How to distress your hardwood flooring

Sept. 15, 2011 - PRLog -- Shopping for homeware, furniture and furnishings can be a large and often confusing task. However, this year one of the most popular furnishings is a solid oak floor which has a beautiful, aged look to it.  Though lots of different retailers sell natural oak flooring which has already been aged, in many cases it is often more affordable to buy a new hardwood floor and ‘distress’ it yourself.  
Distressing wood is the process of aging a floor through various means to make it look older than it actually is.  There are a variety of ways in which you can age your hardwood floor to give it an antique look and feel.  Distressing wooden floors is fairly simple to do, all you need is a hammer or mallet which you use to make small dents in the corners of the real wood floors.  It’s advised that the dents are made in the corners as these are the areas which naturally wear the most, and this recreates the appearance of a hardwood floor that looks really old.  
Another popular method involves filling a cloth bag or sock with metal nuts and bolts and using this to make the dents and marks on the hardwood floor.  Whichever method you choose to use you do need to be careful that you do not put too much force into striking the real wood floors.  If you hit the hardwood floors too hard it can create deep dents, and in some cases can even splinter the wood.
If you already have a hardwood floor which you have decided to paint, you can distress this type of wood floor too simply using sand paper. You’ll need to sand different areas of the oak wood flooring rather than sanding the entire hardwood floor. This will help to make the distressed floor look more authentic. You want to achieve a final look where there are faded areas so that the wood grain is just noticeable rather than a floor where most of the paintwork has been removed completely.   This process requires just a little physical effort and for an average sized room should only take around half an hour to complete the desired antique finish.
For hardwood floors that have not been painted with either paint or a veneer a homemade combination of tea and vinegar is all you need to age your floor. This solution is safe to apply to wooden floors even on top of wood varnish. To make the solution simply tear a small steel wood pad into strips, then place into a glass jar which can be completely sealed. Pour enough of the vinegar into the jar to cover the pad, seal the jar and then let this sit for one whole day. Once the jar has been left for 24 hours place a tea bag in a third of a cup of freshly boiled water. Using a paintbrush apply the tea to the hardwood floor and when this is completely dry paint the vinegar solution onto the hardwood oak floor using the same application method. Together these will help to discolour the wood to give it a beautiful aged look.

If you want to buy real wood floors that you can age at home please visit http://www.easystepflooring.co.uk where you will be able to choose from an excellent range of floors, all at great prices!


About us:  Easy Step Flooring is a privately owned company based in Heathrow specialising in solid oak flooring. Due to our vast national and international logistics network, we consider our huge range of oak wood flooring to be second to none. We supply real wood floors to the trade and retail business. We strive to work with reputable mills from around the world to ensure that our products come from sustainable sources.

Editor’s note:  Easy Step Flooring is represented by Search Engine Marketing agency TRON Media. This Press Release was written by Jo-Anne Keyte.  Please direct all press queries to Jo-Anne Keyte email: jo@tronmedia.co.uk or call: 02031670969.

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Easy Step Flooring is a privately owned company based in Heathrow specialising in solid oak flooring. Due to our vast national and international logistics network, we consider our huge range of wooden flooring range to be second to none.