Would you believe me if I told you this floor was laid for around $1 per square metre? One Dollar people! And it looks fantastic! It's DIY. It's easy and its the cheapest darn floor you'll ever get looking this good... I found this project over at
Design Dazzle and it's really quite genius. It's made from ply sheeting!
You can pick up at your local hardware for around $10 per sheet or if you have a bit more time, you can save even more cash by having a look on
eBay or
Grays Online where there are often auctions for bulk quantities and then you can save a bundle.
Cut into 15cm wide strips the length of your sheets.
Start laying them on your prepped floor! These were stuck down with Liquid Nails, given a light sand (as ply can be a little splintery and rough) and then stained. Stain-wise I would tend to go for either a darker chocolate colour stain or a whitewash for a more contemporary finish.
Varnish Tip: Remember that if you use a stain with a built in varnish (or any varnish for any job), go for a water based one over oil based to avoid yellowing later.
Staining Tip: Always start at the end of the room furthest from the door so as not to "paint yourself into a corner" so to speak...
Laying Tip: Cut your boards to at least 3 different lengths so that your joins don't fall into a uniform pattern like this. The end result will be much better with a more random join configuration.
To finish, these floors were given a polyurethane coating, which gives a glossy and smooth finish and makes the floors more resiliant to scratches. I think the result looks fantastic! Especially for the price! But even without the cost consideration I prefer this to the knotty pine floors we have in our place... Such a great idea - colour me impressed!
