Our Reclaimed Barn Wood Floors

Dave, my dad, and I have been working hard to finish “round one” of our renovation projects before Dave starts school and before our two international students arrive {in about 3 weeks!}

And one of the main projects we HAD to finish was our new hardwood floors — but they aren’t just any hardwood floors; they are reclaimed barn wood — which basically means the wood we used for our floors was taken out of old barns and milled down into 3/4″ tounge-and-groove hardwood floor planks.

This is what it looked like when they delivered it to our house a few months ago!

We purchased our reclaimed barn wood from Creation Woodwork, which is mill right here in Michigan. The mill is owned by a husband and wife team and they have all their mills, buildings, and equiptment right on their own property. So when I went to pick out my wood, I got to see all the gorgeous reclaimed barn wood in their house too! {You can read more about my trip to their saw mill here.}

We used yellow pine from a barn over 100 years old {so it fits the period of our 120 year old house} and we got it in varied widths — 4″, 5″, and 7″ wide planks — which gives the floors a really cool look.

This is what the floors looked like before any stain or polyurethane.

After LOTS of debate, we chose Minwax stain in “Special Walnut” 224 — and I am absolutely THRILLED with the color results.

It’s dark, but not too dark, and there really aren’t any strong “black” or “red” tones either.

You can see the amazing color transformation in our hallway after just one coat of stain!

Even though my doctor said it would be fine for me to do the staining, Dave actually had some extra time — and after he started, we realized how intense the smell really was!

He had a really heavy-duty mask on the whole time and made me stay upstairs or out of the house!

Here’s a close-up shot of the floors after Dave finished the stain — just waiting for a few coats of polyurethane now.

For the polyurethane, we used Varathane brand Floor Finish in “satin” because we didn’t want super shinny floors, just a nice sheen. We also used water based because the smell of of the oil based Varathane was out of control — and it took way longer to dry between coats.

The photo below is after FIVE coats of polyurethane! {thanks Dave!} You can see the subtle “sheen” of the floors — and they are actually pretty slippery!  You can also see the detail of the thresholds my dad put between each room. I just LOVE the look of a threshold. I feel like it creates a grand entrance to a room and it makes it easier to lay the floors because you can stop and start with each different room.

 

I think the dark floors nicely compliment the rest of my very neutrally colored house! They are definitely a focal point.

 

Here’s a peek into our master bedroom — which isn’t totally finished yet, but at least you can see how the floor looks with some of our furniture.  Very “Farmhouse” I think!

It was a pretty long process and lots of hard work, but we are so happy with the results — and it looks much better than any hardwood floor we could have purchased from a big-box store.

Our floors are filled with 100 years of character, imperfections, and flaws… they honestly look like they could have been the original floors of our 120  year old farm house.

And that’s exactly the look we were going for!

 

What do you think? Have you ever worked with reclaimed wood before? Do you have any tips for keeping hardwood clean?