PAINTED STAIRCASE

I wasn't sure what to do with my staircase.  We had ripped out the old, dingy carpet runner and our stairs were bare and kind of beat up.  Unfortunately the beautiful fir flours that ran throughout our house were not under the carpet runner on our stairs:(  The wood for the stairs was a cheap material board.  I had two options: find a another carpet runner or paint my staircase.  I looked for carpet runners but they were very expensive and I couldn't find any that I loved, so I thought why not just paint my staircase!  I'm not artistic at all so I stuck with a very simple design where I could use painters tape to tape off the black and white colours.  Here are the before and after pictures and a step by step guide on how I accomplished the look.

BEFORE

......and some more befores!

AFTER

Stairs painted with black and white paint

STEP BY STEP GUIDE

1) Sand the steps with a manual or machine sander.  I did both because my steps were in rough shape, but you might be able to get away with just manually sanding them if yours are in ok shape.

2) Patch any dents with wood filler.  Let dry, then lightly sand manually.  As you can see from the     before pictures I had lots of dents from wear and tear on the back of my steps.    

3) Tape off and start painting.  I used a white semi-gloss paint for the back of the steps.

Sanded, risers painted white, taped off and now 

time for the black stain.             

4) I was worried about the paint chipping on the steps, as we have two dogs with sharp claws, so I decided to use a solid wood stain instead of paint for the actual steps.  I used a black solid wood stain.  I did two coats, letting it dry after each application.  I was pleasantly surprised what great coverage the solid stain had, I was concerned it might be translucent as most wood stains are.

 5) Finally, I coated the black stained steps with a semi-gloss, satin wood floor finish.  This gives it the glossy look I love.  

So far no chips!  I'm happy I went with the solid wood stain and not paint for the steps.  Stay tuned for my next post where there will be pictures of my inspirations for my steps!