Those stairs have GOT to go!

I loved most everything about our house when we bought it. Just because I loved it, however, doesn't mean I didn't want to change it :) I'm constantly re-inventing our home to give it an extra special "pop."

However, there was one thing I absolutely HATED...
Our gross, carpeted stairs!!!!

Carpet is gross. Carpet on stairs when the rest of the house has beautiful hardwood floors is even more gross and out of place. One day I had had enough. My husband came home from work to find me feverishly ripping up the carpet. I was thrilled to discover this underneath!

Who in their right mind would cover that up?!

I soon found out the answer. 

 

Oh-oh. Someone decided to paint. 

And it got worse!

 

The stairs went from white to yellow to blue. Previous owners apparently had no idea what they wanted to do. I am still baffled by this.

So, what was I to do now? I could try to sand off the paint, but ultimately decided against this for 2 reasons. One, I didn't know what condition the wood would be underneath and two, our home was built in 1946. From what I could gather there were at least 3 to 4 layers of paint on the stairs. I didn't want to take any chances that one of those older layers might contain lead. Even though when we bought the house there were no known traces of lead, the last thing I needed was lead dust flying around the house for my four-year-old son and three cats to inhale (and it wouldn't be so great for my husband or me, either!)

I decided to work with what I had and add yet another layer of paint.

I primed the stairs with oil-based primer. I know oil-based is a pain to work with. It's sticky, it takes forever to dry, and cleaning the brush afterwards SUCKS. But using an oil based primer would create a stronger seal that would prevent chipping on the off chance any of the old paint was lead based (again - paranoid). I also painted the molding on the sides and and the hand rail the same grey that is in our living room and our upstairs hall to tie it all together.

It's already starting to look better!

After 2 coats of primer, I added 2 coats of Behr Porch and Floor paint. Before putting on the second coat of paint, I added Behr Floor Finish Additive to give the stairs a little grip. I tell you what, this stuff works. Even while wearing socks I can feel my feet grip to the stairs. 

For the finishing touch and to truly tie the stairs into the rest of the house, I wall papered the risers with a textured damask wallpaper from http://www.grahambrown.com. It's GORGEOUS.

 

I'll admit, wallpapering the stairs was a bit of a challenge. I cut out strips to fit the risers a little over-sized so I could  trim off the top and bottoms with an exact-o knife. This proved to be a little challenging in such tight quarters and because there were so many layers of paint in the cracks between the risers and the stairs boards, I couldn't always get an exact straight cut. Additionally, the stairs were wider than the the roll of wallpaper, so matching up the pieces was a tedious task.

The final result, however, was SO worth it.

 

Before and After

And what about those gorgeous wood stairs at the top?
Don't worry - I made them work :)