Serendipitous Home: Beach inspired colour pallette and water based floor stain

I was off for a couple days this week, unwell, and was able take advantage of the incredible sunshine pouring in our windows to mull over my paint samples while I recuperated and

came up with my potential pallet of suggested colours for the main level
that makes me smile when I see them all together.

But first I want to show you this gorgeous sea coral print I posted about before, that I adore and would love to order from a wonderful Etsy shop called Vintage by the Shore to incorporate somewhere in the living or dining room or hallway.

So here they are, a pistachio green called Endive by Martha Stewart that reminds me of the reed grasses of Southampton's beach where we vacationed one summer.A choice of soft watery blues that I will choose one from, a soft white fittingly called seashell by Benjamin Moore which is very similar to the background of the Sea Coral print, a warm neutral mocha the colour of sand and it's lighter version and a soft not too yellow or dingy white called Snowfall by Benjamin Moore for all the trim, built-ins etc.

The darker blue is our back door colour called Boca Raton by Benjamin Moore. My thought is to do the living room and dining room in a soft muted blue that is more of a neutral and even though they look similar in the picture they have different undertones and look very different in each room as one has southern light and the other is eastern light.

I love how they all look next to the piece of maple I've stained.

If we stain the floors then I would love to do a mixed grey hex tile in the top half of the hallway like this one. I think it is incredible, don't you? This is from a US site so I will have to see if there is something similar here and if it is in our budget.
Fingers crossed!

This one is also stunning but it is too similar to our mudroom quartzite stone tile.

A critical decision is the wood floor colour that will be the same on our main level in the living, dining rooms, kitchen and half of the hallway. We have purchased, for a great savings of almost half) unfinished maple that will match the kitchens antique reclaimed maple perfectly in size and thickness. I have chemical sensitivities which took me on an almost fruitless search for a water based stain for floors until I happened upon a family owned company, the only milk paint producer in Canada
Homestead House Milk Paints.

Their milk paints and stains are made from all natural ingredients and they will ship to you, so I ordered three samples stain colours. There are only four colours but the nice lady on the phone told me you can easily mix them to get a custom colour. and she was right. It was soooo easy. Their paints and stains are all powders that you add water to and mix up in the blender and are the most eco friendly option going.

Did you know that oil varnish can cause brain damage if inhaled!!!!!!

Maple is known to turn blotchy when stained but by what I can see of this piece which I stained with two coats of their Provincial Walnut colour, that is not the case. I will test a larger piece to be sure though. The rich warm golden tones are not too dark that will show all dust and dirt nor too light to be washed out. Once I get another piece of maple I will test one coat of stain as well to see if I like it better. I really love the natural unstained maple in the kitchen but wonder if it won't be too light for the living and dining rooms and so I will wait and see how it looks once it is down and then make my decision.

There is so much to do before we get to the floors but I can't wait as it will be quite a transformation if we choose a darker stain.

I also thought I would try out their Hemp oil for a gorgeous oiled floor finish. It is so safe that you can use it on your cutting boards and imparts such a rich warmth to your wood that is unmatched.

I do love it.

I was hoping that it would be all we would need on our floors instead of the stain but found it turned the maple to orangey for my taste. Now you can apply it over a stain for a more matte finish but we decided to go with a sheen on our floors and will do a water based poly instead, with or without the stain.

As you can see it does incredible things to an antique floor and I will definitely use it on any of our furniture pieces we make from reclaimed wood that I want to have that rich warm wood tone.

Here is the great colour selection of their milk paints. No need to spend lots of money on the newest rage, chalk paint. Homesteads paints are reasonably priced.