a painted staircase

As you had seen from the house tour post, our staircase was in need of some TLC. When we moved in there was this terrible, filthy stair runner that had seen better days. It was a few different shades of blue berber carpet and there was more dirt in it than our garden. It was nasty. No matter how many times we vacuumed it the sand and dirt never came out of it.

One night while I was out babysitting Al had removed the entire carpet from the stairs. I thought I’d return the favor by painting the stairs while he was at work one day.

I used a Behr paint that we had already and the color was Ultra Pure White. In other words, blinding. I didn’t prime them, though I should have, but I wasn’t about to go out and buy primer. I painted one coat all the way down leaving a very small space on the right side to still climb the stairs. I let the first coat dry for about 2 hours and then applied the second. We let them dry for a few nights, because we were out of town, and Al painted the last of the blue part when we got home.

They looked great and fresh but it drives me insane that they were poorly measured and made, so there are so many spaces and cracks in them. No joke, each stair is a different height. It took us a while to get adjusted to it and I can’t tell you how many people have fallen down them because they’re uneven. We now have a disclosure statement before anyone goes up the stairs.

They look so much better and cleaner than that terrible blue. Eventually we will put a runner down them again, but I’m trying to spend no more than $40 on it, so it’s taking me a while to find one. I’m okay with that though. We’re debating throwing some carpet stair treads on them for the time being. In the end, they look much better for the time being, which makes us happy.