You guys!! I was JUST telling you a goal for 2021 was to makeover the stairs.
I really did not mean immediately but I pulled up the carpet at the very bottom to remove a couple scraps of tile after we sanded the floors and then I removed the carpet tacks and then, before I knew it, I was fully invested.. (I’ll include links to supplies at the bottom of this post)
My husband helped me to remain realistic and not get my hopes up about what would be under the carpet. He was right. It was messy, uneven plywood with treads that had no overhang. I could have done a bunch of sanding and caulking and painted them. We wanted something a little more traditional so I wrapped them using left over hardboard from the girls bathroom and new pine treads.
Ok, let me walk you though the steps……..see what I did there?
I cut the scrap brown board down with a table saw. I had to measure and cut each one individually because NOT A SINGLE RISER WAS EXACTLY THE SAME. Why fit in when you were born to stand out?….
After I primed and painted them (touch ups later) I used construction adhesive and a finish nailer to attach them to the stairs. Note: you’ll need a lot of construction adhesive. I maybe used 15 between the risers and treads. Buy more and you can always return the extra.
The pine treads came unfinished so I sanded and stained those.. After, of course, cutting them down to their individual depths and widths. First, pre-stain then a combo of weathered oak and provincial. Then a coat of white wash to cut some of the orange tones (make sure you use pre-stain on this stuff too). Then a couple coats of polyurethane.
I used construction adhesive and heavy weights to hold these down while they set.
I carefully taped off the sides to caulk around the treads using stretching caulk so that as the boards shrink, expand or move, the caulk hopefully wont crack. After it has time to fully dry, I’ll be carefully taping again to do a final coat of Sherwin Williams ‘Origami White’ on the trim, risers and caulk.
It’s almost been 2 weeks since I started this process. It really hasn’t been so bad at all. I was expecting back breaking work but really, since I did a lot of work at table height in the garage first, it’s been good. Just down time due to wait times. It is helpful that our stairs have never been out of commission. They’ve been usable the whole time, as long as we tip-toe up the center.
Next up? The runner. I already have one. It’s a jute looking indoor/ outdoor rug which I think will be really nice for such a high traffic area.
But I started to second guess myself so I have one more that should be here today. At least now I’ll be able to compare and decide from there. I’ll make sure to share the runner process and the “after” photos soon. I’m so happy I fell into tackling this project. I can’t believe how much different (how much BETTER) it looks already!
As promised, scroll through the images below to shop the supplies I used *affiliate links:
Thanks for reading, friends!
