Want your plywood floor to look like natural timber? We have pulled it off, see how (video).

We wanted to use a plywood floor in our mobile tiny house because its lightweight and strong. We also wanted to achieve a more natural finished timber look, to do this we used a dark stain by Resene called Colourwood. We mixed this with Resene Colourwood Reducing Base to thin out the stain. As shown in the video below we used a brush to apply, followed by a clean cloth to wipe off excess. This process brought out the natural grain of the plywood. We filled any holes with a filler coloured close to the finished look from Mitre 10. To protect the soft plywood timber and new stained surface we used Resene Qristal ClearFloor 1K. We used a roller to apply five coats, again see video for more detail.

Tips

• Research - look around for colours and finishes you like and mimic these. 

• Try before you buy - take a sample of your wood to your local paint store and try some small samples or grab yourself some test pots.

• Keep it consistent - which ever method you choose keep it consistent . This could mean doing the whole job in one go and/or one person doing each job.