Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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How To Install A Stair Runner Yourself!

Install a stair runner may seem intimidating, and the good news is that adding ours was pretty darn easy and we love how it looks (and feels underfoot). So here’s a full tutorial for how to install one yourself, including how to join two runners if one isn’t long enough for your stairs, how to finish off the bottom cleanly, and how to give the stairs and railings a fresher look too.

How To Install Your Own Stair Runner Graphic

Update: For anyone asking for the rug info, here’s an affiliate link to the exact one we used. 

Project Step By Step

The whole project took us about 20 hours in total, but that included more than just installing the runner itself. We also gave the whole staircase a fresher look with painted risers and darker stained railings. So here are the total steps for the makeover, but we’ll be picking up around Step #5 today.

  1. Priming and painting the trim and railing
  2. Selected your runner (more on that and the previous bullet here)
  3. Remove the old carpet and rug pad
  4. Paint the stairwell walls and ceiling (more on that and the previous bullet here)
  5. Prim and Paint the risers
  6. Stain the railings
  7. Measure and mark your runner placement
  8. Cut and lay out the rug pads
  9. Install the runner (including where to staple and how to keep ends looking finished)
  10. High five like maniacs!

How Much Did This Project Cost?

Here’s a general cost breakdown of what it took us to complete this project:

  • Two runners (here’s an affiliate link to the exact ones we used): $199
  • Electric stapler & staples: $54
  • Rug pad: $39
  • PolyShades stain & brush for the railings: $11
  • Primer & paint for the risers, posts, trim, walls, and the ceiling: $0 (we had it already, but a guess for what you’d spend might be $80)
  • TOTAL: $283 (or $363 if you need to buy primer, trim paint, and wall paint)

We read here that it would typically cost about $318 for a similar installation job by a pro – which doesn’t include the cost of the runners or the padding themselves (or the staining/painting/priming that we squeezed into this makeover), so this could easily been twice as much if we had hired it out.

Preparing And Painting The Stairs

Wednesday, November 6th – LATE AFTERNOON: Time to paint those risers. Since we knew it would take lots of coats, Sherry taped off the bottoms to make things speedier than having to meticulously edge each time and I applied a coat of primer (since it’s low-VOC, but not no-VOC) to block any wood bleed.

priming and painting wood stair risers white

Wednesday, November 6th – NIGHT: With the primer dry, Sherry applied the first coat of paint (it’s the same no-VOC Simply White in semi-gloss that we’ve used on trim everywhere else).

Thursday, November 7th – MORNING & AFTERNOON: Sherry applied coat #2 of paint and I went in for coat #3 later, just to be sure we get a good solid white tone on each tread.

Thursday, November 7th – NIGHT: Right before bed, I applied a coat of Rejuvenate to each tread to restore the wood finish (more on that here). I worked my way up the stairs right before bed so that it could cure overnight while we were all up there sleeping. In the morning we woke up to a much fresher looking staircase. We love the look of bare stairs like this, so we soaked up this pretty sight, and then pushed onward towards our goal of a fresh new runner (we’d just prefer some extra padding with young kids in the house to cushion the blow if anyone does fall).

stair riser painted white on wooden staircase

Painting & Staining The Railing

Friday, November 8th – MORNING: Since we wanted to get as much messy stuff done before the runner was installed (stain drips on a new carpet = the stuff of nightmares) we dove into staining the railings a deeper tone so they’d pick up some of the black in the runner (more on what inspired us to do that here). We found this PolyShades stain + polyurethane that didn’t require any heavy sanding (just a light roughing up) in a nice deep color, so we grabbed it.

can of Minwax PlyShades Stain And Polyurethane in Espresso Satin finish

Unlike stain, you don’t wipe off the excess once it’s applied. The railing on the right side of the stairs is pictured here, but I also did this to the long rail that goes up the left side of the wall (we had removed that when we painted the walls and ceiling last week and decided to just keep it off so I could easily do that staining outside).

Applying PloyShades to wooden stair railing

Friday, November 8th – AFTERNOON: The first coat didn’t quite dry as dark as we hoped, but we crossed our fingers that a second one would do the trick. The first should’ve been dry after 6 hours but it was still tacky, so rather than wait an unknown amount of time for it to cure, we switched gears and started painting the newel posts, which we decided would look best white like the other stair posts after seeing some Pinterest images like that and loving them. Like the risers, Sherry taped it off so I (the less perfect cutter-inner of the two of us) could apply the primer.

painting wood stair ballasts white

Friday, November 8th – NIGHT: Sherry applied the first coat of white paint (also Simply White) to the posts while I read weird Buzzfeed articles to her out loud to pass the time. Oh yeah, we know how to party on a Friday night.

Saturday, November 9th – MORNING: Sherry applied coats 2 and 3 of white paint to the posts about three hours apart.

Saturday, November 9th – AFTERNOON: With the post paint dry and the first coat of stain on the railing more than fully cured, I could go back to applying our second coat of stain. Beforehand, I had to rough it up slightly with some fine steel wool. Thankfully the second coat made it darker, just like we hoped. We were aiming for it to pick up on the black stripes in the runner as well as the dark espresso console table and the oil-rubbed bronze light fixture nearby in the foyer.

stair railing makeover with white ballasts white pickets and dark railing

Planning And Marking The Runner Placement

Saturday, November 9th – LATE AFTERNOON: With all of the messy stuff done, we could finally turn our attention to the runner. Thanks to a couple of helpful tutorials (like Rhoda’s and Jenny’s) we had some goods tips to go off of – like when Jenny mentioned that she wished she had measured to keep hers centered so the stripes aligned all the way down. Thanks to her post, we decided to create some tape guides to follow so we could make sure the runner didn’t shift from side to side as we move down the staircase (which can be especially obvious when it has stripes). In order to be centered, our guides needed to be set 4″ from each side of the wall, so we marked that line with some tape.

taping off placement of stair runner on wooden staircase

We read that if your stairs widen on one side at the bottom like ours do, it’s recommended that you center them on the narrowest part of the staircase, which means the part up top (if we had centered the runner on those few wider steps at the base of the stairs, it would have rubbed against the right wall on all of the upper steps and looked a lot less balanced).

Adding Your Rug Pad

We also wanted to use some sort of padding to keep the runner from sliding and to add some extra cushioning, but we wanted to be sure to go with something that wouldn’t adhere to or damage the wood stairs, just in case we want to go runner-less again sometime when the kiddos are older, so we got a standard 5 x 8′ rug pad at Target and discovered that cutting it in half made it just about the perfect width.

cutting rug pad to the size of a striped stair runner

We took the time to cut individual pads for each riser (long enough to wrap around the nose of them) so that we could get this all done for the cost of just one rug pad instead of needing to buy two. We didn’t adhere these at all, knowing that stapling through the runner on top of them would hold everything nice and firmly.

sections of rug pad placed on each step of staircase before runner

Starting Your Runner Installation

Sunday, November 10th – MORNING: We took Saturday night off to do something fun, so Sunday was crunch time. Less than 24 hours ’til posting time. Yikes! We started off by using an electric stapler like this one to set the edge of the runner right under the nose at the top. Our runner had a pattern all the way to the end and the rolled edge was barely noticeable, but had it been more distinct, we would’ve cut off the edge and rolled it under so the pattern would look seamless instead of having an obvious border at the top.

Sherry using electric staple gun to apply stapes to black and white runner under first tread

We noticed the first staple that we shot through the runner was more visible than we’d like (since it was a slice of silver on a black stripe), so we took a second to color the tops of a row of staples with a black Sharpie (a trick Sherry saw on Pinterest for making decorative gold staples). Then we were sure to staple only into the dark parts of the rug so they’d blend in. Worked like a charm.

Using black sharpie to color staples so they blend in with black stripes

With a row of staples in at the top, we then pulled it tight along the riser and Sherry stapled a row along the bottom into the riser, not the tread. We wanted to avoid stapling into the tread since that’s where people would be stepping and we didn’t want the staples to “surprise” any bare feet (even though they generally sink into the rug and aren’t pointy or anything).

Electric staple gun securing runner to the bottom of the top first risier

Sherry had been firing a staple into each of the big stripes (the pink ones in the diagram below) but we found it wasn’t enough – at least at the top under the nose, where it seemed to sag a bit between staples. So she went back and did another row of staples up top (the blue ones that you see below). Here’s a sense of where we put staples and in what order:

graphic showing placement of staples in stair runner installation tutorial

How To Adjoin Two Runners Seamlessly

One runner wasn’t enough to get all the way down the stairs, so at some point we knew we’d have to join the second one as seamlessly as possible to the first one, so we wanted them to meet under a tread nose where the joint would be least visible. First we snipped off the end of the first one so it would wrap just below the nose.

Using scissors to trim off excess runner

Then we stapled that one under the nose, just like we had done on all the steps before it.

stapling the end of first runner under one tread in order to start the next

I didn’t get a good picture of the next part (picture us sweating bullets and using all available hands) but we just lined up the edge of the new runner as flush under the nose as possible. Our goal was for the edge to catch your eye as little as possible, so by tucking it under the nose of the stair, it seemed as hidden as we could get it. Can you see the seam in the photo below?

detail picture of finished stair runner installation to show hidden seam

You really have to look for it, but it’s under the nose of the the step there on the bottom. The line where they meet is a little more defined than the underside of the other steps if you’re this close (Sherry was about a foot away when she snapped this photo) but if you’re standing up you really can’t detect it at all, which is a relief  because during this “joining of the rugs” we were both really nervous that it would be bulky and obvious.

Finishing Off Your Stair Runner Installation

The other tricky part was the very end, where we also had to cut off some excess runner, leaving about an inch that could be rolled under.

trimming excess runner at the bottom of the stairs

By rolling it under and stapling it like this, it meant that our cut didn’t have to be perfect and the edge would look more finished (and would be protected from fraying).

detail of how bottom of runner is folded to hide cut seam

I’ve kinda broken from the timeline structure that this post started with, but despite the many steps to installing the runner, it only took us about three hours. In fact it was the fastest step of the whole stairway makeover process (removing those old staples and painting the ceiling while balancing on a ladder were waaay more intense). So to anyone wondering if you can install a stair runner, we’d rank this task as simple and straightforward. Especially if you spring for an electric stapler, which really made things easy.

We’re both pleasantly surprised at how soft the runner is (since some flat weaves can be scratchy). As for the light color, we’re a no-shoes household, so that should cut down on lots of potential dirt or staining (we’ve had light colored rugs like this in rooms like our living room and kitchen for years without any issues). We also hear that Dash & Albert rugs hold up well (Sherry’s friend with two young kids has a white and brown one on her steps and is really happy with it) but we’ll keep you posted either way!

black and white stair runner installation after photo looking up the stairs

Oh and this photo shows why we opted not to stain the vertical newel posts on the railing that you see below on the left (and painted them white instead). Since we knew the railing on the right would just be a clean dark stripe on that side of the stairs (with nothing vertical going on) we thought something dark on the left going down to the floor might look unbalanced.

black and white stair runner installation after photo looking down the stairs

We’re really happy with how it turned out. The color scheme and pattern of the runner are still pretty classic and not too wacky, but the high contrast elements still make it interesting.

 

side by side before and after of old staircase with new updates

 We especially like how the dark stripe in the runner and the new railing color ties into the light fixture and the console table. If only there weren’t all that blue trim winking at us from the dining room…

foyer with view of new stairscase

Oh yeah, and to complete my timeline…

Sunday, November 10th – EVENING: Finally finished sizing pictures and writing a super long post about the previous week of stair projects. Poor Sherry’s gotta proofread this sucker in the morning. Sorry honey! But the good news is, we made it!

What did you guys do this weekend? Any runners going in, or old carpet coming out? How about using dark stain on something to accent it? We’re really having fun with contrast these days, which is admittedly something that used to scare us. Change is good.

Update – Wanna know where we got something in our house or what paint colors we used? Just click on this button: 

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Note: this project was originally posted in November 2013

*This post contains affiliate links to products we have purchased and loved *

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Comments

  4. I love the look of dark rails with white. I may be Australian but my home is going to look so Southern :D

    Would the kind of stain you used on the rails also work well on furniture? Did it turn out super shiny or more like a light gloss?

    Reply

  5. This looks amazing!! I’ve been looking to do a similar project on my staircase, including painting all those posts/spindles. Do you have any good ideas for how to make that process easier? It just seems like painting all of them (several times) would be just the worst, which is why I’ve avoided it up until now!

    Reply

    • If you tape off the top and bottom (assuming you don’t want paint on the stair treads and the railing) it’s really not that bad. A lot of coats, but after the first one it goes pretty fast. Good luck Stacy!

      xo
      s

  8. Thank you so much for posting this! It looks great and gives me the confidence to work on mine. This weekend is going to be my ‘crunch time’ and i hope it works out as well as yours!

    Reply

  13. That looks great!!!

    As for carpet going out… This weekend I finally got around to getting a sample of quarter round so that we can finally finalize our flooring order and get an installation date to replace the worn vinyl sheet in our kitchen and the stained and worn carpet in our living room with wood-look vinyl plank. I hate pulling the trigger since it will be pricey, but hopefully I won’t regret it when it’s done since our little one will have a nicer place to play! Part of that will include us pulling up the carpet and also finding an area rug for the living room – both firsts for me!

    Reply

  14. I love the stained and painted stair rails, when staining was the previous stain poly’d? I am just wondering how well the stain sank in without having to sand too much? I have a project like this coming up and would love to avoid sanding all the details in the railing if I can just stain over it.
    Thanks,
    Sarah

    Reply

    • It wasn’t super glossy but it did seem to have some satin poly on it. The directions for this particular product said just to sand it to rough it up a bit and then paint it right on. Sure enough the wood grain showed through and it’s a really lovely result. Maybe the directions only say that if you’re going darker though (I can imagine how a lighter stain could work over something mid-tone without a lot of sanding to break through it all).

      xo
      s

  15. This looks amazing! You don’t mention whether you needed to sand the risers before priming and painting–if that step isn’t necessary I might do this tonight! Love it.

    Reply

    • We didn’t since ours weren’t super glossy or slick (sort of matte and chalky and worn down) but if yours are it never hurt to sand and use a liquid deglosser before going to the priming step.

      xo
      s

  17. It really looks great, proving that attention to detail is well worth it. We also have a D&A runner on our stairs, in the Cat’s Paw pattern, and it has held up remarkably well, in spite of plenty of activity, including that of our two big Goldendoodles, who run up and down during the day! Congratulations on another job well done!

    Reply

    • Good to know we weren’t the only ones who had that experience! It took about double the time it said it should to dry, but you’re right- the application was really easy!

      xo
      s

  19. I love it. You guys did great. I sanded, restained and repainted by stair rails and spindles a couple years back and it took DAYS. It is a lot of work but definitely worth it when it’s complete. Now to convince the hubby to let me remove the carpet and add a runner.

    Reply

    • We rank removing the staples and painting the ceiling as the worst, but all that blue trim and those spindles were pretty monotonous. So great to have them gone though!

      xo
      s

  21. Your graphic with colored dots coordinating to where you stapled is genius. Are you sure you don’t have a degree in infographic design? :)

    Reply

  23. You guys. This looks amazing! What a great/beautiful/amazing turnout! I am excited for you!

    On a completely random note, my husband just got the new Nest smoke detector for his birthday and is over-the-moon excited to try it out (we have the nest thermostat too). Will let you know what we think! (though I have a feeling it is completely unnecessary – just one of those cool things to have if you need to blow $150).

    Reply

  24. In LOVE!! Sorry if I missed it – but what is the runner made out of? Are you concerned at all about the white part getting dirty? I’m totally considering a similar look for our basement steps, but I’m concerned about the lighter parts getting stained over time.

    Reply

    • Someone just commented a little while ago that with two dogs her D&A runner is holding up beautifully, so that’s nice to hear! We’re a no-shoes household, so that should cut down on lots of potential dirt or staining (we’ve had other light colored cotton flatweave rugs like this in rooms like our living room and kitchen for years without any issues). My friend with two young kids has a white and brown one on her steps and is really happy with hers too, but we’ll keep you posted either way!

      xo
      s

  26. WOAH this might be my favorite upgrade yet!! Those stripes and white treads are working double time to visually make the staircase look way longer and more dramatic than it did before – sooo swanky!! I think you could work with the slate, but with the rest of the foyer so fancy I can’t help but dream about how nice an upgraded floor would look. What are you guys thinkin on the floor front? It wouldn’t be too hard to carry new floors over from your future kitchen reno!!

    Reply

    • Yeah, I’m kinda where you are Ariana! There are some damaged areas and some stains I just can’t seem to conquer, so perhaps when we redo the kitchen and add heated tile in there we can carry it over into the foyer and the half bathroom so there’s just hardwood and tile on the main level (right now there are three different flooring types that all meet at the corner of the kitchen/living room so it looks a little chaotic.

      xo
      s

  28. I desperately want to do this with our stairs but they turn 3/4 of the way down. I just don’t think it would work with a dash and albert runner. Maybe Santa with straighten out my stairs for Christmas if I ask.

    Reply

  29. This is something that is totally on the “to do” list at our house. It was great to hear you rate this as a pretty straight forward DIY! I just painted our risers this weekend. Like you, we were hesitant because it was pretty much a “no turning back” commitment. But, we’re trilled! Anyway, we have a split-level which means we only have a “half” set of stairs, or, 5 treads. How did you measure to make sure you had enough runner? Did you just add up the height of the risers and depth of the tread? Thanks for sharing!!!

    xo
    Kate

    Reply

    • We measured like three times just to be sure (how frustrating would it have been to run out 5 inches too short or something?) so we literally went down the stairs with a tape measure (in case one stair was off by a bit or something) and added the riser + tread+ riser + tread, etc.

      xo
      s

  30. Looks great!! Nothing like a weekend warrior trip to get you going!

    OTP – I have the exact same slate floor for my foyer, which I just had professionally cleaned over the weekend (prev. owners left it paint-splattered and the grout was really gross). Thought I would share with you what he told me. Slate has a finish on top of it, where mine has yellowed with age (could be between 20-40+ old) and with the cleaning he did – it was actually starting to come off in sheets. To restore it – he suggested stripping the waxy varnish (using stuff you buy from Home Depot). Then because slate is very porous, I must seal it again.

    Reply

  31. Absolutely stunning!

    Our weekend looked a bit like this…

    Friday- Hit up the Sherwin Williams paint sale (thanks for the tip!), but decided to put painting a few rooms on hold to save for bigger projects.

    Saturday- Spend insane amounts of time at three beaches because it wasn’t raining and it was one of the few places our sweet girl would sleep. (Cheers for a sleeping beach baby!)

    Sunday- Make mass amounts of granola to store for a few weeks, and then receive an offer from a neighbor for a free wood stove in excellent condition.

    That means this week we’re calling about wood stove installation costs and revisiting our budget. Just when I thought it was set (but I knew it wasn’t really)…

    Reply

  32. Absolutely stunning! I want to pin a picture of your stairs, but you don’t have a Pinterest link on your photos- is it okay to pin them?

    Reply

    • We love the idea of working with what we have, but there are some damaged areas and some stains I just can’t seem to conquer, so perhaps when we redo the kitchen and add heated tile in there we can carry it over into the foyer and the half bathroom so there’s just hardwood and tile on the main level (right now there are three different flooring types that all meet at the corner of the kitchen/living room so it looks a little chaotic).

      xo
      s

    • If the slate floors end up not working for you, I am excited to see what you DO choose. I love your stairs and runner – you both did an amazing job. My wheels are now turning for our stairs, but I have some color correcting to do in our living and dining room first. Found my perfect muddy-grey-green :D

  34. All that hard work, thoughtful planning, money saving and patience has paid off — this is the staircase of a lifetime, if you ask me. :)

    Enjoy the floor traversing (and the glute-area payoff!).

    Reply

  36. Great job! Do you think the kind of stain you used to darken the banister could be used on kitchen cabinets? I always wondered if the builder standard light oak cabinets that so many houses have could be stained darker without having to be stripped. I feel like a lot of people end up painting them white, but always wondered if there was another option.

    Reply

  41. Awesome! You guys have such patience.

    I didn’t rip out any carpet, but you will be happy to know that you guys inspired me in regards to the color of your front door. I painted my front door in Sherwin William’s Ebbtide over the weekend. So I have a blue door too now! :-)

    Reply

  42. Looks wonderful!
    We spent the weekend FINALLY updating our master, which meant the removal of the last of the dusty rose carpet in our house! So exciting. The wood floors underneath were in perfect shape, as they have been in every room we’ve done. Funny how someone would look at that wood and say “I think we should put down pink carpeting and cover these up!” Times change.
    Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

  43. I cannot rave enough about this project!! I know you do just about everything but this was a huge project. I’ve followed, with interest, because as much as I enjoy decorating my home, my stairs look like your before photo. I want this done. My issue is that it’s not beautiful wood underneath the current wall-to-wall carpet, so may have to install wood first. This really makes your home.

    Reply

  45. I love it so much I wanna slide down the stairs on my belly. Weee!!!

    For as much as I love stripes, I don’t have them anywhere in my house. That needs to change STAT!

    With the help of my aunt, I got some big furniture pieces moved from the garage to the house thia weekend. Let the refinishing begin! I also blogged about my little gardening fail this year. #blackthumb

    http://doubledoorranch.com/2013/11/11/mad-gardening-skillz-2/

    Reply

  46. I’ve gotta say while I love the runner, I’m partial to the way it looked with the white paint on the backer. I can’t believe the difference that made alone! WOW! But when you’ve got lil nuggets to consider, you’ve got to give a little cush for a tumble or two. :)

    Reply

  47. OK, as amazing as this looks (and it looks freakin’ amazeballs; maybe my favorite thing you’ve ever done ever), I am exhausted just reading this. A few years ago I repainting our peeling messy stairs and it took me months. I’m not kidding. You must have been so darn happy to have this finished. So worth the effort though! Great job.

    Reply

  48. Just curious… you stained the railing, but not the treads…why did you chose to not stain the stair treads to match the railing before the install of the runner?

    Reply

    • Since the entire upstairs of our house are hardwood floors that match the tone of the stairs (which run right into them at the top there) we didn’t want dark stairs that run into a mid-toned upstairs hallway, so we went with dark stripes in the runner, the doorknobs, and the railings (as well as the console table and the chandelier in the foyer) so they all tied together. To us it’s like putting a dark wood console table on top of a mid-toned wood floor – it seems to be compatible even though it doesn’t match.

      xo
      s

  49. Wow..such a fresh & updated look. So much nicer on the eyes & feet, I’m sure. Hopefully, Burger approved, too, since it looked like he wasn’t too excited to part with the old a few posts back, lol.

    We bought & put together a Karl for our den this weekend. So far, so good! Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. Taking a moment to reflect on the many who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.

    Reply

  50. I worked on stairs too! I’ve been converting our carpeted staircase to wood for what feels like an eternity. As of yesterday, I have my unfinished oak treads cut and dry fitted. Now it’s time for stain!

    Reply

    • Would love to hear how this works out, we are thinking of converting our carpeted stairs to wood, knowing that they are standard plywood stairs, how did you do yours?

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