By “my baby,” I actually mean “our floors.” And it kinda does matter whether they’re black or white. Sorry, MJ. Sorry to you, too, for getting MJ stuck in your head.
And while we’re apologizing here, I’m gonna go ahead and say sorry for the crusty cell phone pictures I’ve posted so far. The art director in me is soooo embarrassed about the dark, blurry, crusty camera phone pictures. We forgot the point-and-shoot at home, and have been putting off buying a real camera an SLR for a while. Last week, I finally gave in and ordered this beauty:
Quickie nerd aside: it’s the same price as and comparable in quality to the Canon D3000, but it’s a micro four thirds dSLR so it’s tiiiiny and weighs 2lbs. So much better for travel than the clunky Canons.
As soon as that arrives, I promise, no more eyesore pictures. Like this one:
(…sorry.)
We were expecting beat-up-but-still-beautiful-in-a-grungy-way hardwood floors under there. What we found was pine softwood floors, and there were more on the beat-up-and-ewwwww side. It scratches and splinters easily, so traipsing around barefoot is out of the question. And — oh my gah — what’s with the stains? What do you think that is? Wait, no, nevermind. I don’t want to know.
Once we saw what was lurking under the carpet, we had a minor panic attack, and decided to put new hardwood floors down. And then quickly un-decided it when we crunched the numbers and realized exactly how much it’s going to cost: a lot. A LOT-lot. The wood alone is going to cost more than we budgeted for the entire second floor.
After some whining and pouting, we realized that hardwood floors are on the wish list, but they’re not really essential right now. We have to figure out a way to live with what we have.
Our options are carpet or paint. We’re not carpet people. We couldn’t handle it. Carpet is for people who traipse around barefoot, don’t have dogs, don’t take food out of the kitchen and never ever spill anything. It’s not for dog-loving, shoe-wearing, food-eating, clumsy oafs like us. We say bring on the paint! The only thing is, we don’t know what color of paint we want.
We hate the chocolate-mocha-poop color that some previous owner painted the floors:
So we’re limiting ourselves to something clean, classic and neutral: black or white. Both have the potential of looking modern and sophisticated. We just can’t decide. I hit The Google hard to dig up some inspiration. Sadly, what I found didn’t make our choice any easier.
Black floors can look so traditional and old-school:
Or not:
Can we talk about that last picture for a sec? I’m in lust with that house. The bauble chandelier above the dining room table. The cushy sheepskin chair. The crazy-wild-haired-scientist domes filled with butterflies and shells. *Le swoon*
And then there’s white floors. They seem so shabby-chic, and remind us of cute little cottages in the south of France. We’ve never been to the south of France, so we’re not really sure why. We just roll with it:
Then again, white floors can look so clean and modern:
Again, house-lust. The square lines of that coffee table. The piles of books stacked on the table. Those ginormous floor-to-ceiling windows. Two words: I die.
We love the way colors pop against an all-white room:
But we also love how a crisp white pops against black floors:
So we’re no better off than we started. It’s like MJ said: It’s black, it’s white. It’s tough for you to get by us to decide.
What do you guys think?
Black floors?
White floors?
Favorite Michael Jackson song?
Black.
Thanks, Jackie! And what about your favorite MJ song?
I like like both but I’d go with black. White becomes gray quickly.
Oooh, good call Kirstin. Which also brings up another point…what about grey floors??
Most people on FB said to go with black, but we’re still pretty torn. Might end up tossing a coin.
i vote gray but then again.. i make everything gray. i say whatever contrasts the most with your furniture. unless you want to live in a monotone house.
Oh man, grey just opened up a whole new set of questions. We have to figure it out soon because we’re painting our doors, baseboards and window sills the same color. Eep!
Black!
I vote grey. Then, you can throw little accent rugs wherever you want a “pop” of color or pattern. You won’t have to worry if it will pop too much (as on a black floor) making it too much of a focal point and taking attention away from your furniture or walls — which, if they are tall like you say, why wouldn’t you want the height to be noticeable and outstanding? — or being too “blah” if you paint the floors white and they are slightly dingy on any given day.
Yes. Grey, grey, grey!
…And you can still paint your trim white. It will look great and keep the attention on the walls. Plus, if you change your mind later about the floor before you get the money for replacement wood, you can just paint over the floor without having to change the trim, too.
Favorite MJ song — this month — is PYT, Pretty Young Thing!
I think white floors would really be old-fashioned looking and would go with the era of the house – however, if a room’s flooring is in rough shape, black would be more concealing.
Donna, I think you hit the nail on the head. We have to conceal a LOT. Not just the (absurd amount of) stains and water damage, but also the planks we have to remove and replace. We’re reeeeeally leaning towards a glossy black right now. Added bonus: it instantly looks sophisticated.
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