Painted stairs revealed...

If you are thinking of painting your stairs, I have one bit of advice. Be prepared that it will take a looong time.
My stairs were in a fairly poor condition. Aside from the glue residue there were a great many dings, staple holes and screw holes to be filled. Then all the edges with the gaps and little crack marks needed to be caulked. Once primed, all the dings I had missed the first time around showed up really well so it was back to the wood filler. And sanding the wood filler and priming. Again.

All this before you can even think about paint. And I'm not a perfectionist. Well, I might be slightly but here I was not aiming for perfection. It's an old house and the last thing I want is a modern, perfect looking staircase.

I didn't sand the painted bits. You have to be careful with lead levels in old paint. I used my trusty Zinsser 123 water based super primer. It has high opacity (hence I got away with poo coloured filler; there was method to my madness) high adhesion (no sanding required) and stain blocking properties (useful if you have knotty pine.) What's not to love?

For the actual stair paint Angela at A Typical English Home highly recommended RONSEAL DIAMOND HARD FLOOR PAINT. ( Thank you Antonia for the tip off about Angelas post!) It's extraordinarily tough and has non slip qualities that your average gloss just can't compete with. An added bonus is that it's quick drying.

You can buy this online from Homebase. Homebase, I love you for this! Anything that prevents me from actually visiting  the big shops in Stevenage is very much appreciated. (B&Q - wise up!) Also don't be put off by the ''up to 20 days delivery time.'' Mine came the very next day.

This paint also comes in beige, tile red and grey.

So, do I like it? I think it's a huge improvement on the 'before' and I love the half  landing parts with the floorboards painted. I might have to add some colour at some point. And when I say 'colour' you know I mean beige or grey right?

But for now ...I'm done. We'll live with it for a while. In our slippers obviously...

I'll remind you of the before...

Of course, it's making that wall look filthy now. All the six year olds hand prints need painting over. That's often the way when you start these things...

Linking with Coastal Charm; Nifty Thrifty Tuesday 

and From My Front Porch to Yours; Treasure Hunt Thursday

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One for the cat fans...

I have a lovely wooden bowl...

It sits on the windowsill and is currently filled with ripped up tissue paper for decoupaging my mannequin (that has to be the most boring job in the world so it's going to take me forever to complete it!)

 Imagine my surprise when I walked into the living room and found Bad Bobby in my bowl.

And then, he carefully turned around and smiled for the camera!

He is very pleased with himself isn't he? I know my boys have several fans so I had to share this!

Stair progress?


The only wood filler I have is dark. Left over from this. And it doesn't last forever, it dries up.
So instead of buying new, I thought, lets be frugal and use this up first.


Result?

 

It looks like we have an incontinent puppy and we've run out of J cloths. I hope no one comes round...

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Sanding the stairs...

Well, if that title doesn't grab you, I don't know what will...

Sorry for my blogging absence. You'll never guess what I've been up to.

If you are hankering after a house full of dust, both upstairs and down, to make your spring cleaning really worthwhile, I thoroughly recommend sanding your stairs.

Offending glue covered step

If you're lucky your husband might come in when you're halfway through and start bitching about the state of the house.

I would just ignore him if I were you and plough on.

Flippin' gorgeous...

Before you start hoovering up the mess, you might want to countersink 20 or so screws that the previous owners needlessly put into the staircase...

Great. You're one step closer to the staircase of your dreams. Just several hours of filling, caulking, sanding, priming and painting to go.



Still no news of Mrs Bolden our missing school teacher. We are all hoping she might return to work on Tuesday. She is constantly in our thoughts and prayers.

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The stairs...

 It's been a rubbish few days. I came down with my daughters lurgy. I didn't leave the house for four days and I've been too sick to deal with the mess that piles up when you spend a few days in bed. We've had snow all weekend so I should be grateful that I've not been able to go out.

Thank goodness for the Internet. My waking moments were filled with my important research (otherwise known as pinterest.)

I've been thinking about tackling the stairs.
All we've done since moving in, is rip up the green carpet and underlay.

Here's what we have.

 With gaps...

Screws...

On every step

and glue...

Was this much glue really necessary?

Do I just carpet it?

Or what about painted stairs?

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Or wallpapered stairs?

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 Numbers?

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I've been thinking about this for a very long time.
Then last week I opened a magazine and fell in love.

The stairs not the dog!

So it's all white for me. Got my work cut out for me though!

(This is Mollie Makes. The Splash of colour refers to a scarf on the other page. They're not being sarcastic.)

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