Hot Home Feature: Farmhouse Wood Floors

Farmhouse floor and photo by The Shabby Creek Cottage via Hometalk.com. Nothing could be cozier than farmhouse wood floors. Reclaimed floor boards from a barn that's been torn down are the ultimate in sustainable wood beauty. It's sort of crazy to think about creating your own floorboards from reclaimed lumber, but people are doing it. If reclaimed lumber is out of your price range, there are a few ways to fake the look of reclaimed lumber, using inexpensive wooden boards. The floor has such a visual impact. If you are going for the rustic look, start with the floor and work upwards. Here's how to get that rustic farmhouse floor look, whether you have access to actual reclaimed barnwood, or not.

Fake it 'til you make it:  OK, so in totally affluent DIY blogger land, we all have money and transportation to purchase reclaimed floor boards from a farm up in the Hudson Valley that just went up for auction. Um, yeah right. I myself would be working that day, and would be unable to skip work for the day, rent a truck to transport the lumber, and drive up to the farm on auction day to buy and pick up the lumber. For me, as for most working stiffs, doing such a project would take a literal miracle. That does not mean that I could never install my own farmhouse wood floors. It just means that I'd need to fake it 'til I make it. This DIY flooring project by Gina at the Shabby Creek Cottage is a fake barnwood wide plank floor that looks so real...that it is real. I mean, it might not be "real reclaimed barnwood", but it is definitely a real farmhouse wood floor. Gina and her DH bought regular old pine planks and screwed them to the subfloor (I personally would have installed a green floor underlayment, but hey, they like their floor so who am I to argue).

Buying reclaimed lumber, already laquered and ready to go: Steve, a home improvement and remodeling expert from Denver, posted this link to Viridian Reclaimed Wood on Hometalk.com. If you're going the conventional flooring installation route, all you need to do is purchase nice, normal flooring lumber that just happens to be made from reclaimed wood and stained to look like conventional (and rustic, if you're into that) flooring, and then have your flooring contractor install it. For some people, time is money, and there is something to be said for convenience.

Installing an actual reclaimed barnwood floor, from your own barn: Right, so then there are those people who actually own an old barn, like Rachel from The Rehomesteaders. I'm not romanticizing it, since I know that tearing down a barn and harvesting floorboards from it is not exactly a walk in the park , but at the same time, let us all take a moment to sigh.

Chaya Kurtz writes for Networx.com.

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