How to Give Pine Flooring a Rustic Look

Use a floor sander to sand away any existing finish on the pine. The high-gloss sheens of most polyurethane finishes take away from the rustic look. Use a stand-up, walk-behind drum sander to make removing the existing finish as easy as possible; but any type of sander will work.

Wrap an 8- to 12-inch lamb's wool applicator in masking tape. Remove the tape to pull out any loose hairs.

Fill a paint tray halfway with a tung-oil-based sealer. Dip a 4-inch natural fiber paintbrush into the sealer.

"Cut in" around walls and floor fixtures with the paintbrush, painting the tung oil sealer in the direction of the grain of the pine. Cut in just a couple inches deep, and cut in only enough at a time so that you can apply adjacent sealer with the lamb's wool applicator while the cut-in tung oil is still wet. Otherwise, a delineation between the cut-in sealer and the lamb's-wool-applied sealer may become visible when the paint has dried.

Immerse the lamb's wool applicator. Apply tung oil to the pine in strokes that extend the entire length of the floor, following the grain of the wood. Feather strokes when you start or stop to avoid obvious delineations between areas. Overlap each stroke by a couple of inches to avoid lap marks. This is called maintaining a wet edge. Apply tung oil at a rate of about 1 gallon per 500 square feet per coat.

Allow the first coat to dry for 24 to 48 hours. You won't have to sand between coats, but it's a good idea to sweep with a tack cloth just before applying a second coat. Apply the second coat the same way you did the first, and let it dry for 24 to 48 hours. Avoid applying too many coats, which would create a glossy surface; instead, apply only enough coats to make the surface look uniform rather than splotchy.

Stay off the floor for seven days. Keep the room temperature at 70 degrees F or higher.