Ta-Dah. . . .The Checkerboard Floor Is Done. . .

"By George. . . .I think we got it. . . ."

Well, it's been a long time coming. . . .but FINALLY we have a finished checkerboard floor. . . .

 I know that many of you probably thought we'd never finish. . . .We began to question it ourselves. . . .

We certainly didn't do it quickly. . . .but, we kept pursuing the look we wanted. . . .

"Patience--Patience--" we kept telling ourselves.

Eventually--It Worked!!!!!

Want to hear the whole story?
Well, read on. . . .

First came the inspiration. . . . 

Then the "blue print". . . .

Since our keeping room/ kitchen is 26 feet long, we decided

checkerboarding the entire floor would be way too much. . . .

So, we went with an "area rug" in the keeping room, 

to help divide the eating area from the kitchen, 

without interfering with the wide open space. . . .

I had the idea to follow the cupboards, instead of squaring it off. . . .

While it turned out to be a wonderful styling choice. . . .

It caused us a lot of problems--hard to get the squares to come out right. . . . 

Then came the black paint. . . .really liked it and thought we'd leave it that way. . . .

but when we replaced the table and chairs, it looked like one big mass of black and wood tones.

 Not the "pop" we wanted. . . . .

Many of you liked this look, but it just did not work for us with our furniture--

the camera made it look a lot better than it did in person. . . .

Back to the drawing board. . . .

Loved this black and off-white floor that had been my inspiration through the whole project. . . .

so we painted the remaining squares with Antique White. . . .

chosen so the white squares wouldn't be too glaring.

It took some time, since we had to tape the squares in sections.

Finally, we polyurethaned it. . . .

To our dismay, the poly was suppose to NOT yellow but it did. . . . . 

yellowed the white squares. . . . also, the poly was lifting the stain from the original floor. . . .

Very ugly. . . Very disappointing. . . .Very frustrating. . . .

 Boo was the only one who was calm and content for the next few days. . . .
  while I thought about it. . . .
I decided there was no choice other than purchasing a primer and start the white again. . . .

It took over a week to redo--two more rolls of painter's tape--a different brand of poly. . .
 

tape a little. . . .paint a little. . . .let it dry. . . . paint a little more. . . .
"Patience--Patience--"

Then. . . .Saturday morning. . . . .when the sun came up. . . .
John's first words were,
"By George, I think we got it!!!!!"

Thankfully, the floor turned out exactly as we'd envisioned it in the beginning--

We have a beautiful floor that we both love. . . .

We're letting the finished floor cure for a week or so before we move the table back in.

All I can show for now is the floor--
Sorry ladies, we're not finished with everything in the room. . . .

We still have the cabinet tops. . . . the fireplace. . . .and a few other small things.

We're on the down side of it, though. . . .

It won't be long before I can reveal the entire project to you. . . .

If you should decide to checkerboard your floor, please learn from our mistakes:

1--An "area rug" is tough sectioning off unless it's a square or rectangle

2--Stacked squares are a lot simpler than those on the diagonal

3--Use a primer on the entire area first

4--Then paint the lightest color over the primer

5--Tape and paint the darker squares last

6--Be sure the polyurethane is CLEAR and non-yellowing--
7--Do a test board along the way. Poly WILL change the color--
including the clear--so test first

Was it worth it?

OH! YES!

We LOVE everything about it. . . .

. . . . Now that it's done. . . .

  

It's the "POP" we wanted to transform and emphasize the keeping room area. . . .

Don't you agree?

In the next few days, I'll let you peek inside the farmhouse cupboards,
as I fill and organize them with family items and farmhouse finds. . . .
This might be your only chance to see inside. . . .

Til then. . . .

blessings from my farmhouse to yours. . . .

The Farmer's Daughter

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