Yes, I Painted My Stairs!

With a complete disregard for the better judgement of my mom, I threw caution to the wind and went for it.  That's right folks, all that dark wood is now white... well part of it anyway!


When we first moved in to this house there was A LOT of un-cared-for wood.  It all was mismatched, different colors, dry and clearly had never been polished.  The people before us had large dogs that must have never had their claws nails trimmed.  So I removed all of the trim, sanded, stained it dark to match my taste and sealed it all up with a nice coat of polyurethane.  It was a JOB!  So when I told my sweet hubby that I wanted to paint the wood on the stairs, I believe he pulled a "talk to the hand" on me.  Being the great man he is, he didn't say anything when I whipped out the sander and paint.

Here is what I was working with:

First I had to sand all the risers to rough it up a bit to give the paint something to stick to.  Then I had to tape off all of the walls and spindles...it took FOR-EV-A!  Next was the primer, I was so excited to lighten everything up... I used Killz and it looked like pure heaven crap after the first coat! I thought I had made a giant mistake, I could just hear my mom and hubby saying "I told you so."

  Unfortunately with the white risers, there were also many flaws that started showing... apparently the folks before us had not painted the steps for a reason.  There were giant gaps, nail holes... I couldn't believe it.

But after two coats of white paint and a ton of caulk, it was beautiful!  I am loving my new steps... now maybe I need to do some kind of board and batten up the wall... hmmm.