Simple & Easy Stairway Makeover

If you have a house, there's like 50/50 chance that your house has stairs. I'm on the side of those odds where my house does in fact have stairs. These stairs are old, they are ugly, and they squeak loud enough to wake the entire 2nd floor of sleeping people in my house when I want to go back downstairs to have alone time and watch TV after everyone's in bed. If you have hideous, squeaky carpeted stairs like me, then you stumbled on the right page of the internet today, my friend, because I am going to show you how to take those eye-sore steps and turn them into eye candy.

Materials needed:

• Box-cutter
• Hammer (as needed)
• Staple remover/Needle-nose pliers
• Hand sander
• Sandpaper
• Stain
• Old rags
• Painter's tape
• Paint
• Paint brush

Before, from the top.

Before, from the bottom.

Step 1:

First, you're going to want to prep. For me, this meant getting all my materials, setting up my workspace, having the trash nearby, and keeping my vacuum handy. Nothing more annoying than going to start a project and realizing you don't have everything you need to do it. So be prepared and be ready to get things done, you hard-worker you!
Don't make the same mistakes I made out of laziness: Confine your workspace as much as possible and remove anything from the walls or it will all be covered in dust when it's time to sand. That means plastic hanging, doors closed, and as little amount of traffic in your work area as you can manage.

Step 2:

Next, you can get started by using your box-cutter to remove carpeting from one tread and one riser at a time. I say this because it's easier to make sure you remove all of the nails and staples if you inspect each one individually. You don't want to mess up your sander when the time comes and you definitely don't want to have to get a tetanus shot because you missed a nail and now you're bleeding everywhere and everything is chaos and you have to stop mid-project for an ER visit. That sounds like a disaster we all want to avoid, so make sure you do a double-check on this step. My husband went ahead and just ripped the carpet all off at one time, oh well.

After carpet removal. (Yuck)

After carpet removal, close-up.

Step 3:

Once you have all the carpet removed (in my case, there was two layers and the second layer was glued to the wood that we had to scrape off), it's time to sand these hidden beauties to give you a clean slate. They have potential! It doesn't look like it yet, but it's there under all those old layers of glue and stain and the most staples you've ever pulled in your life. The good news is, you can sand most, if not all, of it away with some hard work and determination. Sanding is definitely my least favorite part, physically, but it's the most exciting to get all the old yuckiness off and see that bare wood for the first time. They just look so much cleaner after a good sanding. Thanks for all your hard work, sweet husband of mine!

Pro tip: There's going to be a ton of sawdust being produced, so I suggest doing what I didn't do (whoops) and covering up as much stuff as possible and taking stuff off the walls anywhere near your stairs so there's less clean-up when it's done. As mentioned earlier, because this is so important.

Step 4:

When you're finally done sanding, you can give yourself a pat on the back. The hardest and most time consuming part is over. Clean up whatever mess you've made and straighten up the area. It's time to wipe the stairs down to prepare for paint and stain. Use whatever you'd like, but I just vacuumed up what I could and wiped off the rest with a wet rag.

Step 5:

Now you get to do the fun parts! (Not really) First up is staining. You want to stain first so that if it gets anywhere it shouldn't be, it's most likely going to be somewhere you are going to end up painting anyways. If your stairs are in really rough shape, staining them might not be the best option since defects will show through. If this is the case, skip this step and just paint your treads instead. You could do a brown or black or whatever you want, but you probably want to go for a dark color since they will get a lot of traffic. Another helpful tip is to only stain every other tread, that way you can still use your stairs if needed while they are drying. We used a stain that also has a polyurethane in it so it took longer to dry, but it eliminated a step or two and saved a lot of time. If you can find a stain like this, I highly recommend it. My husband stained every step (before I could tell him the right way to do it), starting from the top and working his way down, and then we left the house for a few hours while they dried.

After sanding and first layer of stain, from the top. (Don't mind the mess, y'all. It's gonna get messy.)

After sanding and first layer of stain, from the bottom.

After sanding and second layer of stain, close-up.

Step 6:

Painting time! So once your stain is all finished and dry, you need to use your painter's tape to tape off around the area you'll be painting. You don't want to get paint on your freshly stained treads. Once each riser has been taped, you're ready to go. Get your brush, go around the outline first and then do the rest. This step might take some repeating depending on what color you're using and how durable you want it to be. I'm using white so I ended up having to do 3 layers to get full coverage, but I also was using a roller. My husband saved the day and showed me that a brush gets better coverage and might not need as many layers. You could also use a primer before your paint color, but I don't prime anything ever and it usually holds up fine. Whatever floats your boat.

After 1st layer of paint.

After 3rd layer of paint.

Step 7:

When your paint is dry, (carefully) peel all the tape off and voilà! Your old steps have been made new. Congrats, I knew you could do it. Now sit and stare at them and yell at your kids and your husband whenever they walk a little too rough on them. You worked hard on those steps and you earned that right!

After

After

There you have it, folks! My fool-proof and very easy to understand guide on a total staircase redo. I hope that it helps give you a better understanding of the process and gives you that push you needed to just go for it! Your stairs will thank you, and then you will thank yourself for doing it, and then you will thank me for showing you how (in which case, you're welcome).

-Yours truly