This actually turned out really nice. My parents couldn't afford carpet right now, and their old hardwood really had no finish left on it, plus it has bad spots in it. I repaired the bad places with wood filler, cleaned it, then painted it a cream color with a high gloss floor varnish over it. Made the room look larger. Then I put down some marbled tiles in front of the fireplace and trimmed it in gold metal. I've been doing two projects at once...fixing up the house we recently bought, then going their and fixing up my parents' 1912 house in major need of repairs that they can't handle.