Nord Living. A Scandinavian shop in South Melbourne

My sister in law Madeleine and her partner Maurice bought the Scandinavian shop Nord Living in Hawthorn. They relocated it to 220 Clarendon street South Melbourne to gain more space and a better possision. The new shop space needed the shop counter to be relocated from the middle of the room. It was inbuilt around a copper post. So I had to do an inlay in the counter to fill the hole. Maurice and Madde wanted a black infill wich workes well with their black stool infront. After the counter was moved the place was painted. Then I sanded the Yarrah floors as the counter left some exposed flooring. So the whole floor had a sand and polish with Bona Traffic HD Satin finish. It made the floor lighter and brought out each individual board. The whole floor looks more interesting as you get more colours showing instead of masking them as solvetbased polyuruthane does. So if your in the neighborhood, pop in and say hi to Madeleine and Maurice and check out their great selection of Scandinavian stuff!

Some b4 shots.

Some after shots.

Staining Tassie Oak boards

In this apartment next to the MCG, the owners wanted to match the flooring to the original skirtings and architraves. Since Tassie Oak is a predominatly light flooring (when raw) I had to stain it. I did some samples direct on the floor as it is easier to choose when you see it over a range of boards.  Bona Drifast stains goes into the grain more so than covering up the timber. It can create some very nice featureboards depending on the grain. There are 15 different colours to choose from in the Bona Drifast range and they can all be intermixed. Herer are some b4 and after shots. 

B4

After

B4

After

After

Here are some colour samples I did on the floors.

Protect your floors from the sun.

It has been a very hectic spring leading up to christmas.I had a short 1 week break, then got stuck into it again. I will put together some of the jobs I have done over the last few months shortly. As we are currently having a heatwave here in Melbourne, with temps between 35-41 degrees. It certanly gets hot when the machine is on. But beeing a swede who dosn't mind a sauna, it's ok. When you have temps over 30 it's not ideal to coat flooring. It's good to have the aircon on and block out direct sunlight. As timber changes colour when exposed to prolonged sun light. It 's a good idea to have some reflective film or window coverings to protect the floor.

That's all for now! 

See you soon!

Bringing a grey old decking to life.

Deckings always become grey if not treated with a decking oil. This needs to be done every year, sometimes a few times per year to keep it from drying out and loosing its colour. Here are some before and after photos from a home in Sandringham.

New pine a blond look.

When you have new pine flooring, it will be a very blond look with Bona's non- toxic and non yellowing Traffic HD polyuruthane.I really like the blond look of pine instead of that orange look you get with solvent based polyuruthane.

Here are some before and after shots of the difference. The orange, is old type solvent based polyuruthane and the blond look is the Bona Traffic HD satin polyuruthane.

This last photo is in a doorway where I stop . Here you can clearly see the difference between the 2 types of polyuruthane. The best thing is Bona's products are non - toxic so you can stay in the house.

A parquetry floor.

A table becomes a workdesk.

This old pine dining table was destin for the tip, berfore I suggested to renovate it. The owner and I came up with the idea to transform it to a work desk and a shelving. So the first thing was to cut it to desired size. Then sand and polish it to a smoth 100 grit before staining it with Bona's Dri Fast white stain. When I sand and polish tables or desks without staining I finish on 150 grit sandpaper and then with a 320 grit scoura. With staining one have to leave the grain open to let the stain soak in, therfor I don't sand finer than a 100 grit. After the staining was done I used Bona's Prime Intense and Traffic Matt finish to protect it. It's non toxic and non yellowing so it stays true to its original colour.

Here are some before and after shots.