I’ve decided that moving into a house is a lot easier when you don’t have big projects planned right off the bat! But, it is also easier to get those projects out of the way before you get settled, so then you can get settled knowing that big project is done. I guess disruptive renovations are disruptive whenever you do them, but I am glad we’re knocking out some of these projects right away. One of those projects we knew we would do before we even bought the house – swap out the wall-to-wall carpet for hardwood floors. Even though we’ve installed and refinished wood floors before, we are hiring out this project to have it done quicker.
We’re fortunate that most of the house has hardwood floors, but the family room, primary bedroom, and living room are all carpeted. With a 1970s house that is mostly hardwood, I figured we’d be lucky and there would be hardwood floors underneath, but no such luck. All three of these rooms have plywood under the carpet. I could almost hear the trombone playing whomp-whomp. My guess is that wall-to-wall carpet was the preferred and more luxurious option in 1970 since it’s in the “nicest” rooms in the house.
I actually remember cutting a piece of carpet remnant to put wall-to-wall carpet in one of the rooms in my dollhouse in the early 1980s because I dreamed of cushy, soft carpet underfoot. Of course, now I prefer hardwoods for their timelessness, their cleanliness, and their ability to work with any decorating style. Carpet is comfortable, yes, but it is hard to keep truly clean. Just pull up a carpet once and you’ll see how much dust, dirt, and stains are lurking underneath, even in the cleanest of homes.
You can tell these carpets are of nice quality and were beautiful in their day, but they are now stained and musty from their age and the house being vacant. Beyond that, I just want hardwood. So, we are having 2 1/4″ oak installed and finished on-site to match the 50-year-old floors in the other rooms. I like the classic mid-tone honey color of the wood and can see how nicely they will play against my blues and greens.
Before we hop into the carpeted rooms, I wanted to make a comment about wood stains and finishes. I think that it’s easy to jump onto stain trends or refinish floors because of orange, yellow, or red undertones. I’ve been there when dark walnut floors were all the rage. You can read the ridiculous story HERE. When it comes to wood floors, don’t worry about trends or how they look in your Instagram pictures. Focus on the style of the house and your style and pick what works best for those.
Hardwood floors are expensive to install and disruptive to refinish. Go with something that will be timeless, classic, and will be a selling point instead of a distraction when you sell the house. I can’t tell you how many 1800s houses I’ve seen listed online with gray/bleached wood floors that don’t match the era or the style of the house at all and it really detracts from the beauty of the old home. Anyway, those are my two cents and how I’m approaching this house.
So, the first room with carpet is the living room, which will be my studio. It’s not a room we would use very often as a “formal living room” and it’ll get a ton of use as my studio. It’s a little larger than my studio in our MN house, but it has a lot more wall space for storage pieces and furniture arrangement options. It has one open doorframe off of the foyer and we’ll eventually add French doors to provide some separation.
It has great light that comes in through the bay window. I can’t wait to see it with hardwood floors!
We are planning to use the family room as our living room eventually, but it will be the family room until we are able to finish the basement, which will be at least a couple of years before we get to that project. We really enjoyed the basement family room in our MN house and would want to create something similar that’s a great hang-out space. I’ll eventually share the basement and some ideas for it. For now, it’s just a big storage area, which is pretty awesome.
The family room has Berber carpet, which makes sense since it opens to the patio/pool. Hardwood floors will elevate this room and I am excited to see how it plays with the brick, beams, and paneling. I’m really not going to do very much to this room other than paint and, even then, I’m going to wait a while on that until I have a clear idea of what I want to do. I like the brick and the beams, so those will likely stay as they are, but I might change my mind! I’m just going to take it one decision at a time and, I have plenty of projects to keep me busy.
The third room getting hardwood floors is the primary bedroom. It’s a nice size with amazing light, but the carpet and walls are in need of updating. I’ll tell you what, though, it is the softest, thickest carpet I have ever felt under my feet. It’s going, though, and I’m not sad about it.
I think the hardwood floors will make this room look even bigger and it will be an update that is still in keeping with the age and style of the home. Look at that pretty light!
I’ll share more about this room and the other things I hope to get done this week before the hardwood floors go in. There are just some things that are easier to do when a room is empty and covered in a carpet that is going to be pulled up…
Marian,
I guess I was a little surprised that there weren’t hardwoods under the carpeting in the family, bedroom and living rooms. However, in the 70’s wall to wall carpeting became the “in trend” and people were covering their hardwoods like crazy including my grandmother. She bought wool wall to wall carpeting (green) and that was some of the best quality carpeting I have ever seen. When she passed, the new owners pulled it up and underneath was gorgeous oak flooring. I was just wondering if your plans were to install the hardwoods before painting and removing wallpaper? I know they will be gorgeous!
Yes, plush, cushy wall to wall carpeting was the epitome of luxury in the 70s and early 80s. Only the top of the line did that. Most likely your carpeting will be resold to an apartment owner. I’ve torn out 4 rooms of it myself.
The honey yellow hardwood floors are my favorite too. My aunt had them and she polished them with wax. They were even more beautiful that way.
I’m so glad you are doing this right away! All the furniture has to be out of a room so this is the perfect time. Plus, you aren’t waiting for “someday” to make some progress on your home. And we get to follow along!
It took me years to realize that classic is always the way to go. I’ve wasted money keeping up with the latest trends in home decor that I regret. Our son just took his beautiful colonial and put in a washed gray floor throughout his home two years ago. It already looks dated. He loves it so that’s what matters and I would never disrespect his decision but I see new floors in his future.
Aww, too bad there wasn’t hardwood underneath! Thankfully that is fixable. I find it amazing that you like the honey-brown floors, I have found that to be the most difficult color of hardwood floors to work with. It is typical of 1950s/60s homes though.
Your rooms look HUGE, which will be wonderful, I’m sure! I’m never sorry to see carpet go, but I agree, it is softer underfoot, and it muffles noise. But it traps all kinds of nasty stuff so hardwood is much better.
I can see a sweet window seat between the two closets in your primary bedroom! I have one in my living room and it’s my cat’s favorite place to observe the world…your two darlings would love it.
Redoing a house is a lot like playing with your childhood doll house but with bigger furniture.
Your studio will be amazing! (Whole house, actually…beautiful home.)
Our home was built in 1964 & I was hoping for hardwood floors. Alas, plywood. So one of the next projects…wood floors. (The other is new windows!!!) I can’t wait.
I love your decor style & am looking forward to all your updates.
It’s going to be so much fun to follow all your progress!
My previous house was a 1970 brick ranch. The owners before us had just refinished the floors with a medium-dark walnut stain with a satin finish and, when we purchased the house in 1996, they were in pristine condition. I lived there for almost 16 years and never got tired of the color.
In my current house, I’m considering staining my solid oak kitchen cabinets black and want some contrast in the floors (which are currently kind of a medium cherry stain). I was considering mixing provincial walnut with weathered gray stain to keep it from being too trendy but also not too dark. (I only want to do this once! LOL!) My decorating aesthetic is much like yours, trending toward French Country and French Provincial, but I’m not a fan of the on-its-way-out trend of gray everywhere. I’m open to suggestions. 🙂
I recall homes in my youth (50s &60s). My mother was dying to get carpet. She finally bought a remnant and had it hemmed for a room sized rug in our small living room. (Late60s) the shag carpets came later!
The owner of this home was likely the envy of her friends and neighbors at one time.
Hi Marian….so fun to follow your new home adventure! I’m curious about the brick surrounding the fireplace; will you paint it? Or leave it as is? Or is there another option that you are considering?
I am going to leave it as is. It’s a pretty color brick. Of course, I might change my mind, but I would have to really think about it before I put a brush to it!
I thought the brick was pretty too and the hardwood floors will be great with it. We have the mid toned floors in our renovated 1960’s ranch, and I think it suits the house and is easy to work with.
But it’s BLUE!! ??
What about the kitchen? Are you waiting to do the demo and plan out the cabinet placement, then do the wood floors underneath, or are you thinking tile? Inquiring minds want to know !!!
Yeah, I’m going to share some plans for the kitchen, but they are very rough at this point. We are going to wait to do the floors until the cabinets are in, but they will likely be the same hardwood, but I want to do a painted detail on them before they are finished.
I love the color of the brick on your fireplace. I know the current trend is to paint over brick both inside and outside but that will probably swing back around in a few years. Just like everyone ridding their homes of anything brass and now it’s making a comeback.
We built our house ourselves but had hired help along the way. When the hardwood floors were installed, the professional helping us complimented us on leaving them their natural color. He said, “Only God makes that color. No stain can do that!” My husband is a woodworker so we just love the personality that wood brings to a home as no 2 pieces are alike. It is convenient that honoring the wood’s natural color is timeless, too. Mother Nature never looks dated. Thanks for sharing your new home’s transformation.
What a beautiful comment, Dawn.
Thank you, Judith. 🙂
Beautiful home! I am wondering what your plans are for the wallpaper in the dining room. I think it looks vintage and lovely in the pictures but I am not sure how it looks in “person”. Whatever you choose to do I know will be gorgeous.
Hi Marian
Cheering for you. Thanks for sharing your journey with all that you have to do
The floors are going to look just lovely….I can just see it!
Cheers and prayers!
Marian, you are a woman after my own heart. Thank you for honoring the integrity of this home. its previous owner is smiling down on you. Thank you for getting rid of carpet and putting in hardwood flooring, which you will never regret. But most of all, thank you for sharing your plans, which are an inspiration to all of your followers. I so look forward to seeing you vision for the entire house. And, by the way, I like the brick, too. It took me a minute, but I can see why you are leaving it alone. Good for you!
That house is going to be so happy to be loved again.
Marian, that is a bow window in the living room – much prettier than a bay, which is angled rather than rounded. Beautiful light for your studio!
Marian, You didn’t say how big the main bedroom was, but have you considered taking out the two mis-matched closets, making that corner between the two windows a place for a nice chair, opposite that area for a dresser(s) behind the entry door, and constructing a bank of closets the width of the short wall-end of the room on the other side, maybe with french doors (with maybe antique mirror glass or clear glass with lace curtains inside). It looks like you have two windows on the long wall spaced far enough apart to be the bed wall with side tables. Can’t wait to see what you have in mind.
We did our floors ourselves YEARS ago. That is one job I hated doing. I wanted darker stain and my hubs wanted lighter. The previous owners had a pet and it left stains in the wood that were really difficult to work around. So we went with the darker color. I have never regretted it. We just had the floors redone these past two years. (Downstairs last summer. Upstairs this summer). I stayed with the special walnut colored stain. They are beautiful. They aren’t trendy but just classically pretty. We are thrilled with them.
Yours will be perfect. I look forward to seeing your progress. Keep up the nice work.
That will be the perfect first update for your new home, wow!
I’m with you on staying with classic and going with what makes sense for a house’s era.
One of the hardest things after my parents both passed was when the 1965 Potomac family home (that my dad built) got demolished simply for the acreage in that now sought-after and over-built area.
There were hardwood floors in every room except the kitchen and entry hall. The guest room had wall-to-wall carpet but when I peeked beneath, there was brand new 52-year-old unfinished white oak flooring! So sad it all got destroyed.
I’m so glad your 70’s home didn’t meet the same fate. Love that you are lovingly updating so it can have another lifetime of family memories.