Whitewashing floorboards: useful guide to what you should know

At the Art of Clean we receive a lot of questions about our range of finishes for wooden floorboards.

So, let's get started and share with you what we know.

White painted floors are just plain beautiful but when we’re choosing types of finishes on wooden floorboards we tend to go for the slightly softer appearance of whitewash, which allows some of the grain of the wood to show through.

Whitewashing refers to the technique of mixing lime and water, milk paint or some other concoction together, which gives a look that has been around for hundreds of years in Sweden and Scandinavia and because of their dark winters, whitewashing floors helped to lighten the room.

Several years ago whitewashing was the chosen method of finishing floors and the look is currently making a comeback amongst decorators and interior designers because of its versatility, it goes with modern and contemporary furniture.

Previously to achieve this finish, the floor was treated with wood lye, which was used to give the wood a weathered look and bleach out the colour of the wood. Afterwards, a white oil was applied and the floor was maintained using a boil soap, these types of finishes were not very hard wearing.

As in contrast to that ineffective alternative, Pallmann introduced PALL X PURE - this amazing product gives the hard wearing finish with the look of a white washed or bleached floor.

In the photos below you can see sample boards I was preparing for a client.

Maintenance is high on the traditional way of finishing the floor in this finish meaning using a light to bleach the floor and then using a soap to keep the floor clean… But with the Pallmann system the floor maintenance is much less time consuming.