I don't have any information about whitewashing (sorry), but I did want to say that in the second picture, at least, your floors look perfectly fine/lovely. The first pic is pretty yellow, but I still think they're fine, with nice texture and warmth.

My advice is to stop designing around your floor color.

I actually think they look fine as is - the color doesn't bother me and the rough hewn looks to work in that space. I don't have experience with whitewashing, but another idea might be the polyurethanes that have a stain color mixed in them. Basically, it's a transparent coat of color, but it is probably best used when going darker not lighter.

Your unstained floors go with your ceilings. I don't think whitewashed floors would.

I would hate to buy a place with whitewashed floors. I'll take unstained pine with poly, the natural color of which is yellow, which I have now, or old unstained oak parquet and long floorboards, which is naturally somewhat less yellow, which I've had in many previous places, or even medium or darker stained wood, but give me a wood tone, in some natural wood color, on wood floors, please.

I also don't understand what design style these floors would not go with. I've never found it necessary to design around my wood floors, whatever shade. I could only see needing to take floor shade into account if the floors were extremely dark. Otherwise, like yours, they are a very neutral backdrop.

I think your floors look great. I think you either don't particularly like the color, or else just don't like the vast expanse of the color, or just of wood floor. (Or maybe it is the rustic nature of the floorboards you don't like, but they go with the ceilings and loft style.) I don't like vast expanses of wood floor, either, however pretty the floor is. Which is why I like to use area rugs to define various areas on most of my floors. I enjoy seeing the floor color in the few feet between rugs and around edges. The colorful rugs set my design colors, and define the spaces. Whatever color your floor is, no matter how much you don't like the color, if you put down rugs, you won't notice the floor color as much, and likely will cease to find it offensive. You might even start to appreciate the floor color when broken up with rugs.

Also, since you mention it is an apartment, you likely are required to cover 80% of your floor anyway. Unless you are on the bottom floor, the neighbors below you will much appreciate your laying down rugs to cut down on the noise that travels from your footfalls to their space below.

You also may find you like the acoustics of your place better with rugs. I once put a large cotton rag rug down on a large kitchen floor to soak up sound...there was an empty echo in the room before I did so, which the rug did away with very nicely.

I don't have experience with whitewash, but I had white deck paint floors in my old apartment. LOVED it. I'd definitely buy a place with white floors again.

As for your situation -- If your main concern is non-yellow, have you considered going darker? An ebony stain is super easy to apply -- you don't have to sand, just clean.

Polyurethane does yellow the material it is applied to, which is why a polyacrylic is a better choice if you don't want that yellow tone. You may be able to sand off the polyurethane and reapply another finish. That being said, it is natural for pine in particular to darken with age and exposure to sunlight. In time your floors will likely lose their yellow tone and darken naturally. I put in a similar floor as yours a little over ten years ago, and it is now becoming a more honey color as time goes on. I think your existing floor is very appropriate to the space and is attractive in itself. If the yellow tone really bothers you, sand it off and try something like polyacrylic or even a natural wood oil finish - but the raw pine in itself is gorgeous, please don't whitewash it!

I have a Victorian apartment which had whitewashed (limed-effect) floors when we moved in and I really like them. The sellers told me that they brushed on white paint, that had been diluted with a medium that made the paint dry more slowly. Then, they wiped some of it off. Some of the white stayed on the floor. They painted and wiped until the effect they wanted had been achieved. They finished it with polyurethane. It's quite a subtle effect, the way they did it.

It looks fantastic with our modern furniture. The wood still shows through quite a bit, so it looks nice with medium tones of wood. It also does not show dirt the way an all white floor would.

It would be a lot of work and you should probably experiment with a few rough sawn boards to see how it worked with boards that aren't from 1830. Also, to see if you like the effect and it would be worth the effort.

The color is not so much yellow as wood colored. So wood is really just the same as background. Ignore it.

I would take a painted white floor.

those floors are oak, not pine.

all wood floors "patina" over time and will change color...

good luck.

Whitewash tends to be picky and wears unevenly. You'd probably have to put poly back down on top of it, which would end up being counter-intuitive if you didn't want it to wear.

The wood floor does go well with the ceiling, but if you absolutely feel the need for a change, I would recommend darker so they still go with the rest of the building's architectural details.

Agreed, those floors aren't pine - pine is too soft for flooring. I feel you on the yellow, though - we were going to refinish our glossy, orange 80s floors before we found out they were tacked down on vinyl and just redid them altogether in a red oak. I disagree that it reads as wood and should be ignored. Floor color can be distracting. Oaks will yellow, but if I were you I'd consider a darker stain instead of white washing. If you're not confident you'll get the effect you want, then it's a safer bet.

Unless you want a solid colour floor, you're going to have to sand out the polyurethane. Poly is there to seal and protect, the effect you'd like to achieve can not reach the grain of the wood if there's a layer of poly on it.

Sanding it is not as difficult as you may think, but it is very messy and very labour intensive. Once it's slightly more bare you can whitewash it (I would suggest using a white stain). You will have to Poly it again when you're done to protect the floors, and choose the water/acrylic based poly for less smell, quicker drying, and non yellowing.

Pine floors are very common in Scandinavia.
Anyway, I think your floors look lovely.

My recommendation, after sanding and refinishing floors for 40 years, would be sand the floor down to the bare wood, bleach the floor and use a urethane acrylic for finish. This will eliminate the yellow color from the pine. Also, since the new finish is water base it will prevent the floors from yellowing (ambering) in the future because it is a non-oil product. Furthermore, the new waterbase finishes are more durable, non-toxic and non-flammable. Unfortunately, since the floor is currently finished with oil it is difficult to apply something over it and have it adhere properly. If you chose to change the color you will need to abrade the surface completely, particularly the recessed areas. If you dont remove the existing finish you will always have a yellow floor under whatever you choose to put on top. The disadvantage to this approach is that whenever the floor gets scratched or worn, the yellow will show through,which could potentially look even worse.

I don't know if those floors are pine, but pine is certainly a fairly common choice for flooring. My 1911 victorian has them on the 2nd floor (the first floor got the nice hardwoods), and we had them in the 1960s era house I grew up in. They are not as durable as hardwood, but I can say they'll last serviceably well for 50-100 years. ;)

There should be some good no VOC "stains" out there. You might try a not-quite-white shade rather than stark white. You should also consider whitewashing the ceiling/beams area.

You will probably need to sand quite a bit. Alternatively you could paint the floors. Another option is to lightly sand, then stain, and let the unevenness be part of the design; "real" whitewash would probably be a little less than pristine. Is there a hidden location that you could sand and stain before tackling the entire floor?

Personally I would love to have a whitewashed wood floor and/or painted floor but you do need to consider re-sale value, How long are you planning on staying in your place? If it's only one-two years then I'd say leave the floors alone for the next person. 5-10 years then go for it.

Big rugs?

I have oak floors that are too yellow for my taste so I plan to sand and stain them a neutral medium wood color. While I would love to ebonize the floors, I think that dark and white floors are a trend that will look dated over time. I am not planning to all, but everything I am doing is as classic modern as possible, because that will work best over the long haul.

Please, please leave the floors alone. They are fine. A friend of mine recently bought a condo and had to fix the former owner's big floor mistake of trying to do a dark finish. I suspect it would be the same for white. I wouldn't do either white or a dark finish as both are impractical and seem rather trendy at the moment. Natural oak floors will never go out of style.

The only way I know to change the color is to sand and stain the floors darker.

If they were my floors and I didn't like them, I'd go a Benjamin Moore Paint Store and share my problem with them. They have offered me amazing solutions to problems as I have restored houses that would not have occurred to me. And I have learned a lot about surfaces.

I think your BF is right about the paint over poly. That sounds like a peeling problem to me. And have you considered keeping a white floor CLEAN? I can imagine that would a nightmare. At least your floors don't show dirt.

Sanders can be rented, but it's a learning curve. In the meanwhile, you could carve serious grooves in your floor.

Another possibility is to have someone else sand the floors, and then you stain and seal them yourselves. That usually saves 50%, but you will have to get the floors hospital clean with no dust before you stain or seal. I did this once on a house to save money, and on the third poly coat, one of my long red curly hairs fell into the poly, and will be there forever.

Have you considered Osmo? It is an oil wax, not a stain, and comes in many colours. The advantage is that you can change the colour without painting or having to use polyurethane or a varnish. And when you need to refinish, you don't have to strip the old finish. You just reapply it directly where needed.

They have a white one and apparently you can still see the natural grain of the wood.

I've never tried Osmo but it's environmentally friendly and I have heard great things. If I had to refinish a floor, that is definitely what I'd use.

http://www.raincoastalternatives.com/osmo_one_coat_only.html

I love how everyone is telling you to just get over it and keep them as-is. Very helpful!

I have no advice for you, but I do support you and your wish to un-yellow your floors. ;)

I would agree about the wood species. The likelihood of that floor being pine is slim. It looks exactly like ash to me (or possibly oak), which are both harder woods, which would make sanding the poly out take a longer time. I think the floors are beautiful as is. OR I would sand the floors down to the non-poly natural color and then do a light colored stain and then re-apply the water based poly. Good luck!