The Staircase Makeover Part 4...The Grand Finale!!

Yahoo!!  I can't believe we are finally here.....ready for the big reveal of the "new" staircase!!  I have been thinking about this post all day, because I AM SO EXCITED to show you guys the finished staircase and find out what you think about it.....be honest.....well......be honest if you LOVE it and be nice if you don't :)

If you didn't catch the first couple of posts on the staircase makeover, then you can find Part 1 Here, Part 2 Here, and Part 3 Here.

AND.....SO......Without further delay.....below is my favorite shot of the "new" staircase:

 

And just in case you need a little reminder.....below are a few "before" pictures, showing what we started with....

AND.....for your viewing pleasure.....below are some more "after" pics of the (now) FABULOUS staircase:

 

And a few more from up top.....

And a few looking up:

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how the espresso stain on the stairs contrasts against the white!  At one time we had discussed replacing the white wood balusters with black iron and I'm so glad that we didn't!!  Everything looks so crisp and clean now.....ahh......how I love a good clean line!! 

And yes...we used bead board for the risers!!  Cool huh?  I haven't seen anyone else do that before.....but we thought it looked cool....and gave the risers a little more texture and some personality of their own! 

SO.....what do you think?  I hope you love it!  We are SO HAPPY with how it all turned out!!  And I promise the stairs/banisters are just as gorgeous up close!!

This was a HARD project for us!  Mainly because we had NO IDEA what we were doing....and we had to learn EVERYTHING along the way.  If we had to do this same project again.....it would be SO MUCH EASIER!!  SO......I hope that any of you that might want to tackle a similar project can learn from what we did....and if you have questions about our project, then please leave me a comment and I'll answer if I can :)

So a few more details.....

Materials:

Oak Wood Treads:  Purchased from Lowe's

Bead Board Panels (purchased as a package of long/thin strips to minimize cutting) from Lowe's

General Finishes Espresso Stain

General Finishes Polyurethane High Performance Top Coat (Satin)*

Minwax Polycrylic*

*I forgot to mention this in my previous post....all of your treads, risers, and banister should be top coated with some type of polycrylic or polyurethane for protection!!

Cost:

Ugh!  Gag!!  Remember in my first post when I said I wanted this project to be cheap....well.....hmmmm.....yeah.....that sort of went out the window when we decided that we would need to buy new treads.  SO.....well.....it is what it is......and we LOVE how it turned out.....and we figure we still came out way ahead by doing the work ourselves.......so it's all good.....but I did want to share the cost with you, so if you want to tackle this project you'll know what your getting into.....so hear are the ugly details.......

New Oak Treads [~$300] (Ouch!)

Bead Board [~$45]

Stain [~$40] (the stain we actually used)

Stain (testers) [~$50] (stain we tested out, but didn't use)

Gen Finishes Poly [~$20]

Minwax Polycrylic [~$15]

Trim [~$45]

Working materials [~$60] (brushes, tape, sandpaper, tape, sharpies, liquid nails, etc)

Total [~$575]

Plus we also invested in a few tools to make the job easier.  My hubs bought himself a present purchased a sliding mitre saw (which he absolutely loves), nailgun, and a Dremel sander.  I bought myself a Skil Octo Sander.  We didn't include these items in the cost for the project, since we will be using them for many more projects in the future!!

And with that....I think I've just about covered it all....at least I hope so......

SO....one more time....what do you think?  I SO WANT TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS (and questions if you have some)!! 

Until next time....

XOXO,

Kristal

P.S.  Did you see the floor in the entryway??  That's new too....so....get ready.....a post will be coming on that beauty very soon :)

I'm linking up here.....

www.notjustahousewife.net

The Staircase Makeover Part 3.....Staining, Staining, and More Staining

So glad you all are here for another installment of the ongoing saga staircase makeover project.  For those of you that may have missed the first few "episodes" you can check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Today we are talking about staining.  Just curious....have any of you ever tried to stain anything?  If you have, then you will probably laugh as I detail our struggle to get these stairs stained.  If you haven't, then hopefully you may learn something.  :)

First, let me say that I have a whole new appreciation for people who are skilled in staining and/or renovating furniture.  Duh!  No wonder it cost so much to get this type of work done....it's not easy!!

Perhaps the first lesson we learned is that the color shown in the stores for each stain are not really very representative of how the stain will look.  Some are more accurate than others, but the bottom line is that there are a lot of variables to consider (number of coats of stain, drying time, wood used, etc, etc)......SO.....YOU MUST do some trial runs before you try and stain your actual object.

For example.....below is a picture of the exact same stains used on two different types of wood.  The top wood is oak and the bottom is pine....

The grain of the wood and the way the wood accepts the stain makes a big difference in the final look....so again....trial runs are a MUST!!

Second lesson....achieving a rich dark espresso stain (which is what we wanted) can be complicated.  We tried just about every stain we could find.  We searched the internet for ideas, we drove across Houston to an obscure little place to get a new type of stain, we played with drying times/number of coats, and the hubs even tried to make his own stain (first attempt he just smelled up the whole house by cooking vinegar on the stove (ugh - gag!).......but his second attempt was actually really good......he's an engineer......so getting the chance to mix up some stuff was right up his alley).

Here is a to show you all the options we looked at.....

I KNOW.....ridiculous right???  Did I mention that I can tend to be a little crazy perfectionist?  I can't help it....once I have a vision in mind.....it just has to be.....end of story......yes.......feel free to send my hubs condolences......I can be a little hard to handle at times......thank goodness he loves me.....and truth be told he is a little crazy perfectionist too!!

Here are a few pics up close just in case you might get a wild idea that you want to stain something yourself....

The ones with India in the title are the ones the hubs mixed up, the others are minwax, except for the ones labeled Varathane or General Finish ......I'm only showing the stain on Oak wood, but have pics for some on pine too if anyone is interested....



AND THE WINNER IS......General Finish Espresso Stain.......we ended up just wiping the stain on and then immediately wiping it off.  We loved it....and it was water based......BONUS.....no stinkiness!!

Again, be sure to do a practice run with your stain.....we found that the temperature and humidity REALLY affected how dark the stain got and how quickly it dried.  WE MESSED UP A LOT at the beginning.  The good news is that you can always re-sand and try again, but we quickly got sick of having to do that....ugh!! 

Another important note....when you wipe off your stain....be sure to wipe in one fluid motion....we found it you stop in the middle of the board, then it will often leave a line....and it doesn't look good!!  We found it easiest if one of us wiped on the stain and the other wiped off the stain.

SOOOOO....
I bet your thinking....finally....now.....we.....will....get.....to.....see....these....finished....stairs.....

Well.....not...just...yet....

There is one more thing that must be done.....(insert your scariest dun...dun....dun....music).....the banisters!!

So....here is a picture of these lovelies after they were partially sanded down....

Seriously....if there were one part of this project that I would probably hire out if I had to do this again....it would be the sanding/staining of the banisters.  It was HARD work!!  The sanding goes on and on and on and on and on.....I am not kidding....you can't ever quite get everything out of every little crack and crevice.  UGH!!! 

So......here is my BIG SECRET.....I got sick of sanding, so I just quit....and started staining....and the stain was dark.....SO.....I can't believe I'm telling ya'll this.....I just filled in the not so great parts (places where the stain wouldn't take) with a sharpie marker!  Yep....that's right....I used a sharpie marker on these baby's!!  AND it looks really great....even up close....I PROMISE!!  It just looks like wood grain.  SO.....HA!  It did take a little "practicing" to get it to look good, but it really wasn't that hard.  Plus.....who doesn't love Sharpie makers.....I use them for everything.....and they smell SO good!!  LOL!!

So here are the after pics of the banister (I promise I don't normally let my baby play on the stairs)....

OH YEAH BABY!!  This project is coming together!!  I love how the banisters turned out.....I was pretty worried during the process, BUT in the end it was SO worth it!

AND I promise.....the next post on the stairs will be the finale and you will get to see the finished staircase!!

Until next time.....

XOXO,
Kristal

The Staircase Makeover Part 2....The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The good, the bad, and the ugly....hmmmm....yeah....so I'll start with the good....

The Good....As I mentioned in my previous post: the staircase makeover part 1, I was really excited to get started on this project AND by the time he agreed to do it the hubs was pretty excited too (although he probably won't admit it).....so that was REALLY good.....and probably that "high" of starting the project is the only thing that got us through this....

The Bad....OH-MY-GOODNESS...was there ever bad!!  I'm not going to lie....after reading other blogs....talking about how they took off their carpet....and wow....beneath it they found a real "diamond in the rough"....beautiful stairs (some even with bullnose)....just waiting for a little sanding and some stain.  Ha....Ha....Ha...what a cruel joke....we pulled off our carpet and we found this.....

 

Ugh!!  Seriously...come on....there was a huge gap where the tread didn't even touch the riser on every stair....and....the stairs were covered with a THICK layer of paint and texture...most likely due to overspray when the walls were covered.  SO....as I was looking at this mess....I was thinking....maybe....just maybe we should put the hideous lovely hideous carpet back on the stairs and walk away.  Just as this thought ran through my mind....the hubs walked up....and he said....we are so lucky.....I got that carpet out to the curb just in time for the garbage truck to pick it up (as he beams proudly)..........AND THEN I PANICKED (on the inside).....but what I said was Oh really....well I guess there is no turning back now....

So....we trudged ahead....we thought we could solve the gap between the tread and the riser pretty easily by just putting a "beauty plate" on it to cover the gap....So the real problem was what to do with the actual tread.....the first thing we tried was to sand down the stairs and stain them....yeah....epic fail!!  First it was REALLY difficult to sand down the stairs enough to even get the stain on....AND our stairs had huge nail holes....which we couldn't figure out how to deal with (I know about stainable putty....but really....has anyone got this stuff to work)....AND the stairs were just plain old ugly!!  They were clearly never meant to be seen by anyone without their lovely carpet covering.

So....we decided that maybe we should paint the treads...this was not really the look that we wanted, but I was determined to keep this project easy and cheap (ha, ha, ha).  We still had to sand....which was really difficult....but with dreams of a beautiful staircase....we pushed ahead....and we came up with this....

 

Ok....so not TOO bad....but let's just say that the pictures are REALLY  forgiving!!  Up close....the stairs were just....well....ok....but not GREAT, which was the goal....

So....we had to come up with a new plan....what if we flipped over all the stairs and used the non-beatup, non-covered with overspray side....ah....yes....genius....until we realized this....

The Ugly....

 

Looking at the problem area from a different view....

So....unless we wanted to also tear out the banister....there wouldn't be anyway to turn over the treads on the bottom half of our staircase.  Ugh....remember that part about keeping this project cheap and easy...and I was not willing to mess with anything that could possibly make our stairs unsafe....that was an absolute NO....so I really didn't want to do anything structural to the banister.

Thankfully the hubs came up with plan A B C D......well at this point I had lost track.....but at least we had a plan.  He found a YouTube video (yeah...I know...scary....we are now resorting to stuff we saw on YouTube)....where someone cut the nose off of their treads and then put a new tread on top of the old tread....then your new riser not only covers the existing riser, but it also covers the front of the old tread.  Did you follow all of that???  Basically you are just placing a new tread on top of the old tread and then covering all of your "sins" with your riser.  I hope that makes sense.....

I was extremely nervous about this plan....I mean what if it looked terrible....there would be no going back....once the old tread noses were cut off....well....it's permanent!!  So the hubs decided to do the cutting while I was out shopping one day (smart move babe)....so I don't have any pictures of this phase.  I can tell you he used a hand saw and a jigsaw to get those baby's cut off.

The next step was to pick the new treads.  We wavered between Pine and Oak.  Pine is a softer wood (less resilient), but 1/2 the price.  We ultimately decided to go with the Oak....we have a precious little bulldog (60 lb) who is quite hard on everything....so we thought we better go with the harder wood.

The hubs built a "jig", so that he could get the exact dimensions on each stair tread....we found that the stairs were all a little different (imagine that).  Here's the jig:

And then he cut the new treads....and FINALLY....here they are in all their glory!!

Beautiful huh?  We thought so....and they weren't even stained yet!!!!

Ok...so....this post is long enough....so I'll leave it right there....up next....another fun adventure.....staining!!

Until next time....

XOXO,

Kristal



The Staircase Makeover Part 1...Jumping In With Both Feet

I guess you could say that I am relatively knew to all of this DIY stuff...I mean I've always liked the idea of DIY, but when I was working full time I rarely had time to tackle big projects myself.  So...in my old life I either paid to have something done...or....more likely....just didn't do it....thinking that some day I would get around to it.

Fast forward to present day....and now that I am a Stay at Home Mom...well....I still don't have a lot of time, but I do have more than I used too....AND.....I have been inspired!!  There are so many incredible DIYers out there!

And being the person that I am....I decided to just jump into this DIY world with both feet!!  How can you not get excited when you see such amazing transformations!  I especially love the DIY staircase makeovers.  If you haven't seen these already, then be sure to check these out:  Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick (love her....she doesn't know me....but still....she rocks!), Kate at Centsational Girl, Rhoda Southern Hospitality, Stephanie at Crea8tive Designs, Tracy at Cleverly Inspired, and Diane at In My Own Style.  Their transformations are amazing!!

I am totally in awe of how great their stairs looked after their transformation and for such a cheap price!  I mean who doesn't want gorgeous stairs??  So here we go....jumping right on into a major DIY project right off the bat....yeah....that sounds about like me....very ambitious....maybe a little crazy....definitely delusional.....and hopelessly optimist....

And so we begin.....

This is what our staircase looked like before we started the project:

The stairs are the first thing that you see when you walk into our entryway....and well....let's just be honest....they aren't anything to write home about....the carpet....well...I'll keep it PG and just say it was GROSS!!  And the banisters...yeah....can you say......SO 1980....and our house wasn't even built in the 80's!!  Okay, okay.....so maybe the stairs aren't that bad, but they certainly aren't great....and when this is the first thing you see when you walk into our house....I wanted it to be great!  Something that would give us that "Wow factor"!!

So....I sweet talked convinced the hubs that this was a project that we could totally do ourselves and on the cheap!  I mean....that's a win-win right (thought I'd throw in a little corporate jargon for ya...gag....)!  Well....I won't keep you in too much suspense.....I'll go ahead and tell you that we did in fact makeover our staircase....ourselves....and it is SO GORGEOUS now (or at least I think so).....BUT we did hit a lot of snags along the way....and when I say a lot....I mean A LOT!!!  So.....I'm going to break down the details for you over a couple of different post....because WE LEARNED A LOT.....and I want to share it all with you guys....so if you ever decided to jump in with both feet and tackle a project like this....well....hopefully it will be easier for you!! 

Until next time.....

XOXO,
Kristal