Cheating - Painting Floorboards

[Ecca]

We have moved into a new house, and have installed wooden floors downstairs and everywhere upstairs except the stairs and landing.
We plan to carpet this, but will need to wait to decide on a colour scheme before we rush off and buy carpet.
In the meantime how do you explain to a 2 year old to stop playing in the dust.
We were going to sand and varnish as a temporary measure, but the sanding nightmares are flooding back to me, with dust dust and more dust.

what do you think?
Could we just cheat, vacuum the dust, give it a light sand, to remove any stubborn bits of plaster, and paint the floorboards?

Concrete Paint
Wood Paint

Has anyone painted floorboards before, what paint did you use, and was it easy to clean. Of course in keeping with the simple look in the house, I would prefer to paint them white.

 

[Carpenter]

I have painted floor boards to great effect, using a "woodwash" paint from either Crown or Dulux. It's water based and dries quick with much of a smell.

 

[chum]

do not paint floor boards,if you decide to refinished floors in the future it is harder to sand and remove paint from flooring,paint will get into gaps etc. rent small buffer , lightly buff floors sweep and vacuum . buy cheap waterbased polyurethane apply two coats. waterbased poly has no odour
and will dry in about two hours ,apply second coat immediately after first coat is dry. this is the best solution as floors shall be protected before and after carpet installation plus removal of polyurethane if desired in the future will be much easier.