Reader question: What to do with a brick red terrazzo floor?

Brick red terrazzo floor. Not the easiest thing to live with unless you love brick red. Especially difficult to live with mixed with actual dark red brick walls and a yellow pine ceiling. Did I mention the yellow pine  stair banister – oh – and the fact that you hate the floor? This is the unfortunate situation of today’s reader who sent me this email:

The offending floor in question

And of course, pictures of the house:

And some more pictures:

And now my response.

I am going to shock some people with this, because it’s not an attitude taken today, so please sit down while reading this.

I hate naked pine. There, I said it.

Pine was never meant to be shown. It’s a soft nobby wood which was originally used as baseboards under real hardwood floors and cheap painted Scandinavian furniture (in other words – hidden). Pine is an abundant source for wood, so it’s easy to get and easy to use – but just because it’s wood does not make it beautiful.

Maple is beautiful, oak is beautiful and cherry is stunning. Pine – bleh.

As such it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when I say you should paint the lot of it. Paint the high sloped ceiling a nice eggshell white, the beams a shade or two darker and the walls a shade lighter than the ceiling.

Ignore the floor until you can afford to replace it. Cover it with cheap rugs from Ikea or Dalyat El Carmel.

Paint the brick as well in my opinion. Not because I don’t like brick, because I do – but because your home looks rather dark with things as they are.

Here I would either move up the mirror so that it was at picture height (top of the mirror on the same horizontal as the top of the door) or take the stuff off of the dresser.

The dishes are lovely. I would change the flowers to just one color. The set of white, then pink (are those real?) then colorful roses is too much for the eyes and contrasts with the patterned dishware. Either all the same flowers three times or only one bouquet in the middle.

I would paint the brick because the brick is contrasting too much with the painted white doors IMHO.

You need some type of carpet to tie this space together. The lamp is too small for the table, the scale is off and it looks odd. I like the lamp and I like the table – just not together – move the lamp. The style of the sofa and chairs go well – but not with the coffee table. If you can’t afford to replace it then go to Souk Ha PishPishim in Yaffa or Dalyat (again) and buy some fabulous embroidered cloth and cover it. The candle holders on top of the bookshelf look lonely. I would put them on the shelf above the window with a lot more tchochkes or move them entirely.

Wow – that brick really does not match the floor. It’s kind of shocking that someone would put the two together. Paint the brick the same color as the beams in the ceiling (the future paint color that is). And if that wall is artex then that should be sorted as well. A mask and a sander should be all you need for that.

If you love the brick then keep it as is. Eventually you will replace the floor and it’s a lot easier to live with the clashing than it is to sandblast the brick to get the original color back after painting.

Yeah. That’s bad.

Your style is obviously ‘shabby chic’ or ‘country cottage’ – so painting the ceiling and the trim should actually fit with what you like really nicely. And paint costs a lot less than a new floor (although painting a ceiling…)

And just to give you some proof that a painted ceiling can look good, here’s one from Completely Coastal
.

Readers – what do you think?