Welcome to the 815th Metamorphosis Monday! Happy Monday! Hope your weekend was awesome! I have a house full of painters here right now, they are working on finishing up the painting in the kitchen and the basement. I’m still anxious and nervous about how the kitchen desk restoration will look in the kitchen once that is completed. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out.
Today, I’m sharing a smallish update I made in the Dollhouse a while back that turned out pretty well. When I first moved some of my things into the house and went exploring, I found this in one of the upstairs bedrooms. I think this was one of the children’s bedrooms, I’m guessing a boy’s bedroom based on the dark blue color on one of the walls. I’m not sure if they had train tracks attached to the floor or what happened here, but there appeared to be tape residue (or something like that) on the floor. Whatever used to be there went up, arched, came down the other side, and then went straight across at the bottom. Do you think it was possibly a toy train and maybe the tracks were taped or glued down? I’m not sure what the dark spots are, something must have been spilled there at one time.
It looked like someone had attempted to remove the residue down the right side and they ended up leaving a shadow on the floor. Maybe they used a scrubbing sponge and the whitish-looking shadows are scratches. It kinda looks like that. 🙁
Here’s a close-up I took of whatever that was on the floor of the bedroom. This is the section that was running horizontally across the bottom.
I also found a few pieces of stuck-on tape on the floor. You know, I wonder if this is what was on the floor—this type of tape, and maybe the sun shining in each day heated and dissolved the glue on the tape, and made it permanently stick to the floor. In any case, I really disliked seeing this mess each time I entered the room to water the flowers in the upstairs window box.
If you’ve been reading BNOTP for a while, you may remember when the latex backing on a large 8-10 rug in my bedroom deteriorated leaving a stuck-on mess on the floor. Thankfully, it only happened in the walking path areas in that room, and not underneath the bed.
When that happened several years ago, I did some research and found that denatured alcohol was recommended as a way to remove it. After verifying with the hardwood flooring company that had installed the floors that it was safe to use on the floor, I went to work. The denatured alcohol worked well and removed all the hard, stuck-on latex residue. (Read more about that little “adventure” in this post: How to Remove Deteriorated Rug’s Latex Backing Stuck on Hardwood Flooring.)
This was the product that I used back then and it worked really well. You’ll find it available here: Denatured Alcohol.
If denatured alcohol could remove hardened latex residue, I felt sure it would work on whatever was on the floor in this room. That whitish-looking shadow is not from where I used the denatured alcohol, that shadow was already on the floor. I should have taken the photo below a bit more to left to capture the exact same angle/perspective.
Again, here’s a before photo showing the residue running across the bottom, up and through the middle of the two dark brown spots, across the top, and back down, leaving a shadow on the right side where it appears someone attempted to remove it.
And here’s the after showing the residue that ran up through the dark spots and across the top and bottom is now gone. I’ll have to find something to touch up or darken that whitish area that was left behind from whatever the previous owners used when removing the residue down the right side. Thank goodness they stopped and didn’t continue down all four sides. They must have realized that they were damaging the finish of the flooring. I may one day have all the floors refinished. This area may end up hidden once a bed is placed in this room. This is the room that I hope to make a guest bedroom one day.
So glad I knew about the denatured alcohol trick from before. Otherwise, I’d still be staring at whatever that was every time I entered the room to water the flowers in the window box.
Looking forward to all the wonderful Before and Afters linked for this week’s Met Monday! Pssst: Did you know Between Naps On The Porch is on Instagram? You’ll find me on Instagram here: Between Naps On The Porch. Like to know when a new blog post is up? Subscribe for email updates (it’s free) and your e-mail will never be shared. Subscribe for free post updates here: Subscribe.
Metamorphosis Monday: Metamorphosis Monday is a party that’s all about Before and Afters. Please link up your Before and After projects like DIY projects, room makeovers, craft projects even recipes. Please do not link up Table Settings, save those for our Tablescape Thursday party on Thursday. If you are participating in Met Monday, you’ll need to link your post to the party using the “permalink” to your MM post and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on the name of your post, then copy and paste the address that shows in the address bar at the top of your blog, into the “url” box for InLinkz when prompted.
Thanks for the tip about denatured alcohol, I bet it’s handy for lots of things!
I have a feeling you’re right! Thanks, Jenna!
I have used Restor A Finish on my solid wood plant stand to remove water stains – made it look like new.
I have some of that here, I think I’ll take with me on my next trip up. Good idea! Thanks Mary Ellen!
Just a warning about Restore A Finish. You cannot use polyurethane on any surface that has Restore A Finish on it. It states this on the product package. That would certainly limit a floor refinisher’s choices if you wanted to refinish your floors in the future.
Probably the old type of double sided carpet tape. Use restore a finish on the light stain. Will camouflage it quite well.
Oh, maybe they had a rug there and it was slipping and they used that to hold it in place. I think I have some restore a finish around here somewhere, I will def try that. Thanks, Nancy!
This is great info to keep in mind. I know our last house had purple/pink nailpolish dripped all over the living room floor. It was a mess but I got it up. Preteen girls. Thanks for having us over.
Ugh, that would not be fun to remove. Were you able to scrape it up? Glad you were able to remove it.
Susan,
Thank you for all your wonderful household tips – you have saved me a lot of grief trying to figure out how to clean certain things!
Any suggestions as to how to bring back the shine on hardwood floors?
Love hearing that, Susan! I’ve been thinking of buying this to try on the hardwood flooring in the Dollhouse. https://amzn.to/4gtnzwK
It has great reviews and I’ve seen it recommended in a few places.
I wouldn’t use it on my floors in the GA house because those floors have a polyurethane finish, but I think this may be what I need for the wood flooring in the Dollhouse since the flooring there is so old. I need to find out if those floors have an oiled finish first, though. Do you know what the finish is on your wood floors, Susan? If you try this, please let me know how it works. I’ve got it saved in my wish list right now, but I’m tempted to order it. I guess I could try it out in a closet or someplace no so noticeable and see how it does.
Just noticed in the reviews, a customer said to not use on floors with a poly finish, which is what I suspected.
So glad you figured it out…and I had to laugh…that would be me, seeing it every time I went into the room !
Yes! At first, I could ignore it, but once I put those flowers in the windowbox, that was it! I had to find a solution. lol
Hi! Which denatured alcohol did you prefer? The amazon link opened to a list page. I’m hoping it will remove latex paint from a vinyl floor.
Thanks!
I went with the KleanStrip which is the same kind I used on the floor in Georgia. Here’s a link to the one I purchased: https://amzn.to/3ToxA4h
They only had it available in the gallon size so that’s what I purchased. I wish they had it available in a smaller size, although I did use more than I thought I would when cleaning the residue off the floor.
Perfect! Thank you!
Great tip about the alcohol – I’ll be sure to try that next time! And your window box looks lovely! It’s so fun to follow along with your renovations. Thanks for hosting, too, and hope you have a lovely few days till next time!
Thanks, Barbara! I’m looking forward to sharing more as they happen. Can you believe we are already moving into autumn?!
I agree, you might try Howards Restor A Finish. I’ve used it to remove whitish rings on table top and cover scratches. The product comes in colors, and says it “Eliminates Scratches, Heat Rings and Water Marks. Restores Original Color and Luster in One Step, Will Not Dissolve Exiting Finish.” It cleans and restores.
Hope it works.
I will definitely try it on my next trip back. I have it in a few finishes. Hopefully, they are still good because I’ve had a long while.
Thanks, Toni!
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Yes the flowers are beautiful. I had to throw some of mine away and I think it’s because we had such hot hot weather. I’ve never had a geranium to die on me but two out of three died this year. Yours still look nice and healthy.
I know, the weather has been so hot. I’ve been having to water mine every single day because we’ve been getting so little rain. It has rained a lot more in GA than it has in OH. That photo was from a few weeks ago when I first planted them. My DIL and grandson have been watering them for me and the hummingbirds have been back again. By the time I get back, it will be time to change them out for something fallish.
The denatured alcohol tip for removing marks on a wood floor is how I discovered you!
I’ve been a fan ever since!
Thanks so much, Sam!
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Thanks so much for hosting!! I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into it along with visiting all the links!! I hope you are enjoying your week and you are doing well…
Hugs,
Deb
Debbie-Dabble Blog
Good to know helpful information from you and everyone else. In the past, I used Liquid Gold on wood finishes. I wish I had known about Restore A Finish years ago for my maple table with a big water stain. Do not water your plants on the table. LOL
I am getting fall envy. Still raining, plus hot and humid here. My bromeliads are blooming away the second time from the rain.
I was browsing Pinterest and thought of your floor in the dollhouse. There was an ad for a long hall runner. Probably ruggable. She put the rug down, whipped out adhesive tabs and put them on the back of the rug to keep it from slipping on her hardwood floor !