Our previous house had stairs in the entry right in front of the door. The house was only a few years old but the wood tone and carpet made it look older and I knew I’d change it once we got settled in. I actually changed it a few times because I’m a sucker for decorating and I change décor when I get a new idea or get too bored with a look.
The first change was to paint the railing black. I could have sanded and stained, sure, but if you’ve ever tried to sand odd shapes or details instead of flat wood pieces, you’ll understand why I chose paint. I lightly sanded the wood just to rough it up enough that paint would adhere well and not start chipping within months. I still hated the carpet but tried to tolerate it for a while. Then I got the bright idea to paint the walls in the sitting room a deep navy blue after I saw something on Pinterest. That’s happened way more times than I’d like to admit-changing décor or paint because of a Pinterest picture. So now my walls were a bold, dark blue and I didn’t mind the black on the staircase too much because it worked. But, that carpet was another story. Here’s redo number one of the series:
Onto the next project, which didn’t take long because I’m impatient. Can I just add in quickly that a lot of my DIY projects happened while my husband was at work and I’d text him photos of my masterpieces showing him how proud I was of myself? He never minded. It was less work for him, after all. So, one day I started ripping out the carpet like a maniac. Once I started it was clear I couldn’t stop until it was done. At this point I was thinking “What have I done”? And. So. Many. Staples! The carpet was up, staples were everywhere, and it took me a few hours to remove them because of the staple-happy person who installed the carpet. I had blisters but I knew it would be worth it in the end, so I kept going. Then I cleaned up and had to deal with the next step another day (ie next day, because I’m impatient). Redo number two halfway done:
The next day I had to fill in all the tiny holes left by the staples and gently sand. They were already stained which made me confused as to why they’d cover them, but I’ve come across stranger things. There was a paper glued to the risers which I found out was just plywood, so we bought a thin board and cut pieces to fit over top of them because it was the easiest way to deal with it. Then I painted them white. Now the stairs were wood, the railings were black, and the risers were white. I don’t happen to have a picture of that, but it didn’t last long anyway, because I had another idea! Redo three with carpet treads:
Fast forward a few months and I had enough of the blue even though it was gorgeous. I just get bored and don’t understand why. Help me. Now I wanted the railings white! Off I went gently sanding the black and painting it white. It looked so bright and clean and that gave me the idea to paint the navy blue walls in the sitting room a lighter blue to match the stairs better and give somewhat of a coastal look with touches of gold. My poor husband. We had vaulted ceilings in that room, and he needed to be on a 20 foot ladder for the second time for hours on end, but he painted the room once again. This was it! This was the final transformation that brought it all together and made it work. We kept it that way until we sold the house. Guess what I did when we moved into our next house? Yep. I attacked the stairs with paint. That’s another post for another time. Here is the final look I settled on before moving on to other house projects.
