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Our new hardwood flooring and how to care for it

By Brittany

September 3, 2020

This is a down and dirty post…quite literally. We are still in the thick of getting our house ready to move in (hopefully by the 15th–so close!) and thankfully we have some important milestones in place like 1) floors 2) toilets and 3) almost a sink (crossed fingers for tomorrow!).

You were so helpful and opinionated when it came to the flooring selections so I wanted to keep you updated on where we went with it (note: I share a ton of behind the scenes on Instastories! @houselarsbuilt if you want to follow along there). As I mentioned last time, we’ve partnered with Stuga on the gorgeous hardwood flooring and though we haven’t moved in and I can’t speak to how it’s holding up, I can definitely address the aethetics. The verdict is in and the jury (me) LOVES IT. True love.

Which Stuga floor did we go with?

Which selection did we go with? I showed you ten options in the last post (remember these?) and…drumroll please….The winner is….
TIVOLI! They name all their flooring after Scandinavian inspired names or features and Tivoli, the famous charming amusement mark in the middle of Copenhagen, was the site of our first date, so it was only appropriate 😉 AND it’s our anniversary today so this flooring selection is really bringing us full circle I guess!
Mind you, Tivoli was not in your top 7 choices–ha! The top choices from you were Mead and Lucia. Here were the options again (you can see them here) BUT I love something on the warmer side and I wanted something a bit thinner without too much grain and Tivoli was the clear choice in person.
HOWEVER, when I received it, I opened up one box and the one I happened to open was SUPER grainy and a bit green:
I.got.nervous.
And then Paul calmly opened up the next box and then the next and turns out? Each one is super different! One may be more red, the other less grainy, the next more yellow and it’s kind of this mix and when you put it all together it is LOVELY. The depth of all the colors and textures makes it super interesting without being distracting. I LOVE MY FLOORS.

Making it into the house

Anywoo, just getting the shipment of hardwood flooring in was the biggest deal to me that I recorded the whole thing. And it came with its own share of drama. Our house is perched on an incline so no big trucks can get up there, and if they did, there’s no room for them to turn around and come back since it’s a cul-de-sac. SO, I called Paul in a panic and he came with a good friend of ours and helped the guy unload each crate and then transport each box up to the house. Thankfully, I’m pregnant, so I have a great excuse to not pitch in 😉

Here’s how the process worked, but I’ll be sharing more about the installation process in the next blog post.

What did we do to the stairs ?

And then they came back the next week and put the stairs in with the specially made Stuga stair nosings. We went with the square nosings, which is much more modern than I’ll be going with the rest of the house but I think it freshens up the house quite a bit and I’m here for it! I LOVE where it’s going. We still need to finish the top half (not seen) and add in banisters, but in the mean time, it’s so beautiful! Jasper, don’t come near here!

How to care for our Stuga floors

As you can imagine with this type of project, we have a ton of foot traffic from contractors of all kinds and their footprints are not what we would call gentle so this flooring is probably going through more now than hopefully it will ever again. BUT, I do love what Stuga says to maintain it.
Their first piece of advice is to treat your hardwood flooring like the Scandinavians do by taking off your shoes. I know this is common practice in a lot of homes throughout the world and frankly, though I lived in Denmark for awhile, I still don’t adopt it BUT you better believe we will be! And fun fact: a lot of Danes, probably others too, typically leave a basket by the door with extra slippers you can put on. Hyggligt!
We also don’t have window coverings at this point–only plastic from the previous owners who were about to paint, so I’m terrified of the sun’s exposure on the wood. It does patina over time and I’m looking forward to that, but I don’t want to accelerate it you know? I’ll be getting something up soon!

Other than that, I ordered the floor care kit and it comes with everything I need to take care of it. Pretty much it’s what you might expect light water. They also say that you can sand the floor down twice and that’s pretty much only if you want to restain the wood. So we are good for a long time!

And because we need to add in something adorable, here’s a little before and after of Jasper on the floor.

Ok! I’d love to hear your thoughts on our hardwood flooring selection. I know it’s not what most of you chose, but can you see it now?
ALSO curious if you’re like the Scandinavians and take off your shoes at the door?

This post is sponsored by Stuga but all opinions are my own.

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  2. Amanda says

    It looks absolutely beautiful.

    I did notice that CLJ’s Stuga flooring discolored from sunlight (big line where they moved a rug), but they have a huge window with no covering. I hope that yours patinas more evenly.

    Reply

    • Brittany says

      oh interesting! Yes, that was part of their language when they tell you about the flooring–it does lighten with sun and time so that’s on our radar!

      Reply

  3. Kristine LeRoss says

    That delivery 😱!!! How many square feet was that??
    I’m worried because I’m going to order this week. I’m in a cul de sac but the driveway is a bit steep so it’ll have to be delivered on the street and pulled/pushed up!? How does this even work?

    Reply

    • Brittany says

      it honestly depends on the size of the truck delivering the stuff. Ours was sent in a ginormous truck. When they call to schedule, I’d recommend telling them about your situation so that they can send the right size truck!

      Reply

  4. Laura says

    We are looking at this flooring for our home. It’s beautiful! It looks like it’s relatively knot-free? More so than Lucia, which we are also looking at.

    Did you have any issues with strong odors or off-gassing? We are looking for a product that works well with chemical sensitivities.

    Reply

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