Bona Naturale in the Au Naturale

Published on 10 July 2012

““Are you sure?” That was my rather surprised response on being told that the, freshly sanded wooden floor, was not going to be varnished.

I was standing inside a newly redecorated health food shop, called appropriately ‘Au Naturale’, right opposite an earnest looking shop owner, who had a very determined look on her face. “I want a ‘natural’ look for the floor, in keeping with the ambience of the shop, so no smelly chemicals need to be added” she emphasised, “after all this place is called Au Naturale for a good reason,” she added.

I thought for a few seconds and placed my size 11 boot on the, cooling, Bona 10 inch floor sander that I had just used to sand the shop floor. I replied, “I know of a great new floor finish that is advertised to provide unique floor treatment that preserves the natural look and feel of any wooden floor while still giving it durable protection,” I said to her rather cynical looking face. “Maybe we should try a little of this wooden floor finish in the area behind the sales desk and see how it looks?” I added.

She still seemed a little wary of my suggestion, so we went over to her laptop and Googled “Bona Naturale floor varnish” to see if a data sheet could be found on this product that would persuade her to allow me to finish the wooden floor properly. I was inwardly pleased to see that Bona Naturale was being widely promoted as a “phenomenon” and, in addition, as an environmentally sound product, with this varnish recently being awarded the EMICODE 1 for very low emissions. The Health Food shop manager was starting to look a little impressed and she finally agreed to allow me to use some Bona Naturale on a small section of sanded floor adjacent to her sales counter.

Without giving her the chance to change her mind, I immediately dashed off to my local floor sander rental shop, who I knew would have Bona Naturale in stock. Upon arriving at the hire depot, the manager, with whom I become quite friendly, greeted me proudly next to his display of Bona floor varnish products, prominently exhibited in the hire shop. The hire manager explained that Bona Naturale comes in two formats: 2-component and 1-component and that you must use Bona Naturale base as a primer to ensure good adhesion. I told him about my plight with the distrustful shop owner and he agreed to let me have a sample of Bona Naturale 2-component alongside an amount of Bona base, as we were both confident that this floor varnish would achieve a totally natural looking, and easy to maintain surface. I also picked up a Bona Naturale roller to ensure that I applied the varnish correctly.

I returned to the Au Naturale Health Food Shop with my Bona products firmly tucked under my arm and set to work on the agreed area. I applied the Bona Naturale base with the roller covering the newly sanded wooden floor evenly across the surface. After waiting for a couple of hours for the base to dry, I then applied the Bona Natural 2-component, which ideally suited for commercial applications, using the same Bona roller. The varnish has a drying time of around 5 hours, so I left the shop, intending to return early the next day to view the rewards of my floor varnishing efforts.

I turned up the next to discover the shop owner staring intently at the varnished floor, her eyes were flickering from the untreated wooden floor and back to the Bona varnished floor. “Well, what do you reckon?” I asked her. “Marvellous” was her spontaneous reply, “this is ideal, just how wanted my floor to look, you really know your stuff don’t you!” I thanked her for her praise and I rather bashfully exited the shop on route back to the floor sander rental depot to get some more Bona Naturale – job done!

Au Naturale can happily dish out Tofu, beans, nut cutlets and other healthy stuff all in a natural looking environment, with thanks to the clever people at Bona.”

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