I love everything about crafts. I have tried everything from scrapbooking, cardmaking, sewing, drawing, painting, knitting, crochet, dolls house making, etc. Basically you name it, I've probably tried it. I started this blog to display my numerous crafts, my inspiration and maybe a few tips on what I have learned. Thank you for visiting my blog and happy reading!

Monday 18 March 2013

Grosvenor Living room floor

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I would just like to say thank to everyone who has left me a lovely comment and to my new followers.
I finally finished my living room floor! It's taken about two weeks to finish but I think it's worth it. I decided that I wanted a parquet floor for my living room but in one colour. I had the wonderful task of cutting out hundreds of wood pieces, thank goodness for my mitre shears, they are perfect for cutting angles. I was originally going to position the pieces in straight rows but my husband suggested placing them at an angle. I was dubious at first but when I saw how it looked I absolutely loved it! I tried to draw a guide but it didn't really work so I ended up "winging it". All the pieces were glued down with RC modellers craft glue; which set quite quickly.




















When I had finished glueing all the pieces it was time to sand it down but unfortunately my mini sander wasn't working so I had to do it all by hand! All I can say is ahhhhhhh!!!!! It took forever and I couldn't get it perfectly flat, I had to take a break for a bit otherwise it would have been thrown across the room. I finally managed to get it as flat as I could before starting to stain it. I wanted a lightish colour so that I could still see all my hard work. But me being me I didn't test the colour first and I stained all my floor dark oak which was way too dark. Oh fun, out comes the nitromors and the plastic gloves. After two coats of nitromors and sanding down in between I managed to get to almost the bare wood but there were still patches of dark colour. There was no way I could use a light colour now. In the end I ended up buying an antique pine stain; which I tested in a small place of my floor first.



















Because of the dark oak that I had previously stained the floor with there are a few dark patches in places. I was a little worried about this at first but when I put the flooring in the house it didn't look too bad. I haven't glued the flooring down yet as I wanted to do the walls first. Hopefully once the wallpaper and furniture are in the room the patchy floor won't matter too much. Considering it is the first wood flooring I have ever done I don't think I've done too bad. I did struggle a bit with this so goodness knows how I'm going to do on my dining room floor; seeing as I would love to have a Versailles floor. I think I'll probably purchase the iron on flooring from Bromley Craft Products, it might make things a little easier for me.
I'm trying to decide between either panelling my living room or wallpapering it. I have got a gorgeous wallpaper from Karen's Dolls house Decor which I think would go lovely with the flooring, but I could leave it for a bedroom maybe, who knows, maybe.
I have chosen the fireplace for my living room, I'm either going to paint it white and paint the details in gold or maybe even give it a marble effect.






















Well that's all for today, I hope you like what I'm doing. Any ideas or tips/techniques would be very much appreciated.
Thank you again to the lovely people who left comments and to my new followers I feel truly honoured that you are enjoying my blog.

Take care and bye for now.

1 comment:

  1. Hello Dolphingazer,
    first of all the floor is very good, especially for a first try. i think the dark patches add a lot of interest and make the floor look even more realistic. Do not worry about the other floors. I have made wood floors from scratch for my entire Manor and it really does get easier each time. I like both ideas for the fireplace, but I think the wallpaper would look good with marble. In any case the dark floor with that wallpaper will look awsome.
    Big hug,
    Giac

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