After the holidays I always feel the urge to simplify, clean and refresh the house. Sort of a pre-spring cleaning...cleaning. I usually take the opportunity to organize cabinets, drawers, closets and de-clutter. I also take the opportunity to get my floor's shine back. Its the perfect time of year to use a wood floor refresher after the slew of holiday entertaining and visitors and to protect it from the winter salt and sand.

There are handful of hardwood floor refresher products on the market and they are all pretty similar. My favorite is Bona because of its consistency and ease of spreading but I have tried others like Minwax and Orange Glo with success. Refreshers/revivers are best used on finished floors that have dulled and could use a pick-me-up. My floors are at the point where they really need to be sanded and finished again, but I'm just not ready for all that dust...so for now I revive about 3 times a year. The refreshers will blend out any scratches and leave a high shine finish.

Here are my dried floors after applying one coat of Bona Hardwood Floor Refresher.

This is a project I hope to share more of this spring. A garage renovation. Its a stalled project at the moment and I think my indecision is at least partly to blame. The first floor is fairly complete, with the exception of some finishing touches (painting the stairs and a rusted metal fireplace surround). But the renovation went quickly because I knew what the use was going to be and the design style was rustic and minimal = cheap! So...mission accomplished fairly well I think:
The second floor is another story...literally and figuratively. The space is cavernous, tons of light, high ceilings...so what in the world am I going to use it for?? Originally, I wanted to put a king size bed, another gas fireplace and a small work station...but would I really sleep up there? Would anyone else for that matter? Another entertaining use? But I don't want it to look like a bar or function hall. It would make a stellar artist's studio...but I'm not an artist. So stay tuned, I will make up my mind and it will turn into something other then temporary housing for sparrows this spring! Care to toss some ideas my way?!