my gramma had that chair plus the ottoman and futon.

Painting is a great option, but keep in mind that you'd still need to move everything out...

They could paint it in squares! Then they'd only have to move things around a bit.

Depending on the varnish on the wood floor, would they have to worry about getting the paint to adhere firmly and not risk scrapping? I guess you could always give a rough sanding, but at that point you almost might as well just restain - depends on if the wood is coming apart or not, I guess.

Side bar - I really love the stacked books. I have been wanting to stack some of mine to function as a side table, but don't have enough large heavy ones to make the idea feasible. Is the book tower sturdy?

Thoughts on the question at hand:
I like the floors, they have a nice simple charm to them.

Painting the floors would be a hassle. To do it properly, you would still need to move out all of your belongings, and prep the surface for paint. At this point, you may as well go the extra mile and re-finish.

What about area rugs to cover problem spots? Color on the walls would also help distract from the honey colored floors.

I think you could probably paint in stages and not have to move out. But, if you are even slightly DIY, you could probably sand/stain/refinish in stages as well. It may end up looking nicer as the floors would have more dimension. There are great dark stains out there - ebony and dark grey are favorites of mine.

i have those floors too. hate them. but what about rugs?

Could you pickle the floors? This might be a nice look.

I knew I had read some where before about painting parquet floors, but couldn't find the link. Until I remembered they cooked a roast to hide the smell of the paint (why they would need to hide the fact that they painted if they intended to show it in a national magazine.... but I digress). Check out the slide show and good luck.

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/homes/solution/archive/designsolution_article_052004?currentPage=1

i painted the 40 year old parquet floors in our living/dining area a very dark brown. I first tried a very dark stain, but even after a lot of sanding and the usual tricks, I couldn't get the parquet to take the stain evenly.

Generally, the porch paint I used holds up reasonably well, but if you drag furniture across the paint, you will get scratches. A large part of the floor is also covered with Flor carpet tiles, which makes the quality of the paint job less critical. Sooner or later (later, as things look currently), I will replace the floor, but for now painting was a quick fix that definitely improved things. Sorry, I don't have any pics online (is there a way to attach pictures on AT??).

FLOR!

Ooh, the red floor in that AD story that dragonphly posted would look great!

I do have to warn you that I've lived with black floors and, contrary to expectation, they show every little last speck of dust and dirt. Red might be more forgiving.

You can have it refinished.
Or DIY and rent a sander.

It is such a standard thing to do in maintaining a wooden floor. sand it, stain it, seal it.
Dark walnut stain looks nice on that type of floor.

Dust and lint does show up easily on drk wood floors!!!!!

Ebony floors are beautiful...if you have no children, no pets and never wear shoes inside. I couldn't get away with it but I love them in other peoples spaces.

I'll agree that the red floors actually look beautiful in that AD article but can I just say....They painted wood floors which were in good condition RED...in a rental! Even if they were cheap wood floors, that's just crazy. As someone who has rented a house out before I would be livid beyond belief if someone did something like that to my space (yes I was one of those annoying landlords who wouldn't let the tenants paint). You better bet I'd charge them the full replacement cost for new floors. I don't care how nice they look they certainly aren't to everyones taste and would have to be changed when they moved.

If you are serious about getting a good look, you are going to need to move your furniture out. Paint or stain doesn't matter. Each stage will need to be completed across the entire continuous section of floor or you will end up with a sloppy result. That is something you want to avoid, particularly with gloss black where every finish imperfection will be obvious. If you have a carpeted room (or a room that is not being refinished) you could load all of your possessions in there and save on the move. That is what I did.

In any case, you are looking at probably 2-3 weeks of complete chaos, even if you hire a pro (which you should definitely do as you are looking to improve the look, not just temporarily change it up.) Black stain usually requires many recoats, and the stain must completely dry (usually several days) before you put the clear finish on. If you rush it, the polyurethane coat can fail to adhere and the whole process would need to begin again.

A pro is not that expensive. Hire an expert in refinishing and staining. It is money well spent. The hotel room you will need will probably run you more than the refinishing. (To save more money, you might want to have your refinishing coincide with your next trip out of town...)

Note to everyone else: if you hate the flooring, change it BEFORE you move in. I didn't and learned my lesson.

I had dark floors in my last flat and I loved them but they do require a lot of vacuuming/sweeping.

I have had quotes on staining/finishing/repairing the worn parquetry in my new place. After going through the process with various tradesmen for quotes I would not recommend doing it yourself.... your floors are the second biggest surface in your home if you don't get the job right it will stick out like a sore thumb. It's worth hiring a mover and putting your stuff in storage for a week

We have the same honey parquet floors in our apartment. Although they are not my favorite (I much prefer the fish-bone pattern), we decided we would not replace them (money factor!). So we hired a pro, who sanded them and put three coats of varnish with satin finish, which made them look more even and decent. We had done that upon purchasing the apartment, so there were no furniture, and it was done while we were staying on a vacation, but I must warn you, the strong smell of the varnish hovered around for weeks afterward! And while it was being revarnished, you couldn't even enter the place of the stingy smell! I pity the poor painters who actually had to be inside for hours doing it... So my advice is if you're doing one room or the whole place - move away to your family or good friends. It's not healthy to stay inside while it's done.

A friend of mine sanded and stained her parquet living/dining room last year... Disaster, huge no-no! Of course she did it herself with the help of a friend (result might be different by a professional), but parquet is not hardwood! It's glued wood. How could you expect to get a nice finish?! And she picked a dark walnut stain hue: makes all the sanding irregularities and dust (!!!!!) stand out. In a nutshell: she ruined perfectly good floors. Spend your money on rugs!

Have you considered putting in a floating hardwood floor? It's actually not that much more expensive than refinishing, and you can float engineered planks (click-together, ideally) that are as thin as 5/16" of an inch. The beauty of floating installation is that you don't have to glue anything to the floor and you can clear out floor space as you go along- no need to do the entire thing at once. Ikea sells a click-lock floor for around $2/sf.

I have honey parquet in my apartment and I can't quite imagine hating it. I love mine. But a few area rugs will make it a lot less noticeable, and leave it nice if you ever move out. If I moved into a place and found the previous owners had PAINTED a natural honey parquet floor with ebony porch paint I'd have a conniption.

This is why we have laminate flooring.

I used to have those kind of floors... I absolutely loved them as they were. *ahhhh memories

I seem to recall a decorating show on TV recommending that parquet that is not in good shape be removed since it's almost impossible to restore. (But maybe I'm not remembering correctly -- research it before believing it!)

If you own your apartment, I'd suggest replacing or covering it with something new. If you rent, I'd get nice area rugs, and just try to ignore what shows.

i saw a tv show - i think it was an episode of debbie travis - they did a dark stain on the floor. it looked good on tv.

What color paint do you have on the walls?

I have the Parquet floors and my look horrible they are over 15 years old and are totally ruined over the years. I have been thinking of paint but never did it because everyone said no now that I read this artical I think I'm going for the Deck enamel dark red look. Already looked it up and found a good commercial grade. Thanks

I have the same floors, and dislike them a lot. However due to circumstances I am stuck with them. I have a couple of places that my cat has ruined and would like to replace about a 2 square foot area. And also I would like to get more if available. Any idea where you can get some? Also I have painted floors in an old house I lived in, then I repainted it to cover scratches, and eventually repainted it as I moved out.

my parquet floors are so WAAARM. emphasis on the WAAAA... because I am totally a cool-colors gal when it comes to decorating. wish i could do something about it, but i'm renting!