Starting off the weekend with some Belgian Früli Strawberry Beer, so good! instagram.com/p/ZbpTWbDTQB/
Plywood Flooring and Bed Tutorial
From transforming our dreary, dark and antique bedroom to a bright, clean and modern place, flooring played a huge role. You can see the full finished product of our bedroom and before/afters here.
Below is a step-by-step process on how to achieve the same look, on a very small budget! $200 covering about 260 sq feet that’s not bad at all at $0.76/square foot including a headboard and two nightstands.
Step 1 – We had the one good side sheets cut into 12″ (one foot 30cm) wide strips. To break things up a little we also had some of those strips cut in half lengthwise. Our local hardware store offered free cuts on the plywood.
Step 2 – Lay planks in one corner and cut to fit accordingly. Try to stagger the wood for a more natural and polished look.
Step 3 – Using hardwood flooring nails to attach the plywood, we went straight over the existing thin carpet.
Step 4 – Nail headboard in strips accordingly.
Step 5 – Design and create nightstands to suit your style and needs and attach them to the headboard. These nightstand cost us a whopping $14! Don’t forget to seal everything with a few coats of clear sealant!
Step 6 – Lay down, relax, and enjoy your new updated bedroom done on a budget!
Hope that explained the process. If you have any questions about this tutorial just ask!
EDIT: Since so many of you have asked, the floors have held up beautifully over the years with no sign of wear at all! Thanks for asking!
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Plywood plank flooring has been on my mind for awhile! Great to see your hard work. I love how you brought the wood up into the headboard. Looks amazing.
Arriving via AT just to say: I love your plywood flooring! It’s clean and minimalistic and simply gorgeous. It has a certain “unfinishednes” about it that I just love.
I’m currently looking for a replacement for our bedroom’s carpet too and I may now consider plywood myself… so here I’ve got some questions:
What was the thickness of the planks? Are those some kind of special T&G planks or just plain old plywood??
And: You just nailed them to the under-floor through the existing carpet? (I can’t see the nails in your pictures)… I’m afraid our floor is not completely even under the carpet, the under-floor being some kind of concrete screed (so I’m not sure how I could nail anything into that)… Any advice?
What species wood is the plywood? My husband thinks it’s oak because of the color. That would make sense as it is harder than birch. We love how it looks and want to consider it for our house too.
I second the question from Natalika — did you use a specific kind of plywood? I’m working from an office which we’ve stripped to the floorboards (plywood). I see lots of knots and holes. The ones in your photos look much nicer than mine. We are thinking of putting down some insulating barrier then adding new plywood on top. Love the idea of putting them down as planks.
Hey Everyone!
The type of wood we used is 3/8″ thick 1 good (finished) side douglas fir plywood. We purchased some 8′x4′ sheets and had them cut into 24″ wide planks, some at 8′ and some at 4′ long to break things up a bit. We used hardwood flooring nails to secure them in place. We installed the carpet ourselves a few years back and didn’t use any under padding. The carpet is quite thin to begin with so it acts a perfect under padding and sound insulator as well. Under that carpet was just some old tiling. The nails went in nicely and the floor is perfectly even and level throughout the room with almost no “give” at all.
natalika – I’m not sure how you could secure the plywood properly with the concrete underneath. The first thing I thought of was maybe you would have to look into first securing a thicker plywood base to the concrete flooring and then go over that using the thinner finished planks? Maybe that would be something to look into?
Thanks for checking our post out! Let me know if you have any other questions or comments! :)
Daniel, thank you!
Yes, I think OSB panels as a base would do the trick. Our first option was sisal carpet, but I think plywood might be by far the more inexpensive option… we’ll see ;)
Hi! The floor looks awesome! Could you please tell me what you used to seal it?
Thanks!
What about splinters and bare feet? Did you sand it?
The wood was pre-finished when we bought it with “1 good side” and we sanded them down to get rid of any roughness. It was then finished with a clear wood sealant from a local hardware store. Although the brand name escapes me at the moment. :/
Hi there! I stumbled across your blog when reading about you as the Featured Sellers on Etsy! Congrats to you both :)
I wanted to comment on this makeover ^_^ Rob & I have a tiny seaside Cape Cod style home with the exact same issue of the peaked roof. We too, put our bed against that wall (because I don’t like beds under windows) and we have the issue with the bed being so high up that it makes the room feel claustrophobic. We bought the bed at Ikea (Malm full size) but with the mattress and an additional memory foam mattress on top, it really seems to get up close to where the ceiling begins.
I really appreciate the before & after photos of what you did with lowering the bed, it seems like it gives the ceilings a huge lift. Plus I really enjoyed the minimal color palette, I think the darker walls made the room cozy for you but didn’t fulfill the sense of spaciousness you were craving.
Thanks for showing off this amazing transformation, we really enjoyed it and are reconsidering our initial design for our room now.
-Alison & Rob
Hey Alison!
Pretty sure I’ve stumbled upon your shop before while looking at sushi soaps haha! Anyways, Daniel and I thought about buying a malm bed for some time too, but with the new flooring, we weren’t sure if it would match or was what we wanted. That’s exactly why we lowered the bed too, for more visual space. The room feels about 10x bigger, and the wall mounted cabinets help because you can see the floor space all around. We though about knocking out the lower walls for more floor space but decided that it just would be of use to us. Who knows, that might change!
Good luck with your room redesign! We did this ourselves on a very limited budget and learned a lot! We’re more than happy with the results!
-Valeria
I linked to your wonderful tutorial in my blog, and I hope to do this in my own home!
http://strings-and-sealing-wax.blogspot.com/2010/05/renovation-for-new-mobile-home.html
I love the cabinets! I too live in a circa 1950 apartment building and have always been afraid to hang anything like the cabinets. How hard was it…or did you just have to do it on stud?
Minimalism is a completely logical, restful means of decorating. Perhaps it’s the comfort of having to exist, as it were, in a space, perhaps like a gallery, instead of the refuge stuff brings.
Simple pieces, like the grate, cabinets, etc., become like art pieces themselves. So, very well done.
Richard – We followed the studs on the wall. The cabinets had a special design when the cabinets hung on a piece of wood from behind, but it was still pretty easy and fast! Thanks for the compliments :)
Beautiful, inviting and relaxing
what did you use to seal the plywood and how many coats…how long to dry before you began laying it?
also what is the model name of the cabinets
the whole look is just great!
Jessa – We used a regular clear wood floor sealant. It took a couple of days and about 4 coats until it was done. I wish I could remember the name of the Ikea cabinets, but I know they are discontinued since sometime last year. I’ll let you know if I remember the name!
Hello, I love what you did, I have been telling people I was going to do the same thing in my house but with Square Headed nails and Marine Grade Polyurathan…LOL…They look at me like I’m a nut case, but thanks to you I can now show them pictures of how it looks!!! Thanks for helping me to save face.
~Dawn
Did you leave any space between planks when laying the ply or did you butt the pieces right up against one another? I have decided that I am going to lay plywood as the floor in my office until I can afford solid hardwood, although I think I am going to stain it a dark walnut before sealing it. Can you advise how your floors are holding up. It looks like it has been at least 8 months since you updated your room and I am wondering if you have had any problems with the flooring?
Thanks!
Hi There,
The floors are holding up great! We just installed them right next to each other and nailed them with hardwood nails and they haven’t budged since! We’ve had no problems thus far. I think they’re a great alternative to pre-cut flooring because you can control the width of the planks and overall design of the flooring.
what did you pay per sheet for the plywood? I’m not finding prices that would allow me to cover as much as you did for such a low figure!
Hi Jason – Try using 3/8″ thick plywood. I think the sheets were in the $25 range.
-Daniel
Looks great, thanks for the inspiration!
Hi, just wondering how the floors have held up? Fantastic job, well done guys!
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for the kind words. The floors are holding up beautifully!
Wow! I love this idea!! By any chance do you know if this will ruin the carpet you nailed the wood to? The only concern I have is possibly lowering the value of our home since we do not plan on living here forever lol :)
Thanks!
Ash
Hi Ash! We planned on ripping out or covering the carpet underneath anyways as it was a very thin, industrial type carpet (not a high pile carpet) – so it definitely wasn’t lowering the value of our home. We’re actually bigger fans of flooring than carpeting in general, and think that nicer looking floors can usually increase the value of a home than any carpeting would. But, it depends on the room and home in general. We don’t plan on living in this house forever either, but think right now it’s the best (and most attractive) option and makes a huge difference in the space! Hope that helps!
Beautiful!!! I love this and I am debating on doing this to the whole house. I don’t have thin carpet to leave down, so I guess I would need some sort on under padding right? Also, how has it held up we have a large family (5 active kids) and are hoping for something durable. It doesn’t have to look perfect over the year (i like the well worn look) but we do need it to structurally hold up.
Thank you for answering this questions when you have time.
I LOVE your room.
Jessica
Hi Jessica!
Yes some sort of padding would be needed, but you can easily obtain it from a hardware store. Plywood is quite durable if you just use a clear sealant over it (you can use a glossy or matte sealant). We haven’t had any issues with durability and the flooring looks the same as the day we installed it. We even installed it in our hallway which is a high traffic area and it’s still looking great! I would say go for it! Hope that helps! :)
I was wondering how you clean it and keep it looking so nice.
hey there
great floor! can you tell me how easy it is too clean? wondering if it will work in a kitchen?
C
Hi There!
If you seal the flooring they are as easy to clean as any other flooring. We actually have them in our kitchen too! :)
i put your fantastic tutorial on my blog for diy day, i hope that’s okay.
thanks for the inspiration!
@fine little hom – of course, and thank you! :)
Hi Daniel and Valeria, first of all congratulations for your fantastic bedroom!
i have been looking online many days now for the perfect floor and i think i just found it. I am going to do some works in my house (in Spain) and i totally love your floor! I am really going to look for information on how to buy this plywood here, and i hope not very expensive and as nice as yours. I have been reading the comments but i would like to ask you couple questions:
i would like to know if usually the plywood boards come “tongue and groove”, so it is more easy to fix them together? But i think as i see on the pictures that it doesn’t, in that case, when you use the hardwood flooring nails, are they resulting visible after nailing? do you plant them vertically or just with some angle, or did you use a specific machine to plant them? Sorry for my confusion but i just want to make sure i do it correctly as i will do it myself.
Also as you have not used a solid underfloor, the nails are just fixing the plywoods together, and not to the carpet or the floor below it, i guess, so basically the wood is “free” laying on the carpet and just holds by its own weight?
thank you very much and excuse me for my possible mistakes in english.
@Manuel
Thanks for the kind words! To answer your questions, the floors are not tongue and groove and are actually just planks. We did use hardwood nails to keep them in place but they are not noticeable at all when looking at the floors. We installed both the flooring and nails vertically (no angles) and just laid them down ourselves and used a hammer to keep the nails in place.
The wood planks are “free laying” on the carpet below. But the carpet below is not a regular carpet, it is more of a very thin, commercial type carpet. I would suggest that if you have a regular carpet, to remove it and place a special foam lining made for hardwoods underneath. Or if you have nothing underneath to do the same thing with the hardwood foam lining. We went right over our carpet because it was as thin as a foam lining and not thick of fluffy as a normal carpet – if that makes sense!
Hope that helps and good luck with your projects! :)
Just lovely, I’m so happy to read the comments and see you guys say that the floors are holding up. Our house was built in 1906 and has plank flooring, unfortunately its buried under 105 years of renovations. Layers of subfloor, laminate, vinyl, carpet… We installed laminate click together floating flooring and within a year it was starting to fade, edges were swelling, they were getting loose… I’m fed up and we decided we’re going to strip the hallway and living room down as far as we can and do plywood planks! OF course doing a search lead me here and I should have known it would be a fellow etsian who was so creative :)
Beautiful, and thanks for the great tips. Best of luck with your home in the future, its lovely seeing it evolve.
-Kristin
Dear Valeria and Daniel,
I really enjoy your house, it is very inspiring. Calm and inviting, I feel at home seeing these images.
We are moving houses right now. Therefore I would like to ask for your advice regarding using plywood:The fronts of the new kitchen are not really nice and because we are renting we do’nt want to invest too much money. Also we cannot re-paint them.
So I was thinking of ex-changing the fronts with plywood. But I am not quite sure if that would work since whilest cooking it will get wet and damp. Would you recommend using the plywood for this? Can you also tell me what kind of plywood this is exactly (I’d need to translate it correctly so I can ask for it in a Shop in Austria)
Many thanks,
Warmly yours Mimi
Hi Mimi,
Thanks for the kind words! We actually have plywood in our kitchen and it’s holding up well! You just need to seal the wood and it will hold up well. Here’s a link to the post: http://hindsvik.com/?p=3527
As for a description for plywood, check out the wikipedia page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plywood
Hope that helps! :)
I was wondering if the airflow grate was there originally when there was only carpet? Or was it installed afterwards and what its function is. Perhaps to keep the floorboards from lifting?
Hi Lizette!
The airflow grate was originally there when we moved in so it is original to the house, but there was also carpet surrounding the area.
How many inches apart should you place nails?
Hi Kristin! We placed the nails approx. 12″ inches apart. Hope that helps! :)
Hi Guys
over here on the ‘left side’ in Vancouver.
Love love love the bedroom .
Was the plywood from a big box store or local lumber yard ?
Also … whats the wall paint .
All very exciting . Im renoing my bathroom at the moment but now I feel a floor project coming on :)
Hi Zola!
The plywood was from a local lumber yard and the paint color is “Snowfall White” by Benjamin Moore. Plywood flooring in a bathroom would look great! I would suggest sealing it well with a mould/waterproof topcoat just to keep the moisture out too. :)
lol. my entire 2nd floor is made up of plywood 3/8 and 1” thick. except for the the beams roof beams. 2 rooms and a hallway with one small balcony at the front. the ground floor is living, dining and kitchen rolled into one.
what do u suggest to secure the pieces down if it is put over a flooring that isn’t easy to screw or nail into? I want to put this over ceramic tile in the basement. I’m wondering how I would secure it to the tile. I’d rather not even get into trying to screw that many screws into tile… it can be rough.
Hi There!
I think it would be pretty difficult to put these floors over ceramic tiles. You could need to remove the tiles completely for it to work as, like you said, it would be difficult to nail in the flooring through ceramic tiling. Removing the tiles would almost be easier than trying to secure it on top. Hope that helps! :)
I love this. It answers all, but two, of my questions about doing this at my place. I have been researching this for some time now and your tutorial matches exactly what I was after. My only questions are whether there is any moisture build up from having the carpet underneath. We have a relatively thin carpet also, but only because it is so worn down, underneath there is a foam layer and then the floor is made from chipwood. Nailing straight through will work for us. All other tutorials I’ve seen were much more complicated with battens being added to prevent cracking and splitting of the ply wood. Which brings me to my second question. Have any cracks appeared on yours?
Hi Kat,
We’ve had no issues with moisture build up from the carpeting and did not use battons when installing the flooring. It may depend on what’s underneath the plywood when installing. We’ve had no issues with cracking or splitting in the plywood at all. Hope that helps!
I am wanting to rip out the ugly clay tile in my new home and and now debating on laying plywood down. Love the look! What would you suggest using to secure on top of a concrete subfloor? Thanks so much!
So glad I found your site! I am 63 years old and live in an old mobile home (1978) and removed the carpet many years ago and have painted the ‘pressed wood’ floor several times since. It is in very bad condition I have been told I cannot put self-sticking tile over the painted floor, so I have thought to go with just plywood and was soooo glad to find your site! I was concerned about the seams not butting together well, but it looks like it works great. Thanks for the idea of turning them into planks! I am on a very limited budget and wonder if you think I can do without the underlineing and just place the plywood on the existing floor? Do you think I can go with a 1/4 or 1/2 ” plywood? Thanks so much for your help!
Hi,
We like the idea of plywood plank floors but we’re not sure how they would hold up over time.
How are yours doing years later?
Is it easy to clean or does it get very dusty in the cracks?
Is there any buckling or warping?
Thank You!!
Hi Brenda,
The floors have held up wonderfully since we installed them with no problems with buckling or warping.
A great job with the tutorial. Was wondering what you think about the possiblity of installing the plywood strips on the ceiling. I own a 1960s bungalow and was looking for an alternative to drywall in the basement.
Hi there,
You might want to check with a carpenter as I believe you would still need the drywall or something underneath the plywood strips but that does sound like a great idea! Hope that helps!
hi,
just wondering, did you nail the night stand pieces together to is it glued?
Bonjour,
I find your site and I like your realisation. We are in a big renovation project and it would be the good idea for the rooms. BUT I’m french and i dont understand all you explain…..;(((
Do you speak french ? I have a lot of questions !!!
Hi there,
Sorry we don’t speak french but you can use the site though google translate and it should help! :)
I want to know if you left a gap between the wall and the plywood, if so what gap thickness?
Hi Crystal,
We didn’t leave any gap between the wall and attached the plywood directly onto the wall for the headboard.
Hello I love this look I am thinking about this floor for my Pilates studio, but the existing floor is concrete slab, I am thinking that I would have to glue the planks down as well as the barrier. Have you see this floor applied over concrete? Thank you for your response.
Carpe Demi
Diannah
Hi Diannah!
Not sure about how this would go over concrete as the planks may rise if they are not secured properly and just glued down. You may want to check with a carpenter or even a local hardware store may help with securing them!
Hi, Love what you’ve done. Could you let us know what kind of selant was used? Ie – Matte or Gloss finish? Thank you.
was just wondering if you think the padding that is under the carpet would be able to be used as the padding for the wood floors?
Hi Michelle!
I would add a different padding under the hardwoods. Generally, carpet padding is a thicker foam which makes it not suitable for wood boards and might pose a problem with cracking and uneven floor boards.
Love what you have done here! Looks so fresh and spacious. I have been thinking about doing this for some time, and I was curious about you having nailed through your existing thin carpet. Do you have a plywood subfloor under the carpet that the nails bite into? How long are the nails themselves? I’m assuming the plywood at 3/8″ and then probably carpet also at 3/8″ or 1/2″. So thats 7/8″ total before going into another piece of subfloor.
I have carpet that I want to take out with plywood subfloor, and I was trying to figure out how much cushion to put between plywoods if I were to do this. Some of our house has tongue and groove wood that was installed directly on top of the subfloor with glue, but it flexes a lot throughout the year.
BTW I think its great you’re still answering questions about your project :) all the other sites that I’ve been visiting with this same type of project no longer keep up with questions!
Thanks so much :)
Hi Lea, Yes we have a plywood subfloor under the carpet. The nails that were used were about 1.5″ hardwood nails. You may need some sort of foam underlay on the subfloor before installing the plywood to help with shifting and insulate. Hope that helps!