As mentioned in another post, beach houses look great with white painted floors, in my opinion - very fresh and light. No special skill necessary, just follow the directions on the tin. Just make sure to use an appropriate floor paint. Choose a low sheen finish, so low gloss level. Make sure you give it as much curing time as possible before walking on it - at least a few days (despite whether it says "quick drying" or not). The harder the paint is, the better. TIP: Paint the floors after you've done the majority of other work.

Hi to N.B. Interiors,

Thank you for answering.

Unfortunately all my walls are painted white so a white floor would not work, also the ceiling is timber lined with pine boards with darker cedar coloured roughly sawn beams, so I was wondering if a similar coloured floor as the cedar boards would work.

Hi Mii, not sure why you feel white floors & walls won't work? See pic - white walls, floor and ceiling. I'd do white on ceiling lining boards, perhaps leaving beams, but hard to say without seeing it.

Thanks to nickybaruch I am now considering doing the floor (which is now sanded back ready for finishing off) with white liming with a slight tint colour in it. Some say you have to be very careful when liming. Is this a problem? I would have thought it would be just like putting on a stain? Anyway doing it that way we would still see the grain of the timber floor which would be lighter than the dark cedar it was before and keeping the pine lined ceiling with the cedar coloured beams will blend in well I think with the lighter timber floor and the white walls we now have. What do you think?

look at Porter's Wood Wash, it will lighten nicely, is easy to apply and not be high maintenance.