A little staircase facelift...so let's get to step'n!

Remodeling our home staircase from a drab, construction steps to a fresh, modern staircase was an unexpected project accomplishment!

I say it was unexpected because it wasn't on the list of projects for this year. It was when my son was showing interest in the steps and me; being the mommy crazed parent that cannot stop looking up mommy blogs on where my son should be at- whatever age he is- stage in his life; saw that steps were on the list of what a 2 year old should be conquering. With that said, the staircase was slipped right in there at the top of our list!

Before Pics~

First, how cute is my son climbing the steps a few months ago! Now he's a pro...sort of! And second, these are my hideous steps. They were painted white when we first moved in. And then I had the brilliant idea to paint them black...and it did not hold up with our two dogs. Our first dog did not like bare floors or steps, and he was an old man (RIP Couper), so we went to our local hardware store and picked up an inexpensive runner with some grip. We cut treads from that and stapled them down into place for our beloved Couper. We didn't put any care into these (as it shows) because, at the time we were starting demo in our basement and they were just a set of steps to haul construction materials up and down from.

Now, I felt they needed a little love - so we started with finding a carpet runner. I purchased an Anderson Tuftex Only Natural II Carpet - color Luminary. There were a few things that needed to check off on the list -

1. I wanted a nylon carpet to hold up to traffic (The family and friends, our little man, and our dog!)

2. Stain protection. So this carpet has 100% Stairmaster Luxerell Bcf Nylon

3. Loop style; low and dense pile - better to have a low pile on the steps. My father-in law as well as myself need no extra help tripping up!

4. Good backing. This carpet has softbac platinum backing. I do not want this carpet pulling/falling apart after all of my hard work!

5. Nice pattern. Of course I wanted a pretty pattern; nothing too busy, but something that would add some character to the steps and hide any dirt...until I get to vacuuming the steps that is.

I had the carpet cut and serged at a local shop - shout-out to Bob's binding in Minneapolis, MN!

Carpet info can be found here:

https://andersontuftex.com/rugs/details/only-natural-ii-zz010/luminary-00151/

Process Pics~

First we had our drywall guy come over to skim coat the walls. They were wallpapered before (every square inch of our home was wallpapered!!!). We made the mistake of tearing the wallpaper off and painting the walls when we first moved in...to find out that it looked fine for the time being; but knew we were going to have to replace it someday...and today was that someday...it came fast! So without completely demoing the sheetrock and replacing, we decided to skim coat this little area.

And the picture on the right is where I shoved my fingers in the fresh new skim coat while I tried so hard to tip toe down the steps and not touch anything! Yeah, that didn't work. I literally went out our patio door onto our upper deck, walked all the way around and down the patio steps to our lower deck and then entered back into the house through the basement deck door, ugh! Good thing that was his first coat; so he was coming back regardless the next day for coat #2.

Process Pics~

The next painful process was sanding down the steps and treads. I added a little wood filler to areas that needed some extra attention and sanded all the paint off of the treads; I really wanted a nice smooth finish and then just cleaned up and smoothed out the treads, as I was painting them white again. I sanded the treads down all the way back to wood because they were much darker than what the new coat of paint was going to be...and they had a slightly old smell to them, that surprisingly my husband was nose blind to!

Once I primed everything (walls, treads, and risers), I taped off all walls first, painted, then risers, and painted, and lastly the treads. Of course there are two coats on all surfaces. A little secret, I had to paint the treads...5 TIMES! The first two coats came out wrong. I had to take the paint back and they still could not fix it to color match what I wanted. So I finally got the right color and then painted two coats of the RIGHT color. Those steps better put up a good fight and stay in, not good, but great condition!

After the primer and paint, I moved onto the carpet pad and carpet runner.

Process Pics~

I ordered a 5x7 rug pad and cut pads for each tread. I was careful to cut them an inch shorter on all sides...just about. And then I had to hand the project over to my husband to measure out (that little wood piece on the last picture...was a real big help in keeping the runner straight!), clamp and staple with a crown staple gun. The both of us were not fitting on these steps side by side and I was not comfortable enough to use the staple gun. So, he stepped up to the plate!

We added a railing; an absolute must for a soon to be 2 year old and for the father-in law.

And then WALLAH! The steps were finished and it looks and feels up to date and modern.

After Pics~