what I learnt from my own experience.

1. GET A PROFESSIONAL TO SAND YOUR FLOORS

So I did get that bit right. The guys I hired were professionals. They had experience laying and restoring decks on super yachts. If they were good enough for a celebrity Sunseekers then they were good enough for me. Plus they were taking the leap from the ‘employed world’ to the ‘start-up world’ and I love to support new businesses.

But here’s the big BUT. Because they were just starting out they didn’t have the gear. They hired Sanders but struggled to get to grips with them. When they were first done I was delighted, but down the line when the floors were painted I could see all the dips and grooves where they had been overzealous with the sander. So it turns out I got what I paid for. I should have paid twice the price and got an even finish. But there’s bugger all I can do about it now so no point complaining.

2. BE PREPARED TO MOVE EVERYTHING

Obviously for the sanding to be carried out every room has to be completely empty. And I mean empty as if you had moved out. So we were doing three out of four rooms on the ground floor which meant we had one room left to accommodate every single piece of furniture, every piece of art, books, ornaments, televisions, cushions, curtains, rugs, lamps, mirrors etc. EVERYTHING. It looked like a crazy storage unit in our kitchen.

Of course you could do it over a few days and clear and sand one room at a time but I’m all about efficiency. I’d rather have intense pain for a short period of time than days and days of inconvenience.  So be prepared to hire a storage unit or cram your entire house into one room. 

3. BE PREPARED FOR THE FILTH

My God, this is the filthiest job I have ever lived through. Luckily it took only one day to do all three rooms but it produced more dust than the walls and chimney breasts being removed. The only saving grace was its fine dust that is easy to clean up, it’s not like brick dust which will haunt you forever. But be prepared for every surface to be absolutely covered and every wall to be covered too. I wasn’t prepared for that and our paint is not wipeable so we now have to repaint each room. Of course, we’ve washed it for now but it’s going to need another coat to restore the walls back to how they were. So be prepared for hours and hours of cleaning. 

4. PRIME AND PREP

Once you’ve gone through the hell of steps 1 to 3 you can actually get onto the good stuff and prime your floors. I used an Albany Acrylic Primer Undercoat.

As soon as I first rolled the roller and saw the white primer gliding onto the floor I loved it. I knew it was going to be amazing. And I already knew it had all been worth it. I did one coat of primer as per the instructions on the tin. 

Here are a few tips

• Don’t do the cutting in (around your skirtings and door frames) with a brush, you will always see the brush strokes. So use a roller right up to the skirtings. Sadly this means you’re gonna have to mask off your skirtings. I know. It’s the dullest job on Earth. 
• Don’t bother buying knee pads, the strap hurt the hell out of the back of my knees.
• Try a kneeling pad or something you can just drag around the room with you. 
• Use a water-based product for a quicker drying time. 
• Plan your exit before you start painting, don’t paint yourself into a corner. (obviously).

5. USE RONSEAL DIAMOND HARD FLOOR PAINT

I really wanted to use Farrow and Ball floor paint (which is now called modern eggshell) because I didn’t want bog-standard white. I wanted an off-white that would be a softer contrast and wouldn’t have the blueish undertone that standard white has. Again, everything I read told me not to. Everything said it was not robust enough to take the wear and tear of foot traffic. My research told me that if you were insisting on painting your floors white then the only product up to the job was the Ronseal Diamond Hard. It got by far the best reviews. 

In spite of all this info, I bought the Farrow and Ball stuff anyone, a whole 10 litres costing a whopping £232.

But when I had done a coat of my bog standard white primer I loved it. I loved how pure and clean it looked. So I promptly returned the Farrow and Ball stuff which was a financial win. And purchased the Ronseal floor paint. And it went on like a dream and looks and feels divine. 

6. PREPARE FOR MANY COATS

The tin said 3 coats and I ended up doing 4. Mostly because my painting skills are a bit crap and I wanted to make sure I had good coverage also I really wanted this to last. So I was prepared to go the extra mile. A paint surface is much more durable if it’s made up of many thin coats rather than a couple of thick coats. 

All in all, I painted each floor 5 times. Luckily the re-coat time is only 4 hours so I could do 2 coats a day.

7. THE HALLWAY IS A BITCH

Painting the hallway is a bit of a nightmare because obviously it’s your access to all the other rooms, so you need to plan where you are going to maroon yourself for 4 hours after each coat. 

For me it was pretty straightforward as I only painted on the days Freya was in nursery and I work from home so I worked in my kitchen/storage unit whilst each coat dried. After 4 hours you can walk on it so it’s not long to be held captive in one room. Just make sure you have snacks. 

7. YOU CAN’T MOVE YOUR STUFF BACK IN FOR 3 DAYS!!

So the 4-hour drying time for walking on it is pretty manageable but what is much more challenging is the 3 days curing time before you can move furniture and rugs back in. You can go ahead and get artwork and mirror and curtains back up but anything that makes contact with the floor is out of bounds for another 72 hours. This was actually the worst part for me. So with the total sanding, painting and drying time we had our kitchen full of all our furniture and possessions for a total of 10 days. Preparing meals and entertaining a toddler in what was essentially a storage unit wasn’t easy. So maybe plan for some meals out. 

8. WHITE FLOORS SHOW DIRT (DUH)

It’s true, of course, it is, there’s no escaping the fact that white floors show the dirt. But they are not ‘dirtier’ than any other floor, they are just revealing the dirt. The dirt has always been there, you just couldn’t see it before. I’m shocked at the trail of paw prints particularly. I just assumed that, because I couldn’t see any, Jeff was wiping his paws on the mat. Obviously that’s not true. So yes I do sweep and mop much more than I ever did, but I’m actually pretty pleased about that. I’m no longer living like a dirty slob. And I’m really motivated to clean them because they look so good. The other bonus is that if you spill something that stains you can just paint over the patch that’s looking a bit grubby. You can’t do this with your parquet or carpet.

9. LET THEM BE

The alternative to cleaning them is just to let them be. Yep, just let that dirt get trodden in. Dirt and wear and tear on a painted floor can actually be very beautiful. I love the patina of a worn floor. And if you don’t believe it can be a thing of beauty then visit any Loaf showroom. Loaf sells the most wonderful home furnishings and their showrooms are a feast for the eyes. Look down and you will see they have a painted white floor that has had a gazillion people (and dogs) tramp over it. It’s knackered, aged, weathered and worn and looks absolutely stunning. It has a very welcoming, homely feel that would suit a busy family home. So don’t worry if you don’t like cleaning, you can still have white floors. 

10. IT’S ALL WORTH IT 

So the final thing I have learned from my experience is that I bloody love my white floors. And I couldn’t be without them now. They are light bright and bounce the light around like crazy, the house is literally transformed. It’d been the biggest game changer of all the renovation work we have done, and the cheapest! I still appreciate them every day. The house was lovely before but it’s insanely good now (in my opinion). 

So, there it is. My attempt to balance out all the bad press white floors get. Yes, the journey is a bitch but the destination is a dream. Think of it like a holiday. It takes fourteen hours to get from the UK to the Maldives, plus check-in time, plus parking, plus travelling to the airport, plus delays, blah blah blah. But I’m sure it’s lovely when you get there. And unlike a holiday you never have to leave your white floors, you can be with them forever! 

If you live in Southampton or Hampshire and would like some help with big interior design decisions like this then get in touch. I’d love to help you.