White or light paint will make that (perfectly normal) baseboard stand out less, so the problem may go away on its own. Then hang some nice art there to draw the eye upward. Most people don't look at the floorline.

Any safety concerns?

I had a similar issue. I chose to repair the flooring at the top of the stairs after a family member hit the floor dip wrong (moving fast in socks) and fell down the stairs.

Not really but thanks. Socks without treads are not an option in our family and we will have a gate up for several more years but the dip doesn‘t go that way anyway.

No help, but congratulations on your new old house of sorts.

Yay!!

In addition to ACM’s art suggestion we are wondering about a couple of ideas:

1 . stripping the risers so they are the same color as the treads and the upstairs floor

2 having the same color rug on the stairs and the upstairs landing

3 painting the baseboard the same color as the walland probably similar to the rug

4 placing a skirted bench with hidden adjustable legs at the top to hide the baseboard altogether

Thoughts?

inspo! AD says embrace the slope

I think the wallpaper is kind of fabulous. i honestly don’t know that i’d worry about this. it seems like the sort of thing you’ll forget about, no one else will be looking at and having some visual cuing about uneven floor is helpful (otherwise they can be a little dangerous - i am relatively young and been thrown off by uneven flooring, in front of stairs could be a problem). Otherwise making floor and baseboard match would make it blend in more.

I too owned a 200 year old house and this is par for the course. Paint the wall and baseboard the same color and live with it for a year. See if it bothers you less then.

We had this exact situation in our home in Philly. We had to put two support poles in the basement beneath the staircase. It helped the situation greatly. We also opened the ceiling below the stairs and landing and had support added in there. No floor removal needed.

Out of curiosity, have you spent much time in old homes or lived in one before? I had so was very used to seeing this kind of thing as normal charm.

^ I like the wallpaper too :) but understand the high contrast accents the uneveness

I would treat the walls and trim in the way that is best for the space - I agree that you will soon forget about this (I live in an old uneven house and you def move on to focus on other things)

if there is enough space you could put something simple on that part of the landing to draw the eye - part of the issue is there is nothing else to look at when you ascend the stairs

It makes playing marbles in an old house a lot easier too!!

My house sags towards the middle too, and makes putting in…. well…. anything; more interesting.

But add in the creaks going up the steps and you got a built in burgular alarm. I dont think Tinkerbell could come up my stairs without me hearing her.

Our first night in our 220 year old house, I laughed and said it reminded me of being on a cruise ship. The bookcases on the library are off two inches in 14 feet, but they were built in 1927-redoing the floors would entail rebuilding the bookcases and the door to the hallway and….

Great comments, much appreciated!

@Lharpie you are saying stain the baseboard the color of the floor? I had been thinking make the baseboard the color of the wall, but that’s very interesting and makes sense! Must do a mock-up.

@kendrah I lived in New England for several years and also loved the charm of the old homes there. I am on Team Embrace the Sag here for a number of reasons but its good to have reassurance!

@lalagirl yes distraction would help a lot! Glad to hear you have found your focus shifting.

@remodeling1840 your bookcases would make having a ladder interesting…

today I have someone here to deal with bats in the attic so the focus definitely shifts 😅 Happy Halloween everyone!

One room in our home had a floor that was so uneven the dog could sort of play fetch alone by dropping a ball and chasing after it as it rolled away to the other side of the room.

Embrace the slant! Old houses have charm and huge imperfections. I’m glad to hear this bothers you because most old house owners can’t close their windows, get the heat to work or have inherited horrid “fixes” from previous owners.

I think brown baseboard would mean either replacing or stripping the white. That’s a lotta work! Ignoring this is easier. How lucky to have an older home to love. If it were a real hazard, then it would need serious replacement.

Haha Kendrah! We really need more emojis here.

@RedRyder I’m with you on keeping it simple. Seems to me a monochromatic color scheme in terms of wall and carpet would soften the whole effect and be very inviting.

Stair runner….

Yes! @Missy Bee gave the best answer - have an AMAZING stair runner and no one will notice.

You need a stair runner for other reasons. My older house had slippery wood treads and before I got a runner, my dad slipped down the last three steps one day…. Luckily he caught himself. I would be more concerned about this.

Finding a runner is more fun anyway…. 😊

When we bought the house, we explained to the home inspector we were not trying to get out of the contract, but we wanted a thorough inspection to decide which things were structural and needed to be changed. He listed all our out of square doors and windows, the three door frames that are only 72” high, the slanted floors, the shallow stone steps to the cellar, the cellar with 6 1/2 foot ceilings, the not to code height stair rail, and so on for pages. Bingo! It had all the history and charm we had craved. I did research on the house itself, researching the man who built it and his family who owned it for one hundred and twenty years, the next family that owned it and saved it from destruction, and the couple who were the third family to cherish my house, holding their daughters’ weddings in the yard. My goal is to preserve the integrity and history, being a good caretaker. Last night our dinner was prepared in the large cooking fireplace and I thought of the builder’s wife Catherine and how she fed her family of eight with all her meals she cooked in our fireplace. I watch the sun rise through our original wood 1803 windows and the beautiful wavy glass. Embrace the wrinkles of your house-your house has earned every one of them.

@remodeling1840 just beautiful Thank you!

“There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,

He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;

He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together in a little crooked house.”

- Mother Goose

I used to live in a crooked house too.