Floor on three interconnecting rooms

[PinkCamelias]

I'd appreciate some advice regarding flooring. I got some here before and it was very useful :)

We have three rooms (receptions and a dining room) creating visually one long space. There's no wall nor door between the front and middle rooms. There is a wide, floor to ceiling by door between the middle room and the garden room. All the floors are old pine boards, but in the front and middle rooms they are waxed and have a darker, honey colour. In the garden room they are currently varnished with a matt finish, so there is a difference of colour and shine.

We will have the garden room sanded next week. The floor will be varnished again, because the access to the garden would make a waxed floor too high maintenance. The question is: should we keep the current, natural colour of the boards there and just use the satin varnish, to have a uniform shine on all the floors; or should we use a wood stain before varnish to unify the colour too?

I have until now thought I would not change the colour, because I don't mind the difference and the room is separated from the others visually with the door. However, the door is open most of the time, so would the same colour on the whole floor look better?

Photos are of both the floor colours, and of the part where they meet. The lighter floor is very dusty there, the photo was taken during the works. The messy transition line will be fixed as much as possible now during sanding.

Sorry for the typo in the subject, my phone insists on changing everything!

Here is a floor plan, I couldn't attach it previously.

I would not try to stain the garden room floor before varnishing. You will never be able to get the exact same colour or finish unless you redo all the floors at the same time. And even then, they probably were not installed at the same time with the same wood. I would go ahead and varnish them in a similar transparent satin .

It is an old house; three different rooms meet up and any difference in apparence will simply help delimit the different rooms. After a while you may no longer even notice a difference or care. You could also use one large or several smaller rugs to unify or break up the space. Your floors are beautiful.

HTH.

I too would not varnish. I once tried to match two floors and I couldn’t do it, so wish I’d just left it as it was.

The OP asked if she should stain before varnishing, not whether or not to varnish.

I think a varnished floor ( with an old fashioned solvent based varnish) is very sturdy and easy to care for, however I have never used a modern acrylic varnish so I can not speak for it.

Thank you very much for the replies! I'm glad they confirm my instinct to just leave the colour as it is. I also thought, @Whataretalkingabout , that the different floors will delimit the spaces. I was just hesitating because the floor guy asked me whether I wanted to stain them. Actually I was really not looking forward to making the samples and trying to get a good match!

They will use a water based varnish which I guess is acrylic? The idea is that the pine doesn't get yellow like with the solvent based one, and it protects better from the sun (the room is west facing).

You also seem to think that a satin finish is better than matt? I quite like it as it is; it looks completely untreated, but I have a feeling that it will benefit from a bit of shine.

Sorry OP, didn't see your latest post. I have no idea how the water based acrylic varnish holds up in time or use.
The old fashioned varnish is really hard wearing but definitely yellows with age. Also is really toxic! I had beautiful solid oak laid in a new house with traditional varnish many years ago and you couldn't go in the house for about a month the odour was so bad!
I went with a satin finish and it was very sturdy. Could even take high heels! They were so beautiful and so easy to care for . However, satin doesn't seem as modern today and as natural as a mat finish so I understand your hesitation. Also you have some that are waxed and waxed are not as shiny as satin. ( but gorgeous and a lot of work!) So maybe you would prefer mat?

Do talk it over with the person overseeing the varnishing. They will have a good eye and be able to advise you after taking a close look.
Good luck. I'm sure you will be pleased whatever you decide. ;)

Thank you for your reply @Whataretalkingabout ! Varnish will be certainly a modern type, I'm not sure if the others are still much in use. My builder says that a satin finish is very discreet, it's not glossy. I agree it's not that modern but that does not matter much, because the house is old. I just hope it will be as durable as yours, or as the current matt finish, which looks really like untreated wood!

But it does matter in an old house especially !

Acrylic will never be as solid as a traditional varnish on oak unfortunately !
You have two problems to resolve:

1. acrylic varnish or another finish- oil/ wax/ nothing!
2. Matt or satin So what is the current finish on the Matt floors you already have? Could you have a sample done in one spot?

The floors are pine, @Whataretalkingabout . They are now varnished with matt water based varnish, which is literally invisible. As I said above, we won’t wax them, because of the access to the garden. As you know, water stains waxed floors, so it would be too high maintenance. I asked about oil too, because in the children’s bedrooms the floors were oiled after sanding. The builder does not recommend it here, though, again because of the garden. So I agreed to varnish, and just wondered about the finish. With satin, the floors will have a more uniform light shine, even if the colour will be different. With matt, it will be like on my photos (but renovated).

Hi Pinkie,
Yes I did notice your floors are pine. They are lovely.
My concern for your floors is exactly that, what finish would be best for a garden room? You can see I am passionate about varnishes! ( fine artist, craftsman and diy everything here). Did you see the other thread today on someone's oak floors scratching terribly? I don't know what finish they had done but after only 6 months that would be annoying to say the least.

I once used an acrylic varnish on a windowsill that had plants on it. Now it certainly did not get the same usage as a floor but I did have to redo it about once every two years! My solvent varnished hardwood floors were still in excellent shape when we sold that house 15 years later. And that was an entire ground floor house , with lots of doors to the outside.

Personally I do not like acrylic finishes on anything for several reasons. (And I have used them on lots of things, wood, terra cotta, canvas, etc. )
Acrylic varnishes are plastic and scratch. They are a petroleum based product. They are difficult to remove without sanding. All kinds of things stick to it and cannot be removed easily- oilpaint, water based paint, ink. A nightmare . And they are not waterproof !
So for your floors I would still recommend oiling them because you can then easily clean them, recoat easily without removing previous finish, do your floors yourself, quick to recoat, and cost effective!

But it is your choice in the end. I only want to help you make the best decision for you. ;)

Above message for @PinkCamelias !

@Whataretalkingabout thank you for your last message! I took longer to reply because things were busy here. In the meantime the floor was finished and varnished with a two component water based matt varnish. I think it looks very nice, it actually seems to be completely untreated! Photo attached. This type of varnish has UV protection so it should help preventing the yellowing of pine.

I didn't want wax or oil here, because a beautiful old French door to the garden lets some water in during heavy rain. We're working on improving this, and would like to add a porch at some point to protect it. However, there was a significant water damage on the floorboards before sanding, so wax it oil would not offer enough protection.

@PinkCamelias Your floors are finally finished and the matte varnish looks like it was a good choice! They look rather natural with even a slight sheen. I hope you are happy with them and that they will give you complete satisfaction and low maintenance for many years! ;)