Seeking some Design Advice for Stair Renovation
Hi Everyone,
We finally decided after owning our home for 5 years that it was time to paint the upstairs trim and the trim going up our staircase white before we replace the carpet upstairs later this year. In addition, we will be painting the walls upstairs and up the staircase a light grey as well to move our 1970s house into the 21st century.
Since it will be a bit complicated to paint the trim white up the stairs (it is a lot easier to temporarily pull up carpet in our hallways upstairs than on the stairs), I decided something needed done with our stairs. Yesterday I checked some various steps and confirmed the hardwood goes all the way up to the top step, but is currently covered with carpet. That immediately made me want to plan to remove the carpet up the steps and utilize the hardwood floors.
Doing so brings up some design issues I am hoping to get some of your feedback on...
1) Since my trim will be white and my walls a light grey, will my currently brownish stained stair treads look a little off color wise next to white and grey?
2) I am a bit hesitant to paint the stair treads, but would certainly be open to painting the risers white, the same color as the trim going up.
3) I also planned to paint the spindles white, but then again that led me to the question of what to do with the handrail going up the steps, as well as the banister. Would doing a slightly darker stain on the banister and handrail (perhaps an almost brown/black gel stain) that is different than the steps look odd? Would doing a semi-gloss black of these items clash too much with the brown steps, white trim and grey walls?
I like to have concrete plans before I do anything, so figured I'd turn to some of you for your thoughts. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am honestly open to any suggestions.
Thank you in advance!
Comments (6)
6 years agoI like the warmth of the wood
I think I’d leave the stairs alone and only paint your door trim, baseboards and walls
can you take a photo of the landing at the top of the stairs?
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoHello everyone! So just an update on this project. I painted all of the upstairs trim white and the walls grey and it came out very nice. Now I am moving on to the stairs. I tore out the carpet and padding yesterday which went a lot smoother than I expect. Took less than 90 minutes as there was no tack strips and the staples came out very easily. My original plan was to stain the treads with a gel paint and paint the risers white.
However, as you can see on these pictures, there is a white substance on each of the treads and on some of the risers. Initially I thought this was some sort of adhesive for the carpet/padding, but it is really smooth to the touch. Nonetheless, I tried sanding it and it made it smoother, but it did nothing to remove the white. As a result, my wife and I are on board with painting the risers white, but now painting the treads black which we have seen on various websites across the internet. We think it will look good with the white trim and grey walls.
BUT.... Before I go about painting anything on these steps, I wanted to at least ask to see if anyone has any idea what this white substance may be? I want to make sure I address it before priming and then painting these treads.
If anyone has any idea what it may be and what I may need to do to get rid of it (to some extent), please let me know. Also, if you think simply sanding it to make it smooth with the stained portion and then painting over it will work fine, please advise.
Thanks in advance!
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6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
6 years ago- 5 years ago
So I forgot to update everyone. I ended up painting the walls grey, the trim white, the handrail black, and after sanding, painting the stair treads black (Behr Porch and Patio) and the risers white. It came out much better than I even expected!
I still need to put some sprt of trim at the bottom of the last riser where it meets the tile FWIW.
Rs S