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how to whitewash wood flooring


cloudbound

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  I have several sheets of Handley House wood flooring and I'd like to use it.  But I would like the floor to look like it was whitewashed.  I watched an online video of someone whitewashing a wall but that wood is so much thicker and I'm afraid of the dollhouse wood flooring buckling if I put that watered-down white paint on it.  Any suggestions? 

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I wouldn't flood the flooring with watery paint, but I should think you could dry brush several layers to get the effect you want without experiencing any buckling. You could also paint it without watering down the paint and then sanding most of it off after the paint is thoroughly dry. That would put the paint into the cracks, where is would have collected on a real floor.

I'm a curious as to why you want to whitewash a floor in the first place. I think of whitewash as a rather fragile treatment when it comes to a surface subject to being walked upon.

 

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  Ha, ha - I doubt the dollies are going to be doing a lot of walking on the floor.  You know what I did a while ago - since I have a lot of sheets of that flooring I used one to spray with white enamel - a very light coat.  I'm about ready to sand it to see what I wind up with.  Then maybe I'll want another coat of paint.   I want a white floor throughout the entire bottom floor (kitchen, dinette area and living area) that will be totally open.  So it needs to be something that would look good in a kitchen and then still look good in the living/dinette areas.  You are going to laugh at me but I've been watching 'Fixer Upper' on tv.  Its a show where this wonderfully sweet couple show buyers 3 fixer-upper homes and the buyer chooses one.  Then Chip & Joanna go in and make all the changes.  Well sweetie pie Joanna LOVES shiplap.  Floors, walls, tables - whatever.  So I was thinking a white wood floor might be fun.  We'll see. 

  This is for sort of a wacky dollhouse for donation to the ASPCA's annual silent auction in early November.  It is a Cat House and I want to feature cats in every room.  It's not going to be traditional.  I want it fun and maybe even a little bit funny.  The entire top floor (its a 3-story Vermont Farmhouse Jr - so its somewhat small) is going to be one big cat play room and I've built all sorts of toys, climbing structures, beds, pillows, scratch posts.  But the rest of the house will be filled with cat-themed things and lots'o cats!   

  At least that's the PLAN... You know how THAT goes.

 Drat - I can't attach any photos.  I keep getting prompted my files are too big.

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Patricia, are there any dollhouse shops in your area? I'm coming that way this summer and I see the shop in Reno I used to go to is no more. 

I think dry brush, sand, like Kathie said, would be worth experimenting with first. I love white floor boards. My mom had done that technique in our "real life" house and it was really neat. 

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@cloudbound I get that same message. If I want to post in a thread here I have to go thru this process...lol...first I post the picture I want to use to facebook. I adjust the privacy setting so that only I can see the image. Then I save image from the fb post after it's posted. Then that fb image is somehow smaller and I can then post it here. 

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Hello Wyked Wood.  No more dollhouse shops around these parts.  Down in Sacramento there is The Elegant Dollhouse store and its nice.  But then I've never been to any other dollhouse stores to compare it to.  I just went to their annual Parking Lot Sale on May 7th and it was so nice.  She allows anyone and everyone to set up tables and sell their own things.  There were probably 30 or 40 tables there.  Lots of fun old things plus some 'vendors' of specialty items. 

  I'm tickled pink right now.  I gave the wood I spray painted (a light coat) a light sanding and I LOVE it already.  To get the really white look I'd have to give it another coat.  But so far no buckling!  Yee Haw.  Wish I could show you to ask your opinion.  NOPE - tried with the photo I just took and once again my file is too big.  Wish I could say that about my chest measurement!

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Lol. Glad to hear your project is working out, sounds fun. 

About the Elegant, I used to live in Roseville and got to visit the Elegant frequently, loved it :) I was pretty poor back then though, lol, I had two boys who were babies when I started this hobby. Not a lot of dollhousing money..so I mostly window shopped, it was a great place to look around. 

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I like to use a base coat of gray chalk paint. Let dry then sand smooth. Then a good coat of white chalk paint. Let dry then sand to show a variance of finish with some of the gray showing through. Then a finish it off with a top coat of clear wax to give it a smooth finish. The more you buff with a cotton cloth, the more it shines so you control the finish. I have had great results with the FolkArt brand of chalk paints and waxes. They also have a nice selection of YouTube videos to get you comfortable before you start. Good luck and have fun!

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I have used a well-watered down paint wash on wood.  After I dip the brush into it I wipe it really well on the edge of the container and dry brush it onto the wood.  No buckling.

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