DIY: Stairs

While my husband was away visiting his family back home in Australia (JEALOUS!) I stayed home with the kids. This is the first time the hubster and I had been away from eachother in the 3 years we`ve been married. SO it was CRUCIAL that I found something to fill up my time (as if 2 kiddies wasn`t enough!). So I took a little stroll on the world wide web, specifically Pinterest - which don`t even get me started!! And got a little bit inspired. STAIR RENO!

So for starters EW. My stairs were so bad, I can`t believe I didn`t do this sooner!! Like 3 years ago maybe!?? The carpet on the stairs was so worn out and nasty that even a rented carpet cleaner and vacuum couldn`t make a slight difference! Take a look...

I know everyone is running to their nearest carpet store requesting this!! vintage, right? WRONG! awful is what it was. Thus the DIY stairs project!

First things first. Send Toddler to Grandmas.. Next few days stairs are off limits!

Step 1: Have ugly stairs! The uglier the stairs the better the transformation!

Step 2: Pull off horrible carpet and under mat stuff - if its as old as mine (which could very well be 100 years!! haha, if they did carpet back then) might want to use a mask for dust purposes.

Pull out nail board and staples. For me this seemed to be the worst part. Each step had about 15 staples and nail board on the step and back (the back is a challenge because of the lip) I`m not sure how a normal person would remove these, but for me a chisel and hammer did the trick! and I used a knife to get the staples out. Once this was finished Day 1 of project stairs was over.

Step 3: Sand those babies! Now luckily my stairs were hardwood - this is not recommended if they aren`t.. Grab your electric sander and lots of sandpaper and go to town!! For me, I wasn`t looking for the perfectly smooth stair as my house is old and I`m not sure that would even be possible with these old old stairs. But a good sand they needed none the less.

After a good sanding its time for Primer. My stairs were quite dark still so they required 2 coats of Primer. Make sure you don`t need to use the stairs before you do this step. Bring everything up or down that you will need because your stairs will be out of commission for some time. After this step I went shopping :) What else is a girl to do while waiting for paint to dry?

Looks better already doesn`t it??

Step 4: 2 coats of paint!! I ended up using Semi-gloss paint in Cloud White from Benjamin Moore because I had it already for my trim. But it doesn`t seem to shiny at all!

After all the paint was dry I went through and filled all the cracks with caulking and they look as good as new! Now I`m on the hunt for the perfect runner or stair treads. I was thinking of getting some natural stair treads, but debating between that and a stair runner. Would love to hear your thoughts!!

I`m loving the new stairs!!