We purchased a second home ( near grandchildren) about 6 months ago. There are stairs from the finished basement to the first floor. Most often we enter through the garage and come right up those stairs.

The previous owners had light tan carpet on the stairs. It was gross! Any carpet will be dirty all of the time because of coming from the garage. So....I just took the carpet, padding, and tack strips up this evening. My intention is to just paint the stairs. I want something that I can easily wipe and keep clean. I have not decided how I will paint them. They are not a focal point so they will just be unadorned.

The problem is that while the stairs are definitely paint grade, the "landing" is wafer board. How do you think I should handle that? Something has to cover the wafer board before painting. Any suggestion?