Leave it to the pros!

When we moved in, we knew right away we would want to refinish our hardwood floors. They were stained a reddish color and looked like they had never been refinished. Scratches everywherrrrre! I'm all for DIY, but this job was just too big for us. We have hardwood in the entryway, living room, dining room, office, and stairs. It would have taken a month at least. Not to mention, I hear it's easy to ruin your floors if you don't know what you're doing using those big sanders! (Can you tell I totally know the lingo??) This is a job we decided was better left to the pros! After all, we want it to look good!

We really really really wanted to use a grey stain. Several of our friends and family tried to persuade us not to, but we were in love. And so we did. And we LOVE it. :)

Our floors are red oak and we used Minwax "classic grey" stain with a matte polyurethane. We ended up with a sort of rustic grey/brown that is exactly perfect for us! The red in the oak made it so that the floors aren't a true grey but have lots of grey undertones in the grain of the wood. Like I said, LOVE it!!

Here's some photos of the process as well as some before and after shots. Please note that my crappy camera simply does not do the color justice. It's hard to tell that its grey, but you can get the vibe!

Oh and PS.. I don't have any pictures of the office because I couldn't easily sneak over to it while the guys were standing and staining. It's in the back corner of the living room. The workers pretty much taped us off into the kitchen for two days so I occasionally peeked through the curtain they put up to snap a few pics :)

Living room before

Living room when they started pulling off shoe trim

Dining room before

Entryway

Stairs before (YUCK!)

Sample time!! They sanded a little spot for us and put down a sample so we could make sure we were committed to the color. The one on the right is one coat, the one on the left is two. We opted for two. Keep in mind this photo is when the stain is still wet so it's much darker than it will be. 

Naked floors!!! Dining room sanded.

Living room sanded.

Stairs... not sanded... but de-carpeted!! I'm excited about that!

Entryway sanded. 

Okayyyyyy... are you ready for the grand finale???

Dining room finished!

Living room finished!

Stairs finished! (Love!!)

Entryway finished!

Oh, and our new couches arrived just in time :)

So what do you think??