After much deliberation I settled on a library floor! Brodnax Parquet Leman's Flooring in walnut and cherry. The only problem was that I didn't like the walnut wood against the mahogany:
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More wood stains?!?!? |
Although I don't want all the wood stains in the room to be exactly the same, I also don't like having a random wood thrown in there: the cherry picks up the gold in the frame and wallpaper and I liked the pattern of the cherry and walnut (as opposed to the walnut/walnut pattern on the right). But the walnut doesn't seem to "pop" out like I wanted it to. Even polyurethaning them didn't seem to help much:
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Left are out of the bag; Right are polyurethaned |
Still not impressing me. They seem so dull. And it doesn't tie in to anything else in the room. I really wanted a mahogany floor, but with so much mahogany wood already in the room I didn't want to have such a dark, "match-matchy" bookcase/floor statement. It would all blend together and be a mahogany blah.
Then my mother suggested staining the walnut pieces. Interesting -- why did I assume I had to keep the walnut pieces exactly as they were out of the bag?!?!? I hate when I forget to think outside the bag. Don't tell my mother I said this, but she's a genius!
I like the walnut pieces so much better now. They have a richness that they lacked before. They do not match the bookcases (for which I am thankful because I didn't want everything to match), but seem to coordinate well enough that they won't look out of place.
So I spent two days staining little octagon pieces....
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Day 1 and I have 1/3 of the pieces stained |
Now they are all drying so I can start assembling my floors (now I just need a snow day or two so I get the time to do it)!
Hello Lori,
ReplyDeleteMothers are the best. the stained walnut is gorgeous and really makes the fireplace pop. I can't wait to see the floor installed!
Big hug
Giac
Thank Giac! Although no matter what my final floor looks like, it still won't compare to your beautiful house! (BTW - thanks for mentioning and showing an example of Nicolas Poussin's work! I was thinking of using paintings depicting scenes in the life of Scipio Africanus like what is in The Elms in Newport, but I love the colors in Nicolas Poussin's paintings much better! I may have to research his works for the Dining Room! LOL)
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