Summer is one of my favorite seasons of the year to decorate my home. This year I went with a slightly different color scheme to flow with the outdoor colors that surround my house.
One year ago this month, the hardwood floors in my living room and kitchen were refinished with Bona by a Bona Certified Craftsman.
You probably remember the post, because the transformation to the floors was amazing.
Little did I know at the time, just how much that the previous orange-toned floor finish was holding me back from decorating the two rooms in the style I dreamed of.
The previous floor finish was in good shape, but looked orange. The only time of the year that it coordinated with anything in the room was in the fall.
The new Bona Grey stain for the floor that looks almost like a driftwood color on my hardwood was a stepping point (literally and figuratively) for me to decorate the rooms, especially the living room.
Since the beginning of the year, I have been working on creating a “white and woodsy” vibe that I have been leaning towards since moving to live on the shores of a lake.
This is lake life at it’s best!
In my previous house and when we first moved to the lake house, I liked to decorate with blue and white to create a coastal vibe and I still like to decorate with these colors like I did in my bedroom.
But when you live on a lake – the view right out every door and window… the color vibe runs more towards green and brown.
My Decorating for Summer Color Palette
With the new durable waterborne matte Bona Grey finished floor, it has make it easy to bring this “white and woodsy”, comfy-causal vibe into the room with worry-free furnishings, white slipcovered seating, and the indestructible natural seagrass rug that I brought from my previous home.
I have been adding decorative accessories slowly over the last year to create the look. The green pillow covers I made a few months ago really pop against the white sofa and add to the woodsy feel as does the greenery clipped from my yard.
The floor color has made my quest for the decor in the room to be seamless with the outdoors and connect with nature, which in turn, helps me live a simpler, more relaxed life that I crave.
The color of flooring has been the key for me to bringing everything in a room together that feels relaxed and effortless, yet cozy.
I showed you in my last post how I decorated the fireplace mantel without spending a cent. The weathered color of the wood goes perfectly with the Bona Grey floor color. 🙂
The floor color has made such a huge difference for all of my decorating efforts. I had a previous floor refinished in my previous house, where the contractors hung plastic around the doorways so that it would lessen sanding dust, which it didn’t. They also used smelly products that had Ed and I wanting to leave the house for a few days.
None of these happen when our hardwood floor was refinished with Bona.
When the Bona Certified Craftsman came to refinish our floors, he used a dustless sanding system where all the dust is contained in a vacuum that is placed outside your home, so it is dust-free with easy cleanup. It is really smart and cool to watch. No plastic sheeting around doors needed.
I loved the fact that he also used low-VOC products that are safe, durable and dry fast with no toxic odors.
There was no need for us to leave the house while the 3-day refinishing process was taking place, in fact we could walk over the floor a few hours after the stain and then poly was applied. I chose to not cook on those days and since it was summer, we ordered food and ate our meals outside at our deck table.
The whole process from choosing the color to the last coat of the finish was made effortless except of course having to remove the furniture from the room. But, it sure was fun, putting it all back in and seeing how nice the new color looked with my furnishings.
Now that it has been a year, living with the refinished floor, I could not be happier with how well the floor came out from the color and also the durability factor.
Above is a section of the floor in front of my kitchen cooktop that gets a lot of abuse from spills of hot liquid and foot. It is also the main traffic path in the kitchen.
The floor looks as good today as the day it was refinished.
The waterborne finish is so easy to clean. Bona offers a residue-free formula that comes in a refillable cleaning solution mop and washable microfiber pad which I like as they produce less waste. It is 1…2…3… and done! More lake time for me.
The whole Bona floor refinishing process was safe and stress-free. The Bona contractor that did my floor was a pleasure to work with in all aspects of the job.
Now in our new normal, living in a Covid-19 world, all Bona Certified Craftsman are following CDC guidelines, so if you are thinking about having your floors refinished this summer, that is one less thing to worry about.
Having a beautiful new finish on a floor is always a nice thing, but what makes me smile is that now all my furnishings beautifully coordinate with each other. 🙂
Living in a home with the right colors from the floor all the way to the ceiling has made me enjoy this room more than I ever have. Happy colors = Happy Diane.
With the previous orange floor, I would not have been able to add the faux barnwood paneling accent wall in the room.
Grays, neutrals with a hint of brown and of course white with pops of green, blue and pink come together where people can feel completely comfortable kicking off their shoes and just hanging out.
The Bona Floor Refinishing System has a full range of products designed to work together to install, renovate, finish, transform and ultimately care for hardwood floors.
As you can tell, I love my Bona refinished floor and highly recommend using a Bona Certified Craftsman to have a hardwood floor in your home refinished.
You can read all about what an easy process it is getting hardwood floors refinished in my post here: My Hardwood Floor Refinishing Reveal
