This year, everyone is looking for ways to add to their home without breaking the bank. If you have wood floors, you’d be surprised at the options you have for updating them. Don’t think you lack options when it comes to refinishing your floors…here are some cool out of the box ideas for spicing up the area under your feet.

Dark Paint or Varnish on Floors

Want these beautiful dark work floors yourself? Here’s a tip from Remodelista that I liked:

“To achieve a noirish effect, consider painting your wood floors with high performance, marine-grade Hollandlac Paint  from Fine Paints of Europe. For a super-shiny look, top with a marine-grade clear varnish. We like black for the floors and Espresso for the walls.”

Stencil on Floors

On DesignSponge, the owner of these smartly stenciled floors said she chose this project as a temporary fix before she has the time (and money!) to refinish her floors completely. I love the look, and it’s a smart temporary fix, or permanent one.

From Emmas Designblogg, yet another intricate painting and stenciling option:

I like this unique, DIY approach to floor refinishing. How about you?

**UPDATE**: One more look to add to the post….just stumbled across this lighter, less modern, and more minimal use of paint on floors via Country Living.

Ochre oranges and vibrant reds have started to peek out through the lush monochrome greens of our abundant foliage here in town.  It’s crisp out and the leaves are ready to be crunched under foot while sipping a pumpkin flavored coffee beverage. 

Autumn is a great time of year to indulge in the warm colors and the last ditch displays of nature before trees and grasses descend into full hibernation mode for the season.  Ambers and golds, burnt siennas and gingers frame city streets and park sidewalks, and while nature is changing its palette, it got me thinking how great it would be to bring similar colors inside to revitalize a home’s tired color scheme.

I like paint colors that are visibly inspired by the hallmarks of autumn.  For example, Valspar has created an entire line around the warm hues of fall just for the home.  Giving your home a fall painting makeover is a festive way to warm up your kitchen’s feel in anticipation of the cool weather and shorter days.  It may also cheer your spirits as the mornings hide within the horizon longer, and the evenings get sucked away too soon into the winter dark. 

Not quite feeling inspired yet? 

See for yourself:
http://www.valsparatlowes.com/explore-colors/color-by-nature/Autumn%20Leaves%20Colors.html

Let us know if you’re ready to renew your home with some fall colored energy!

Some houses get lightly lived in, and then there are those abodes that weather the perfect storms of kids and pets and indoor floor sock hockey.  Among other things.  Do you have a house that works hard?  Ok maybe you don’t exactly have floor hockey tournaments going down on the kitchen tiles, but your house is definitely well lived in. 

Maybe the kids are rough on it or you’ve got a favorite furry friend who likes to be every bit a member of the family as the two legged ones.  These kinds of houses sometimes end up needing some special attention, especially in the kinds of paints and coatings we choose to live our lives around.  Paying a little attention to surfaces and other aspects of hard lived homes also means homes will wear better for the long run.  And you’ll feel better living in a home you know is ready to be truly lived in. 

 There are many products and ideas out there you to help you get started protecting the places that see the most wear and tear in your house.  The first place to look might be your floors.  Protecting your floors with a durable coating will do wonders for the longevity of your flooring, and might even mean you’ll have less work to do in maintaining it.  I don’t know any homeowner who wants to spend more time mopping or sweeping. 

Walls are another big ticket feature of your house that are bound to show wear more than other places.  Durable paints and protective coatings do wonders here too.  It might be worth it to you to take a little action now, rather than making a much bigger and potentially costly investment down the road. 

 We liked looking around General Polymers and Sherwin Williams for some ideas and advice.  Check it out and you can get started.  What else do you worry about in your home? Maybe we can look into how you can solve those problems too? Let us know!

Do you have one of those rooms in your house that you just can’t seem to do anything with?  Maybe it’s a guest bedroom, a den, or the mudroom-it happens to the best of houses.  Sometimes rooms or spaces just get a little left behind. 

We found a quick, inspiring way to upgrade the spaces you’re stuck on really easily:  Pick your favorite color, or select other members of your home to nominate their favorite hues, and just like that, you’ve got somewhere to start.  Once you’ve settled on a color, let it lead how you reinvent your room:

Photo Credit: Better Homes and Gardens

Go Blue:

            Go Yellow:

While we think it’s good to be as creative as possible when combining your colors, you might want to give a little thought to the type of room or space you’re coloring before you break open the paint or head out to buy draperies.  Colors can be a powerful presence in your home, so give some thought to the shade of color as well as the area where it will be displayed.  Do the primary activities of the space mesh with the color or hue you’re looking at?  If the answer is not necessarily yes, try moving up and down the spectrum of your desired color, or, if your heart isn’t set on that particular color, try a different one altogether.  Almost no matter what color you choose, there are ideas out there to help you get started: 

         Go Purple:

Go Green:

Even Black… or Red:

For even more ideas: check out more ways to get your color on