DIY Stained Plywood | Subfloor to Main Floor

What are some of the biggest money suckers when updating a house? Flooring is usually one of them. Especially when you’re on a budget. We had a choice: we could redo all the floors right away and…that’s it…or we could have beautifully painted walls and have money for extra things like faucets and cabinet knobs. I chose the latter. So then I had to start thinking about inexpensive ways to have an attractive floor until we could fit new floors into the budget.

Unless, of course, I kept this super amazing carpet in…haha not…

We were out to lunch one day when I asked Titus what was underneath the carpet. I didn’t even know there was plywood under carpet. As you can see I’m pretty naive but I’ve been quickly learning! I didn’t even know it was a thing to stain or paint plywood and make it the main floor until I started reading up about it. I thought I was a genius but it’s been done before. That happens a lot 😉

My inspiration for my whole house is Country French, a little glam and a little rustic. After scouring the internet and magazines for inspiration, I found a common theme throughout the floors: rustic, “dinged”, and full of character. I loved the imperfect look of the photos below, but I knew I wanted a dark stain. Unless the plywood was in totally bad shape or the carpet was glued down, I didn’t see how it couldn’t work.

To my relief the carpet wasn’t glued, just stapled, and the plywood was fine!

Now the hard work can begin!

Not too shabby!

We did a preview of the stain above to see how it would look and I was getting giddy with excitement!

Isn’t it lovely? It turned out so well! The white on the floor is not part of it, just dust from the bathroom being tracked everywhere…whole ‘nother story…

The Good:
*Inexpensive
*Pretty easy
*Color is customizable
*Beautiful, interim flooring

The Bad:
*If you have lots of uneven coloring you will have to sand it all down
*Stains already on the plywood will not disappear, but will be brought out more

Conclusion: 
I’m so glad that we did this. The pros outweigh the cons. It is a beautiful, inexpensive floor that is wayyy better than the carpet and I enjoy looking at it. I’m in no rush to replace it. If there are lots of stains on the plywood in the other rooms of the house I might try painting them. We’ll see! All in all, I’m satisfied.

What do you think of this DIY stained plywood project?

*Update- We sold this house!*