Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Stairway to Heaven

There is 1 thing in our house that I am at my wits end with: our staircase. Besides the Kitchen, it is the last area to not have the carpet ripped up and hardwood put down, and to make matters worse, it is the first thing you see when you walk in the front door. As the last remaining bit of carpet it has somehow become a large dust trap collecting all shreds of leaves the dogs may have on their paws, any stray feathers that fly around on laundry day out of pillows and duvets, and it bears an unfortunate marking on the bottom 6 stairs where I had a very sorry incident involving an open can of paint.

I am desperate to start something, anything! even, on these stairs. But we have 2 road blocks, the first being that we really don't know where to start (do you remove all the bannisters too? which direction should the wood grain go, do you dry wall the riser or just paint the current wood???), the second being that we are not sure it is even within our capability to do it properly (and safely for that matter...). So now we are contemplating just stripping back the carpet and painting them for the time being.

Below are some of my favorite images of painted stairs, as well as an image from Domino of what I hope our final stair case will look like once we get around to the wood.


House to Home UK



Domino

Fernwoodjoinery
apartment therapy

9 comments:

Katie Church said...

I love it when the riser is done in 1x1 inch travertine, glass or whatever tile fits you. It compliments the wood step so beautifully.

Unknown said...

I love white stairs with the darker wood - like pic 3

Crys said...

I love the domino photo. I'm not sure if the ornate rod goes with your style but it is beautiful.

Laura said...

I totally hear you on this one - we have the SAME problem! I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with yours.

Melanie@TheOldWhiteCottage said...

I think the dark wood would compliment your existing flooring beautifully. Do you have hardwood steps under the carpet?

Thanks for sharing those pictures. My stairs are hardwood but I've never liked them. I now realize if I paint the riser and leave the step natural wood it will look so much better! Now I just need to convince the man. ;-)

Erin Southwell said...

Hey Holly! You shouldn't need to remove your bannister unless you are desperate to change it out. You should be able to paint your risers, depending on the material, without putting down any drywall and I don't think you have to worry about the direction of the wood grain on the steps. I think that Lumber Liquidators carries wooden stair treads to put down over your existing plywood (or whatever is under there!)

Tammy said...

We removed carpet on our stairs recently. The wood underneath wasn't so bad...just cleaned it up after removing tons of teeny carpet staples and patched and painted the risers white. We did haven't to touch the banister. :) Good luck!

Unknown said...

Oohh thanks Erin and Roeshel!! Our big fear was taking down the railings and bannisters, and not putting them back properly! We were thinking of just consulting with a pro to get their input, but just do it ourselves if they were going to do the same things we were.

Amber said...

Those blue stairs are gorgeous! Don't know if I like the actual paint job, but the blue is to die for!

 
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