This post has been a long time coming! I’ve talked forever about new floors and wanting a new staircase! We finally installed new hardwood flooring this April, and I’m SO excited to finally share our transformed staircase! As a reminder, this is what it used to look like…
BEFORE
Lots and lots of orange oak. Well, after installing new floors that are a darker wood, I had to address the stairs! I actually have always wanted to change the spindles to something a bit more modern, but because that isn’t in the cards for us just yet, I decided to tackle painting the staircase myself! You’re kind of getting two reveals in one here, because not only did I paint the staircase, but I changed the green geometric wall…
AFTER
Not sure where to begin! Let’s start with the striped corner. Was it a bit of work? Yes. Was it easy and fun? Yes. Just because something takes time, doesn’t mean it’s hard. UsingFrogTape® made taping, painting, and removing a breeze. The width of the stripes I wanted was pretty much the same as the width of the actual tape, so it worked perfectly to just use the tape itself as a spacer between each stripe.
I was a little sad to say goodbye to that green wall. Green is my signature color and I always thought this corner was fun. But I was itching for a change and was totally inspired by the chair, of course. I initially bought it for our family room during theFrogTape® Paintover Challenge last year, but I’m switching things up a bit in our family room and thought it’d be perfect in this corner. All it needed was a fun painted feature wall to really make it sing! Since I was sad to paint over the geometric shapes, I decided to keep the shapes, but tape them off and then paint the stripes within them in different directions. So I painted the whole thing grey first, and the lines of the old shapes still showed through- so that’s how I was able to tape them each off before adding stripes. Does that make sense?
I used a leveler along the way to make sure my stripes were straight!
I was pretty proud of this tape ball when it was all said and done. Lol.
I have videos of this process saved to my Instagram highlights under ‘foyer project.” Now, let’s move on to the stairs. Not gonna lie, friends. This was a beast to tackle. So much prep work involved. Lots of taping. Again, super thankful for Frogtape®! I wasn’t sure how it would do on the carpet, but it totally did the trick!
I pretty much tucked a few layers of the tape underneath the carpet so I could jab my paintbrush underneath. It worked great! For the railing, I used the same paint we used on our lower kitchen cabinets and fireplace: Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black in semi-gloss. And for the base of the risers and all of the trim going up the steps, I used the same color we used on our upper cabinets. It was Benjamin Moore Simply White, but I had it color matched to Sherwin Williams because I really like their Emerald Line! It goes on smoothly and has good coverage. I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my process, and I’ll say this… I did not bother priming first! Will I regret this in the long run? Maybe, but I gave everything a good sanding first, wiped it down after, and used good quality paint. So fingers crossed, I’m good! So far, everything has held up beautifully.
I still need to address the walls. I had them painted by Four Brothers Painting Company and used the same color (Simply White) as I did on the trim and stairs, but I haven’t decided what to hang up the stairs yet! Also, once we painted a fresh white on the walls, it was very obvious that the white that was on the trim and doors was super pink! Such a bummer. So we’re still waiting for them to come back and finish that up. Gotta say though, sadly, the same thing is going for our carpet. It just looks so sad and dingy (and slightly pinkish cream) next to the fresh white paint. So bummed about this and wish we could’ve replaced it at the same time we installed the hardwood! One thing at a time, friends. We’ll get to it eventually!
In the mean time though, I’m happy to have a fresh coat of paint on the walls! And look up! We installed a new light!!
It’s part of Brian Patrick Flynn’s line for Crystorama from Lighting Design Company. So cool!
There you have it! Finally! I hope this was helpful to those of you who are itching to paint over your dated staircases as well! It’s doable, friends! It’s work, but it’s doable and has made a world of difference. I honestly feel like our entry feels a bit cleaner, classic, rich. Please let me know if you have any questions or if I missed anything! It was a lot to cover in one post.
Sources:
Mirror: thrifted!
Cheers,
Haneen
