In general, I'm not a fan of bleaching floors both as it seems to damage the wood and I'm not crazy about the look.

But last week I got a call from a customer who wants to get rid of the "red" in her brazilian cherry floors. (And, they are herringbone and sounds like a very large area and nice home, so replacing them with another wood is not a wonderful option for her).

Initially I suggested a dark stain such as ebony or jacobean, and we have done this on Brazilian cherry and it looks great/my customers have been thrilled. But, this customer does not want to go darker since she already has dark paneling on the walls (she believes it's mahogany on the walls and it looks nice/rich).

She told me she had knows some high end decorators have bleached the floors and she's seen some in Florida (I live in NY right outside NYC).

Has anyone done this? Has anyone seen it? Do you have pictures?

I want to give her good advice, and of course, I don't want to ruin these expensive floors.

I welcome input/advice here.

Thanks,
Debbie Gartner, aka The Flooring Girl

I've never bleached them and don't feel good about putting bleach on floors like you do. However, the way to handle this is to get some scrap Brazilian cherry and make a panel that shows half of the panel bleached and half the panel non bleached.

She should be made aware that bleach is very harsh and will dry out the wood .And if she goes for it , have her sign a contract that shows she has been made aware of your advice.

Thanks so much Paul. Great advice. If I were to do it (which I won't), would have had her sign a contract like that...I was the exact same thing.

I went to her home this week and her floors look great. She has agreed to actually do a screen and recoat w/ 2 coats both to get rid of minor scratches, smooth the floor a bit and change the level.

Apparently, before I arrived, 2 others were also unwilling to risk this, so when I told her this info, it fit in w/ what she was thinking. And, from a design perspective, the floors look great w/ the walls and changing them won't look good.

We may do some other fun stuff in the other rooms that has wide pine and later, she'll be adding hardwood to a finished basement (on grade...yay). Can't wait.