Painting floorboards?

[disappointed101]

At the moment, they are a hideous brown vanish and are scratched and chipped. Basically look shit. I have been toying with the idea of sanding and painting them until we have more money to do something else. Yay or nay? Surely they wouldn't look any worse? What brand should I go for? I'd rather not have too shiny floors. What colour works best? My scheme is grey/blue/white/neutral in the downstairs rooms. Any tips on what to do or not do? Please help, I'm fed up of looking at shit floorboards!

My second lounge (which doubles as a playroom) has boards painted off white. When I moved in they were coated in orange varnish so had them stripped then painted them in a F&B off white colour Floor Paint (can't remember the exact shade). The room is in the basement of the house so a bit limited for natural light and the paint has helped make the room lighter.

The maintenance isn't too bad - hoover regularly, wet wash occasionally and repaint every couple of years or so. Any damage (dents and scratches usually) can be filled and repainted.

One thing worth bearing in mind - my boards are tongue and groove so gaps are minimal, which looks ok with the white paint. Are yours close together?

Most of my other rooms have bare boards but they've been stripped and then stained then oiled/waxed and are quite dark but I like them that way

Hall have no gaps but other rooms do. Not sure if White is too stark?

Mine are very off-white - quite a contrast to pure white

If they're already varnished why do you need to sand them before painting? Surely the paint will cover up the varnish? We're in a similar situation

It's about providing a decent finish for the paint to adhere to

And have a look on Pinterest under 'white floorboards lounge' to get inspiration

My floorboards are painted grey throughout the entire house using an industrial floor paint - I think the finish would have been better had I not painted over F&B floor paint. DO not get F&B floor paint - worst paint I have ever used (and I have painted a lot of floorboards over the years) and also regrettably used by my parents and aunt. It chips so badly and costs triple the amount of other brands (but they do have such lovely colours). My friend swears by coovar and I think her's is a creamy/off white. If you can sand, I think you will get a better covering but its very messy and time consuming so I would just slap paint over the varnish.

Oh and the paint has chipped least in my hallway, which I painted with a big wall emulsion roller. The other rooms, which have much lower foot traffic and are really chipped, were painted using a mole-skin roller, which was the recommendation for floor paint. It may just be a coincidence.

Thank you Petty. Do you remember what brand you used?

I'd also be interested to know the brand Petty, and if you used something to seal it with?
About to do our engineered oak floorboards.
Did you do any other kind of prep except sand and slap it on with a roller?

Sorry to hijack!