Rustic Wood Flooring – Three Mistakes That Will Spoil the Effect

 

Think about adding rustic wood flooring to your own residence if the atmosphere of your grandma’s old cottage draws you. As people take pleasure in the look and green benefits of older planks, reclaimed wood has become a niche business. Old houses, office and school buildings, and even old barns are prime places to find salvaged wood flooring. Once you source the wood, beware of these three mistakes that can spoil the effect of your decorating efforts.

 

Rustic Wood Flooring Mistake No. 1: Choosing the wrong grade of wood.

 

With no knots or noticeable flaws, Grade One is the priciest wood. Grade Two is still quite clean, but some of the knots show up in this lower priced wood option. Exceptionally rustic in appearance, Grade Three is the lowest priced wood, showing all blemishes and knots of the tree. This is the obvious choice for decorating in the rustic style: Grades One and Two would just spoil the effect.

 

Rustic Wood Flooring Mistake No. 2: Leaving the wood as you bought it.

 

Adding scratches and dings and burn marks are some of the techniques that can give an old and rustic character to a wood floor. Use a wood scraper on the floor, but try to make the scratches look as natural as possible. Make impressions in the floor using a mallet, old bolts, brick chunks or other objects. Finally, sear your floor in spots with a hand torch.

 

Rustic Wood Flooring Mistake No. 3: Being too conventional in your approach.

 

Instead of just installing your wood flooring the traditional way, with planking laid perpendicular to the joists, you could angle the planks instead, or you could vary the lengths and widths of the planks, giving your floor a more frontier look. Another idea is to use wooden pegs instead of nails or screws to hold down the flooring and make it more rustic in appearance.