When you're sick of carpet and not into paying for top dollar flooring, you're left with few options. Often times homeowners turn to paint instead of installing a new floor, but we're here to say there are other ways to get good results.
We found the project on Quarry Orchard, where Shannon and her husband are learning about home DIY projects as they go. So far their results are rather inspiring. For their latest project, they decided to make their own flooring out of plywood, adhesive and some stain, and the results are pretty perfect.
Their entire room came out to be around $520 (along with some sweat and hours of labor). It's a great project and an amazing reminder that you can make a big impact on your space for less than many retail or store-bought options.
Read More: Plywood Plank Flooring Tutorial from Quarry Orchard
(Image: Quarry Orchard)
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
I dig it.
That is beautiful. I'd be interested in seeing how it handled summers, though. I wonder if this would swell and contract as much as typical hardwood flooring, and how it would hold up, considering it doesn't seem to be as thick.
Looks great, but being pine, I'd be curious how well it would hold up, being a rather soft wood.
The Frugal Farmhouse Design blog showed something similar a couple of years ago. They painted the boards white instead of staining them and it looked really nice. She had a followup on it last Spring showing that it had held up very well.
http://frugalfarmhousedesign.blogspot.com/2010/05/frugal-friend-with-fabulous-taste.html
here's the followup
http://frugalfarmhousedesign.blogspot.com/2012/03/plywood-plank-update.html
I wonder if this would work as a temporary measure (temporary being two or three years) and then down the road be used as a sub-floor for hardwood. Could you just install hardwood right over it?
Man, this is beyond amazing.
Lots of floors are pine or fir, soft woods. Especially plank floors. I don't see potential problems with that.
@Andrea Jane - Yes, but this would elevate the flooring. I have this problem in my house. I can't have floor mats on the first level because there's something between the subfloor and the hardwood.
@Dulcibella, thanks for the links to the farmhouse. They used 1/4" plywood compared to this article's 1/2" (essentially). Oddly, the 1/4" was more expensive. But in my experience, the price given in this article sounded very low.
The one thing that occurs to me to watch out for is moisture. You'd really need to seal the gaps VERY well. In fact, right at this moment my trash can has some plywood in it, a 4" strip that I left out in the rain - and it has separated into many thin pieces like a bouquet, curling all over the place!
Maybe the 1/4" was marine plywood which is supposed to stand up better, of course, to water.
Forget the floors. I am interested to know what was done with the walls. I like them.
That's lovely.
looks cool, but.. would VOC be a concern using plywood as the finish floor?
I would paint them, but I think they are super lovely as-is. If you're careful and not overly picky about everything being just perfect, I'm sure they'll hold up just fine.
I lived with 100+ year old pine floors. No, they weren't perfect, but they were beautiful because they had character. I got a few splinters, but nothing I couldn't handle!