Whitewashed Wood Floors

Whitewashing wood floors is a method of muting the color of hardwood floors. By painting a color of stain onto the freshly-sanded wood floor, and then wiping it away quickly before it dries, a subtle trace of the color is left in the wood grain, giving the floor a muted look with just a hint of color. White or light gray stain is usually used, and lighter color woods such as ash or maple are fequently used, however, any wood floor can be white-washed. White washing used to be done with standard interior paint, but Bona, Minwax, Duraseal and other manufacturers have now added whitewashing stains to their product lines. See our page on wood floor stain colors.

Whitewashing wood floors is also sometimes referred to as:

  • Lime-washed floors
  • Limed wood or Liming wood
  • White washing
  • White-graining
  • Pickling
  • Bleaching
  • Milk Paint
  • Chalk Paint

These are all "white-washing" methods of adding a sun-bleached, ethereal effect to wood floors.

Great Indoors Wood Floors offers many ways to other add character and depth to your wood floors. These methods include hand-scraping, wire-brushing, distressed wood floors, creative staining patterns, inlays and mosaics, and many other ways of creating interesting effects.

photo of limed wood floor

Limed wood floor with whitewash effect

woire-brushed, white grained wood floor

wire-brushed wood floor with whitewash in the grain pattern
Wire-brushed wood floor with whitewash in the dark wood grain.