Renter transforms living room with a striking parquet floor for just £183

Not feeling the furniture? Magnolia driving you mad? Fed up with the flooring? When you move into a rented property, there’s often aspects to it which won’t be to your taste. Rather than simply living with it or spending a fortune replacing these features, it’s worth taking a look to see if they can be revamped, (not forgetting to ask your landlord first of course!).

A good example is that of Denisa Pop, who moved into her rented Maidenhead property and was faced with an ordinary living room with a brand new grey carpet. Keen to put some modern living room ideas into practice and turn it into a Scandi-style scheme.

Parquet flooring living room makeover

Denisa decided to take up the carpet, only to discover a beautiful parquet flooring underneath, she documented the transformation on her Instagram @sculptureyourhome.

Before

Denisa, a mum of two, knew straight away she was going to change the room, and considered adding in some new living room flooring ideas. 

‘I just didn’t like the look and feel of the grey carpet in such a big living room,’ she told hardwood restoration specialists Quicksand Flooring. ‘It felt like one of those big hotel restaurants. My idea was to install laminate flooring, but to my surprise, I found the parquet underneath.’

Reaching out to her landlord, Denisa sent an email listing what she’d like to change. ‘They agreed with most of what I’d asked, but there were a few points that didn’t get approved,’ she says. 

After getting approval from the landlord Denisa pulled up the carpet to reveal the dull parquet flooring. ‘The carpet was brand new but not to my taste, so I rolled it up and stored it in the garage for the landlord,’ she says.

Next up, the initial sanding process began. ‘We hired a sander from HSS hire for £50 a day,’ she says. ‘It’s very messy and the dust from sanding goes everywhere – there was a lot of cleaning to do afterwards! It was all worth it, though, and the room looks completely different now.’

After sanding Denisa used a PVA filler layer, to fill any gaps, which she applied using a bucket and scraper. To ensure the floor was level, Denisa then sanded the floor for a second time. You can see the difference above

Denisa finished the process by varnishing the restored parquet floor. ‘After we sanded, I realised the colour of the natural wood had a red undertone to it,’ she says, ‘so I tried a lot of varnishes. Unfortunately, most of them just amplified the red colour. I decided to go with a dark-coloured varnish instead, to hide the red undertone.’

The finished room

Not only did it take her less than a week to transform the floor by herself, but Denisa managed to create a beautiful rustic living room scheme, where the warm wood adds a cosy feel to the natural palette. 

‘The decorative pieces I chose to contrast with the floor, like the cream rugs and cream sofa,’ she says. ‘I like to keep it very natural by mixing different shades of brown and splashes of black.’