As many of you know, it was just two short weeks ago that we opened the doors to the Picklee shop in Newport, RI! Getting the shop ready was a super exciting (and stressful!) process. We were faced with a stinky, old, run down storefront that had been neglected for YEARS, but we had big plans to make the shop a beautiful place. Sort of like reviving a stinky old chair…but on a much larger scale 
We fell in love with the space because it was in historic home built in the early 1700′s, so it was packed with original details and character…oh yea, and it was in the heart of the Newport waterfront shopping district =)
When it came time to renovate the shop, one of the first projects we took on was the floor. The shop came with a Berber carpet that was probably three thousand years old…OK, maybe not that old-but it sure looked and smelt like it. We knew we wanted to bring in beautiful & unique flooring that kept the shop true to it’s era, and save on costs at the same time. We tossed around ideas for a while, and then eureka! We decided we would create a wide plank, farmhouse style flooring using good ol’ fashion PLYWOOD! Sounds a little crazy right? That’s what the guys at Home Depot thought too…just wait until I march back in and show them this!
I am absolutely thrilled with how beautiful the Picklee shop’s plywood floor turned out! Its classic and true to the age of the space with it’s wide plank style, yet has a coastal farmhouse feel with it’s rustic look and white-washed finish. I’ll to show you exactly how to get the look by making your very own wide plank plywood floor!
First, I head over to my local Home Depot to scope out the different types of plywood. I chose to use standard 1/2″ thick 4′ x 8′ sheets at a cost of just under $20 each! I opted for these because they wern’t perfect. They had knots, markings and lots of color variations…this was exactly the look I was going for!
With (lots of) help from the guys at HD, I loaded up my cart with the plywood sheets. I needed 14 sheets since I would be covering an area of just under 450 square feet. My original plan was to bring the sheets home and convince my lovely fiance to cut them into into planks for me, but then a miracle happened…the wonderful man at HD offered to cut them all for me!
In order to have zero waste, I chose to have the boards cut into 8 inch by 8 foot lengths, giving me six planks per sheet of plywood. Thankfully I picked a slow time of day to go to HD because it took a little over an hour (and two trips to the shop and back) to cut all 14 sheets. I am so grateful to the guys at Home Depot, even though they looked at me like I had 10 heads when I told them my plan for the planks
Once the planks were cut, I brought them into the shop and laid them out. First, I took out an electric sander and sanded all rough edges and splinters. Next, I made up a mixture of 1/4 CeCe Caldwells Simply White Chalk Paint and 3/4 water. You can alter this mixture depending on how “white” you want your flooring. I used a roller attached to a broom handle to apply a coat of the white washed paint to all of the planks.
This next step is where my lovely fiance came in…some days I just don’t know what I would do without him =) First, Brett applied Bostik flooring adhesive to the backs of the plywood planks. Next, he laid them into place then used a finish nailer to secure them to the floor. We were lucky enough to have a strong wood sub-floor to shoot the finish nails into. Brett used 1 1/2″ nails and shot them in on an angle. We chose this method because we wanted the floor to have that rustic look. The nails were spaced out about every 12″, placing two all along either side of each plank.
It’s important to have spaces in between the planks because wood will shift and expand over time. We found that a metal straight edge gave the perfect distance between planks, so Brett used that as a spacing guide.
As Brett went on nailing down the boards, he used a table saw to cut some of them into different lengths so that we would give the boards a staggered look. You can see some of the shorter lengths above…
See I helped a little here, passing him the pieces
Once the entire floor was down, about 6 hours later…we applied three coats of Minwax Polyurethane (in satin) to give the floor a protective finish. We waited 24 hours in between the first two coats, then only 2 hours between the second and third coat. Less than $300 and a day later, the floor was complete! I couldn’t be more happy with the results =)
Sheer bliss….
**UPDATE!**
Here’s a photo of the floors inside the Picklee on Spring shop, 4 months after the install! They are holding up wonderfully and we receive compliments daily!
I’ve had lots of questions about how to calculate square footage needed, here’s how…
Each sheet of plywood it 4′x 8′ (32 square feet). Simply divide the total sqaure footage of your space by 32 to figure out home many sheets you’ll need. Then just add an extra sheet or two for scraps!
Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made from Plywood! [DIY],
First of all…I love the look of this floor!!! My curiousity is durability, etc…..would this work in my house? I don’t want a flawless floor by any means, but I want it told hold up and function well without warping and having to replace boards constantly….would it take stain?
THANKS!
Alison, we’ve had it in our shop for just a few months now and we’ve been dragging, dropping and sliding things across it with no issues at all! We are pretty rough on it and it’s holding up great. We don’t mind if it gets a little dinged up either, that is the look we were going for after all =)
Awesome! Love the look and the creative way you did it.
All I can say is “BEAUTIFUL”!!
Beautiful! We used plywood for our home 4 years ago. Here is a link to a photo of it shiny new: http://twolittlehands.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/make-it-do-house-after-photos/#jp-carousel-181
Our floor has aged beautifully (it helps to have 8 children to break it in) I need to post more recent photos of it.
Great job on your floors!
Im new to your site. And have really enjoyed your DIY. Would you please post a picture of your wood floors with your furniture put back in the room. I love the idea, but not sure how it would look complete.
I am about to redo our floors, and this would save us lots of money. Thanks.
Tracey,
I’ll upload a few shots of the inside of our shop tomorrow so you can see the finished look. We get compliments on it daily, it truly looks original to the space =)
Beautiful!…We did our Kitchen floor this way 1 1/2 ago and EVERYONE who comes over comments on how much they love it! It has held up wonderfully so far. p.s. we got the same “are you crazy” looks when we picked up our plywood from Lowes
Awesome! It’s such a rewarding feeling knowing how much you can achieve with so little =)
Your floors turned out great! Great minds think alike and I guess I’m not crazy after all (wee! can’t wait to tell my husband!) because I am doing the same thing to my entire house. I want all of the carpet and sheet linoleum gone gone gone. The only difference in my plan is that I already have 3/4″ plywood under all the carpets and so forth so I’m just planning to add some 1/4″ overlay on top, cut into strips of course. My house was built in the mid 1800′s and I am going to order reproduction square nails and nail it down from the top since the ply is so thin. I think it should look like original wood flooring when I’m done. Thanks for sharing..I loved seeing your pics!
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed the post! Your project sounds like it will turn out amazing, best of luck!
We did this about a year ago, but opted to stain it a deep pecan. We did a light sand and stain to each ‘plank’, then installed it in varying lengths like a regular wood floor, using adhesive and finish nails. Then, we put 4 coats of oil based, shiny poly giving the floor a deep, shiny and durable finish. I has held up like IRON and is in kids rooms so, it’s getting USED. I just vacuum it and then go over it with a damp mop and it beautiful. Careful planning and taking advantage of sales the the DIY stores, and it cost us less than $1/square foot for materials–and this floor is PERMANENT. If we get tired of it, we’ll be covering it with carpet. It’s definitely not for everyone—-this is a cottage finish, but looks great painted or stained.
what if you’re not blessed with wood sub floors? our home is on slab foundation. would just gluing the planks down be good enough? your floor turned out beautiful…i would also love to see the furniture and rugs on it to see the finished look.
I am curious about this question to, I was going to ask it myself! I am about to move from home-based to commercial pet grooming and I would love to do this but theres a concrete slab under the current ugly carpet. Also, how do you figure out how many pieces of wood you need by the square footage of a room?
Katie,
I couldn’t tell you about how to apply to concrete…my guess would be the same way as if you were going to put any hardwood (by using a sub floor). You may want to inquire at your local home improvement center and see what they recommend. As far as the square footage, each sheet of plywood it 4′x 8′ (32 square feet). Simply divide your total number of square feet by 32 to figure out home many sheets you’ll need. Add an extra sheet or two for scraps.
i think they look fantastic. we bought lumber liquidators cocoa birch flooring for our kitchen and while it looks great, it shows every.single.speck.of.dirt.and.dust!!!!!! i have been toying with the idea of painting them, maybe in a checkerboard pattern, but hubby looked at me like i had worms crawling out of my ears….i want to paint over them with a gray paint but let some of the dark wood show through, distressed like, and then poly over it.
i just need to get up the nerve now…..
i can’t wait to see the after picture of your shop….
cindy
I would love to do this to our basement! How would it work on cements flooring? Would I need to add a sub floor? That would add extra cost that is not on the budget.
You would need something to adhere the plywood to, so I would say you should add something underneath. Your best bet would be to go to your local home improvement store and get some advice from a flooring expert =)
Best of luck!
Hey!
Hope this helps…Sandy at Paint me White blog is a fabulous painter of many things and she does her concrete floors white. She explains how she does it too…you might want to check that out. She’s a sweetheart too!
Love the plywood floors that were done here as well…gorgeous job!
Deborah
Looks gorgeous! The question I have is what happens if liquid gets spilled. Doesn’t it run into all the cracks?
Linda,
We put a few heavy coats of poly so it got into the cracks for added protection. The cracks are only slightly more than regular hardwoods so we haven’t really had any issues!
I love this idea and your floors are beautiful. Do you notice a lot of dirt building up in the spaces between the boards though?
Misty,
We put a few heavy coats of poly so it really got into the cracks too. We clean the floors regularly so we really don’t notice any more dirt than regular hardwoods =)
Hi Jordan – The floors look fantastic! Thanks for the tutorial. I definitely want to try this in our basement. I noticed on your FB page that the floors had what looks like large painted stripes. Are those the same floors?
do you think this could be done on a concrete foundation
Looks awesome.I thought of this idea last year,didn’t know how it would turn out.Now I know.Can’t wait to do it.
Hubby wants me to ask what grade (OS, etc.) of plywood did you use? I guess there are plywoods with hardwood veneers (which you obviously did not use) and they go down from there. We both love what you did! Last year we ripped up carpet in a bedroom and painted the bare plywood- but we want “hardwood” in other rooms.
Hi Samantha,
To be honest, I don’t remember the exact grade…I know it was one of the cheapest ones though =) Just look for something that has knots and is some what smooth!
My wife and I loved this idea so wee did it as well. We stained ours dark mahogany and then used Cabot’s polyurethane. It turned out beautifully! It looks like distressed old wood floors! Thank you very much for posting this wonderful idea!
do you have pictures
Pretty,,,does anyone have a picture of staining theirs?
would LOVE to do this in my kitchen. we have a 100+ year old house and the floors were very unlevel. we leveled them (as best we could) and laid ceramic tile. However due to the slight “give” caused by the leveling, the grout is always cracking and even a few tiles have broken. Plus I love to be barefoot and tile is COLD! I want to pull up the tile and replace with this technique, which, because it is wood, should give with the subfloor. I would really like it stained, not pickled, since we have oak cabinetry. Can anyone send in pictures of a stained version?? thanks and wish me luck!
How about sound? I hope this doesnt sound dumb but is there an echo or anything lol. We got a loud 4yr old and 80lb bulldog so im worried about sound, scratches etc but yours looks amazing!
Thanks Danielle, I think the plywood absorbs more sound than regular hardwoods…we’ve had no issues with sound! Also, I think the subfloor will make a big difference too.
Beautiful! Yes, this will take stain beautifully. We used 1/4″ birch plywood, stained and poly’d, for a backsplash in our kitchen and it’s gorgeous. I SO want to do this on my floors – I hate my Berber carpet too! Nice job! Thanks for sharing the whole technique, start to finish.
What kind of sander do you use on the boards?
I just used a regular old palm sander with 220 grit =)
Yes, yes, yes! Love this floor. We’ve been trying to figure out a low budget floor and I’ve been looking at plywood. I was looking at the nice, expensive stuff… but everyone said it wouldn’t wear good. In reality, I want the floor to wear down & look like worn down, original, long planks (not a nice, perfectly smooth plywood floor that we have to baby)… and this low end plywood has the effect already built in! This will only cost about 1/3 the price of the other plywood methods we were looking at. Plus, it seems like maintenance is really low, because if it gets a little beat up, it just adds to the effect.
I couldn’t have said it better myself! These floors are amazing, you litterally can’t ruin them because they just get better! I’m thinking of doing them in half my house now too =)
Stunning! It looks stunning!
OHMYGOSH ! I could so do this !! Thank you !!!
I am planning to do a study floor this way, however I’m not sure how many sheets of plywood I need. I have a subfloor under the carpet, but it is not plywood. The subfloor is particle board. Will I be able to nail into the particle board or will I nail into the floor joist. I want the wide plank so will the width of plank be determined according to nailing it to floor joist.
Thanks
Katie
This is amazing! I actually want to do this in my house! Would it work for regular flooring? are you able to mop it and stuff without any problem? Id definitely want it to be ok when water is on it so I know its clean. And I have a 10 month old son who will be spilling things in the future, Im sure!
Emily, I’ve found it pretty simple to keep clean. I think it would work great in a whole house!
Love this floor!!! I am going to do this in my whole house!!!
Love these floors! How come your fiance put the Bostik flooring adhesive gluing the planks down along with the nails? Will the nails not hold enough by themselves?
He did it for a little extra security. Wood can shift sometimes even after you nail it down, the glue helps keep everything in place =)
See that you left space by the wall, how much and then how did you finish the edges? Love it!
We left about a half inch around the edges, then we didn’t finish them! I wanted the rustic look…but you could finish with regular base board.
Love this! I a planning on ripping up the old carpeting on our second floor and a looking for budget friendly flooring to replace it with. Hardwood is not in the budget. I love the white wash effect! Your store is lovely.
We were trying to figure out what to do in bonus room. wanted durable for rowdy kids plus cheap. the sub floor was already plywood so we just put a couple coats of stain-minwax dark walnut and loved it. We also used minwax poly..many coats. This is such an awesome idea!
Question, Im seeing a lot of comments about subflooring. Our house was built in 1920 and we have the original hardwood floor would that work as “subfloor”? Could we just nail the plywood straight to our current floor?
We nailed ours down to the old wood, which I think had the original hardwood flooring under it…I’d say you could go right on top of your hardwood, but be sure to use flooring adhesive for extra security. You could always ask a flooring expert at your local home improvement store. I’m definitely not an expert on the subject =)
Do you have any problems with keeping the spaces between the planks from getting dirt and gunk built up in them?
Question..did you use a roller to apply poly? Any trick or hints on this? Thanks!
I did something similar in my kitchen 25 years ago, but used hollow core door “skin” – really cheap. The skins are marked with lines that mimic boards. I seem to remember they were luan mahogany. Home Depot charged a reasonable amount to rip them on the “board” lines. The “boards” were of 2-3 different widths. I separated them into piles according to width, but I don’t remember having to sand them at all. I staggered them on the floor by width, keeping the same width through each course. I cut the skins in half here and there so they would resemble boards. They seemed too blonde, so I diluted white paint with a little water and rubbed it on with a damp rag. My adobe house subfloor was wood, so I nailed them to it, then coated with several coats of polyurethene to protect them from moisture. The hardest part was keeping the children and dogs off while they dried. I did it when everyone was going to be out of the house for the required drying time.
This sounds more complicated than it was. It was finished in less than a week working on it an 2-3 hours at a time. It does not need to be done all at once because the skin is so thin it doesn’t create much differential in the level of the floor. I sold that house 15 years ago, but the next owners didn’t remove it.
For the people who want to apply plywood over concrete floors- use 1X4′s nailed down with a Hilti gun so you can shim them to level the floor first. I wouldn’t put them more than 12 inches a part otherwise your floor will be bending up and down making dreadful noises. The other thing I would suggest is to price out Baltic birch plywood. It is so much easier to work with and the knot holes are already filled. They aren’t any empty knot holes any where throughout the plywood either. It will give you a beautiful light floor that will make your room look bigger than it is. Good luck with it.
Ted Brydges
Construction Superintendent.
Do you think you could get the same look by using a router or something else to put lines in the existing subfloor (spacing lines like wood planks)? We have a 40+ yr-old house that has very good quality, clean subflooring under the carpet?
My first thought is no. I think that would end up being a lot more work than it sounds. Also, subfloor is usually layed in different positions, so boards would be going in all sorts of different directions. I think your best bet is to lay a new floor on top of it. Just my opinion!
Hi Jordan! I cannot thank you enough sharing your flooring story! My husband and I live in a ‘project”. We are on a TINY budget, with many “recycled” items in our little house. Despite our budget, things are turning out really good, but I have been stymied about the flooring. However, when I found your flooring post on Pinterest, I knew I had found my flooring answer. You have also answered all the questions I had (water, wear and dirt). Love the look, love the cost, gonna do it in the WHOLE house! Thanks again to you (and to the others who commented, I learned a lot from you’all, too!) Good luck with your store! I hope it is an amazing, joyful success!
)
Laurie, I’m so happy to hear we could help! There’s nothing wrong with working on a tiny budget…in fact, I think those situations usually have the best outcome because they force you to “think outside the box”. Plus, its super rewarding when you know you achieved something beautiful on a pinch =)
Thanks for your kind words, I wish you the best with your home =)
I am so thrilled to have come across your post! We have a 400 square foot space that we wanted to have the wide pine plank look in, but didn’t want to spend $2500 on it! I knew there had to be a better way!!! Thanks!
Awesome! I’m glad we could help you save a little $$!!
I am so thrilled to have come across your post! We have a 400 square foot space that we wanted to have the wide pine plank look in, but didn’t want to spend $2500 on it! I knew there had to be a better way!!! Thanks!
Hi there! New to your site. ♥ the floors!
We are getting ready to do our entire floor upstairs in plywood. My only question for you is after Lowes/HomeDepot makes the cuts to the above dimensions, once we are installing the boards will Hubs need to cut them again or do you only do this when you come to a wall?
STUNNING!
Hi Buffy! Glad you like the floors! After the planks are cut, we sliced many of them into varying smaller pieces, just to give the floor a natural staggered look. We kept many at the long length too. Of course, you’ll need to cut all of the end pieces to fit exactly to size as you go too.
Best of luck!
Jordan
Thanks *so* very much for the quick response! I totally understand now. Ha! Going to price plywood this afternoon!
I’m completely in love with your floor
)
Did you use standard wall paint with water? Did I get right?
And what kind of finish did you give? Semi gloss?
Thank you!!
I love these floors! Do u think I could install plywood planks over old lanolium?
Thank you for this idea, the only difference is I will be putting it on my ceiling. We have been trying to find an affordable way to cover up our horrible popcorn finish ceilings and I think this might work!
I LOVE that you did this flooring on a shop. This means that you have plenty of people walking on it with their shoes and if it can withstand that, it’s certainly tough enough for a house. Your website will be good supporting evidence for my skeptical hubby. He’s a little conservative when it comes to housing, but I think your blog is what I need to convince him that this is what we should do!! Oh man, if I knew how much you saved I too would have done this for my own store. Next time.
THanks so much for the great photos and for taking the mystery out of this type of floor. If we are ever in VA I’ll come by your store and shake your hand.
Your floor is STUNNING. Will be attempting it in 2 bedrooms. Saw in the Home Depot Oak Plywood…so I may go with that. Curious however,
- why you painted it before you put it down.
- Would you be able to walk on it with barefeet by chance.(splintering problems).
- Is there warping over time
- were the planks pretty even when they cut them in the store.
thanks…just amazed with the floor
LOVE the look – thinking of doing this to our house (circa 1905). I was wondering – with all the little gaps in the wood (great for the look / expansion), but how does it hold up to little kids and Cheerio crumbs? When you sealed it, did the poly fill in the gaps?
Hey, I love your floor!! I think it is a great idea and am thinking about doing the same thing. I am wondering about the cracks between the boards. Do they fill up with dirt and crud? I like to just sweep my floors rather than using a vacuum cleaner. Do you think the cracks are necessary, or could they be smaller?
Thank you!!
Just an FYI for who live in cold areas such as Minnesota: we put laminate wood flooring with a moisture barrier over a sealed basement concrete floor and the flooring became moldy! Later found out that it is a no no to put laminate on concrete basement floors because moisture comes through it. Not sure if this applies to real wood. The Home Depot salesman was not aware of this at the time we purchased this. I would ask a flooring expert, not Home Depot or Lowes salesperson.
We will be doing the plywood flooring in our entryway though! Yay thanks to Picklee for the inspiration and instructions.
Great website!!! Did you you use regular brad nails? What guage?
Thanks!
I am alo a fan of this idea!Want to use in basement!And still not sure what to use for subfloor,and to secure it to the floor with?Can you or someone reding this help me?
HEY!! We are doing this right now in our home!!!
Except I am staining ours with Minwax Early American, and I do the staining and urethaning BEFORE we nail them down! I LOVE how yours turned out, and the “pickled” look you did, especially the after! They are aging really beautifully!!
If anyone wants to see, I’ve been writing about it on my blog…. http://mylittlelifeinthecountry.blogspot.com/2013/05/im-doing-my-happy-dance-orfloor-d.html
I also posted about staining and sanding all the boards in some March posts, if anyone wants to look through those to see what I did! I LOVE how they’ve turned out, and they have cost me about 65 cents a square foot!! If I can answer any questions, just let me know! :-
Hi Lisa! Your floors look great, I just checked out your blog!My only thought is that you may want to go over them with another coat of poly after they are all down for added protection…this way the poly soaks into the gaps and helps with spills, crumbs etc.
Best of luck!
Jordan
THANKS Jordan!! How sweet of you to take a look!
And I think you are right about a third coat…..I’ve been considering it anyway, just because they don’t look like they have any on at all once they are down! I’ve also heard of someone who put wax in the gaps between their boards ….have you ever heard of that??
Thank you again for looking at my blog!! Keep up the great work with yours!