Installing 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.
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.
- Priming and painting the trim and railing
- Selected your runner (more on that and the previous bullet here)
- Remove the old carpet and rug pad
- Paint the stairwell walls and ceiling (more on that and the previous bullet here)
- Prim and Paint the risers
- Stain the railings
- Measure and mark your runner placement
- Cut and lay out the rug pads
- Install the runner (including where to staple and how to keep ends looking finished)
- 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.
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).
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.
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).
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.
Friday, November 8th – NIGHT: Sherry applied the first coat of white paint (also BM 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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:
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.
Then we stapled that one under the nose, just like we had done on all the steps before it.
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?
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.
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).
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!
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.
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.
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…
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:
Note: this project was originally posted in November 2013
*This post contains affiliate links to products we have purchased and loved *
Jami says
Hey john and sherry! Love your blog and this project came out beautifully! My question for you would be whether you have any suggestions for staircases with landings and turns? I would love to do this to my steps but wouldn’t know whether to skip over the landing or try to miter a runner for the landing. Seems I could get away with lots less work and carpet it I skip the landing but not sure how that would look. Thanks for sharing your adventures with all of us eager readers!
Jami
YoungHouseLove says
My friend had one installed professionally and has a turn in her stairs and he basically mitered the corner of it (picture two triangles of the rug meeting to make a diagonal seam, so it looks like the stripes turn at a right angle to follow the steps). Hope it helps!
xo
s
Barbara Mulligan says
Holy cr@p. I didn’t expect the white on the front of the steps! Long time follower, first time commenter. Holy cr@p. It makes such a difference!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha thanks Barbara!
xo
s
Chris says
You did an amazing job with the connection of the two rugs, and the finishing off of the bottom stair. Beautiful work! I would have never tackled something like this, but you made it look doable!
Eve says
Does this sound crazy? I love the way the Minwax stain turned out on the handrail. I especially love the espresso color. So I’m wondering if I can use the Minwax on my guest bathroom vanity instead of painting it… Any thoughts?
YoungHouseLove says
Not crazy! Someone said they used it on furniture and it was great! I’d go for the satin finish and hopefully it’ll be great!
xo
s
Dave says
I love the order for stapling graphic.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Dave.
-John
Laurie says
Love it. It is amazing how much difference new paint, stain and a runner can make. It is lovely. As for me, I am decorating a guest bedroom. I have somehow found myself with a shabby chic scheme, which is not something I thought I would ever embrace but it is working in this room, which has leftover pink walls when my 10 year old lived in this room. I could paint but I don’t have the energy right now. I acquired a vintage baked porcelain daybed and am refurbishing old nightstands (finished those over the weekend) and an old pine armoire. The room is turning out great and now my daughter wants to move back in to it!
Hillary says
Beautiful! I installed a similar runner last fall and wish I’d known ahead of time to tape it off in order to keep it centered. Live and learn, right? Also, I’m impressed that your electric stapler could do the job! Mine would have wimped out on the places where I had to fold/tuck the runner, so I used my pneumatic one.
YoungHouseLove says
That looks so good! I love it!
xo
s
Ashley says
Looove it!!! Obsessed with the before and after, in fact. You guys are so inspirational to those of us hesitant about DIY!! Currently hanging a gallery wall in each of my kids’ rooms (with lots of white to brighten things up) because of you two. Thank you for the inspiration!! Enjoy your great new stairs with every up and down you take!
Ashley
Hayley says
Looks fantastic!!! almost makes me want stairs!! almost :)
dawn says
Beautiful. So well thought through, every item fits well together and how everything balances each other. Thanks for sharing this post. I also love the PolyShade. I have a railing that just doesn’t fit in with my house. But after reading your post I am going to try the PolyShade on my railing. Again, just beautiful.
Lesley says
It looks great. But I have to tell you that we have the same exact rug, same pattern/color, in our kitchen and it is a dirt/lint magnet. I hope it does better for you!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no! We’ve heard from a few other D&A rug owners in the comments (even with multiple/big dogs) and they have said they’re awesomely durable so I’m crossing my fingers that we have the same luck. Do you guys wear shoes indoors? Is your rug cotton or an indoor/outdoor one?
xo
s
Lesley says
We never wear shoes inside. Ours is cotton. Maybe yours is indoor/outdoor and I didn’t catch that. Hoping for the best!
YoungHouseLove says
Ahh, thanks Lesley! Will keep you guys posted. I think we should do an update with photos 6 months in whether it’s good, bad, or ugly! Fingers crossed…
xo
s
Jessica says
This looks incredible!! It would look so great on our stairs too, but ours curve about half-way down. I’m thinking we’d need to get professionals in, because I have no clue how to pull that off. Great job!
Vanessa says
Looks CRAZY amazing! Just showed these photos to the boyfriend in hopes he’ll consent to doing something similar on our stairs! Awesome work, you guys!
Lee Ann says
I’m bookmarking this project! My stairs look awful, so they are on the long-term to-do list. Problem is that my stairs have always been carpeted, so my guess is I’ll have to install a bullnose edge before I do anything like this.
As for my weekend, my dad helped me replace the flooring in a guest bathroom. The floor looks great (just new vinyl tile, but it sure helped). But now I need to replace the guts in the toilet tank. Why is it(for me anyway?) you can have a toilet that’s worked perfectly for 10-15 years, but once you take it up to replace the flooring, the minute the toilet is back on the new wax ring, some part of it starts acting up? Geez!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, I know what you mean! Sounds like you got a bunch done though!
xo
s
Jessica says
This looks incredible… probably my favorite “makeover” in your new house so far!
I did want to add (though forgive me, I feel like a buzzkill doing so) that I was quite surprised you chose that type of rug pad. The waffle-weave rubber type is notorious for breaking down (sometimes into a powder almost) and is not recommended for wood floors, as over time it can leave an imprint of the pattern on your wood or worse, adhere to it, causing damage that can require refinishing. (I’ve read that the chemicals in the material can react with the floor finish.) Felt rug pads are recommended for wood floors, and are often made of recycled materials and with no chemicals or adhesives.
If and when you decide to return to bare stairs (though your result is so gorgeous, I can’t even imagine it!), you may find that you will have to contend with repairing the finish on the steps. But hopefully all will be fine!
~ Jessica
YoungHouseLove says
Wow never heard that, Jessica! Thanks for the tip! We use these pads on carpets that sit on our hardwoods all the time, but thankfully we haven’t had any breaking down or damage to the floors so far. Now I’m nervous though so I guess we’ll find out in a decade or so! Haha!
xo
s
Kathy says
I’m impressed! I love it! Took me a year and a half to convert my carpeted staircase. I love the idea of adding a runner :-)
Mine looks exactly like yours, right down to the finial post at the bottom! Must be a 1978 -ish era home like mine? Also…why did you do the rails dark and leave the treads the lighter wood? Looks great! Just wondering your thought process.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Kathy! We added an update to the post about that for you! Since the treads are the same color as all the hardwood floors upstairs (they meet right at the top of the stairs) we wanted to keep them consistent.
xo
s
Kimi says
IM IN LOVE!!!!!!!! <3 I'm in the middle of a stair makeover myself!!;) Great Great Job!!! You guys are amazing!!!
Jill says
This is really spectacular. I am especially coveting the runner, but got really excited when I saw the stain/poly blend. We remodeled our home about nine years ago and I painted and stained the interior. ALL OF IT. When the stairs were put in place, I had stained all the pieces and just needed to finish off the wood. Nine years of foot traffic later, they remain unfinished. At this point I’m afraid I need to sand it all down and start over. This means the railing and posts too, which makes me want to weep.
I’m wondering, can I somehow clean the stained wood and go over the whole thing with this blend? (And then get one of these fabulous runners!) What do you think? Or am I doomed to start over?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm I’ve heard it works on furniture and vanities but I’m not sure about foot traffic spots like stairs. I would check out their site or read the can to see what they say. Hope it works!
xo
s
John says
Looks wonderful! What a difference! And in 20 hours too!
I have had the same experience with PolyShades. It seems to always take a few coats to make the difference. Sometimes it looks thicker and darker in spots. Kind of a tricky product sometimes. Painting the end posts was a great call. It looks terrific. And I never thought about coloring the staples in the gun before. I am going to put that into use someday. Did the gun rub off any of the black when it was shot into the stairs?
It’s funny, the view from the top makes the stairs look like piano keys. Ha! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thanks John! Thankfully the gun just shot our black staples in, but we didn’t have any issues with it rubbing the rug or anything.
xo
s
Sarah H. says
Your foyer is beautiful! The stairs are so fresh looking now. Good job!
Jodi says
Hi Sherry & John,
Sorry this is a random question, but just wondering if your sofa in the family room is the KARLSTAD from IKEA? If it is, wondering how you like it? Has it held up well? Comfortable? We are in the market for a sofa and value your opinion. Thanks!
Jodi
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, it’s the corner sofa and add-on chaise (both of the Karlstad line from Ikea) and we really love them! We painted the legs darker but otherwise have done nothing to maintain it and it looks great even years after buying it and getting beat on by a child and a dog (and two parents who flop down on it regularly). We hear some other covers aren’t as durable, but our dark sivik gray one has been awesome (and it’s machine washable!).
xo
s
Cate says
Don’t you love all the architectural terminology related to stairs? I believe it is actually “nosing”, rather than “nose”, but I love the image of a bunch of noses coming down the stairs. Also, I really like your newel post decision. I think it looks best white, but you can always change it if you change your mind.
YoungHouseLove says
Ha, thanks Cate! Nosing is too funny! That sounds like what Burger does when he wants a treat (rubs his nose on us).
xo
s
Catherine says
It looks really awesome! And now that you know how to do it, you can easily change it if you decide to go with a different pattern in a few years.
Meredith says
That looks really great! If you guys had decided to stain the treads along with painting the risers, which do you recommend doing first?
YoungHouseLove says
I think I would stain first and then paint!
xo
s
Shannon says
It looks amazing!
Jillian@TheHumbleGourmet says
I have never lived in a house with stairs (aside from the occasional step up and down, but no staircase) so I’ve always dreamed about what I would do with a staircase if I had one. This looks great! I love the stripes too…so mod.
Meredith says
I must ask, how do you manage to keep Clara and Burger away from these projects? Especially if the railing was curing for so long. Even as an adult I would have a hard time remembering to not grab the railing. Or to have them stay away from the wet risers.
YoungHouseLove says
Thankfully Burger’s really skittish so if we’re working somewhere he’s usually happy to stay clear (although he was oddly interested in sitting on the steps with us when we were pulling staples, perhaps because it was so slow-going and we were there for hours?). As for Clara, if we were actively painting the stairs in front of her she might want to be involved and it might feel like we’re constantly trying to distract her to not come touch things, which is why we typically switch off doing something with her when she’s not napping or asleep for the night if we tackle something (if John’s painting and she’s awake I might go play outside or color in the office with her). Once it’s done though, she’s pretty good about not touching something (for example, once she woke up from her nap to wet risers we just said “we’re going to carry you downstairs and we can’t come back upstairs for a few hours because the stairs are wet, so let’s bring everything you want downstairs so we have it to play with in the living room.” Then just watching her to be sure she’s not sneaking off to test how wet something is (kids do love that…) seems to work for us.
xo
s
Lesley says
WOW, and I worked my fingers off stripping the paint from my newell post, railing and I you could not pay me to paint the risers. Not after seeing the paint easily chip off the wood that runs up the stairs. HOW does that happen anyway?? So in your runner search, did you see any oriental style ones? That’s what I want and I have not begun my search. Thanks
YoungHouseLove says
I haven’t seen any runners of that style, but admittedly I was mostly googling Dash & Albert. Maybe try a site like overstock to see what they have?
xo
s
nancys says
Your runner looks great!
We ripped out a whole house of carpeting when we made our last move. I have painted the risers twice now in 4 years – boo. (Last was an epic failure, really just a waste of time. Did an ombre paint job, not realizing when I started that the way the light hit the stairway you can’t see the different shades of grey. Oh well, live and learn right!)
We are pretty much a no shoes household also, but just those few trips with shoes (we are more strict about that during the winter months)have left those dang scuff marks that are so annoying & unsightly. Can’t afford a runner at this time but I’m thinking some kind of “riser disguise” would make a nice winter time project.
YoungHouseLove says
You know what? A designer friend of mine was just saying she did an ombre on the steps for a client and because of the lighting you couldn’t even tell! I thought it might make you feel better! It seems to happen to the best of them!
xo
s
Crystal says
Sexiest. Staircase. Ever.
tess says
thank you for posting donation link to aid for Philippines, my heart breaks
tiffany says
Love these stripes!!!
XOXO,
http://outfitidentifier.com/
Celebrity fashion dictionary of who made it and where to get it
Lil says
Looks awesome.
Two things…
1. I bought the same nail gun as you (thank you)…doesn’t it take staples too?
2. “blue trim winking”…I read blue trim whining. lol.
YoungHouseLove says
We thought the same thing about the nail gun! But when we read the booklet we realized we needed to buy a separate attachment, and the staple gun we found for this project was well rated and inexpensive (cheaper than the attachment) so we thought it would be nice to have around for projects like this. And as for that blue trim, it’s making me whine! Haha!
xo
s
Shannon L. says
LOVE this! Seriously, I need to find a house with stairs so I can do the same thing. You guys are always such a great inspiration to us—thanks for writing and DIYing so faithfully! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Of course Shannon! We were so excited to share this with you guys!
xo
s
Amber says
Sorry if I missed this in the text (I admit sometimes if I have no need for the step-by-step I just skim the photos and some descriptions!)
I mean no disrespect by this as what you’ve done looks BEAUTIFUL! In my opinion, the runner would look even more dramatic and the stairs would visually tie together better if the steps had also been stained darker.
Did you guys consider staining the steps to match what you did to the railing? If so, what made you decide against it?
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Amber! We did add an update to the post about that, but the gist is that we considered staining the stairs the same dark color as the railings, but since the entire upstairs of our house are hardwood floors that match the current tone of the stairs (which run right into them at the top) we didn’t want a big color change at that point :)
xo
s
jar of lights says
Please say the slate is on the chop block, because the wood, runner, slate, blue door combo is hideous.
YoungHouseLove says
Yeah, we’re not loving the slate (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
Sacey C says
Wow! Love it. One of my most favorite updates that you have done so far! Love the contrast and the runner is beautiful!
Laura says
Wow- it looks awesome!
I ripped up the carpet on our stairs a few months ago (and we are STILL finding staples I missed), but unlike your stairs, our carpet was “wall-to-wall”.
Now that the carpet is up, there is a gap between the stair tread and the baseboards. In the hallway, we put quarter round to cover the gap- but I don’t see extra moulding in your pictures. What do you do for a gap like that on the stairs? Caulk?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, we didn’t have that gap, but quarter round or some sort of trim piece sounds like it could work, or caulk or wood filler could do the trick if you think you could get it to look seamless! Good luck!
xo
s
Kimberly H. says
I love your blog. Have been reading daily for several years. But I have to say that I’m pretty disappointed that you mentioned nothing about the fact that today our country is celebrating the men and women who make great sacrifices every day and join our military to protect our freedoms. Makes me sad…
YoungHouseLove says
I’m very sorry if we offended you in any way, Kimberly. John’s dad served in the army as well as my grandpa, and we certainly LOVE the brave men and women who defend this country with a capital L. There have been other commenters who recognized our nod to Veteran’s Day in this morning’s post title (Stairs and Stripes) like this one and we shouted out how much we appreciate our Veterans here. We’ve also added a thank you in this afternoon’s post here. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Kimberly H. says
Thanks for your response! I still have lots of love for you guys. I know the posturing with running a blog must be tough.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Kimberly, love you right back! John actually realized that we have an old photo of his Grandpa Harry while he was serving 32 months in the South Pacific during WWII (away from his wife and newborn son) so we instagramed/facebooked that awesome picture. It’s amazing to hear other people’s stories (there are lots of other Grandpa Harrys who served too!).
xo
s
Erin says
I was not nearly as ambitious this weekend as you were but I’m proud to say I finally finished watching all the past seasons of Mad Men. I’ve fallen asleep with Donald Draper many a night as I caught up on Netflicks on my ipad under the covers. From a design perspective, I chuckled every time they showed Megan’s chevron printed coat or the quatrefoil lampshades in their bedroom. What’s old is new again!
YoungHouseLove says
Love it. A weekend well spent!
xo
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esther says
Love the new looks of your staircase, it looks absolutely looks fabulous.
I really dig the look of wooden steps with a runner over it like you guys have, but sadly our new house doesn’t have a straight staircase :( So it looks we’ll have to carpet the full width of the stairs, both the treads as the risers, unless I somehow find a way to do this.. but so far I haven’t. Always open to suggestions in case someone has an good idea!:D
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh someone posted a link to a photo on pinterest of a turned staircase and the landings were uncarpeted and the stairs had runners and it looked awesome! Hope it helps!
xo
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Kate Sanders says
We need a before and after photo!!
YoungHouseLove says
There’s one at the end looking down the steps, but I want to add some to the House Tour page too for ya :)
xo
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Susanne Stowe says
We’ve heard great things about Rejuvenate and I was wondering how your floors are looking these days from when you used it back in July. Need to go get some for our floors… our two 75lb pups have done a number on them!
YoungHouseLove says
We’re still very happy with how the Rejuvenate has worked out after living with it for five months!
xo
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qs777 says
Looks great! Thanks for making me wish I had stairs now.
I kind of can’t get my head around stain that doesn’t have you wipe off the excess, but I am intrigued since we just got a console that I had wanted to paint or stain, but can’t really sand down too much since it is a veneer. Do you think your stain would work?
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, others have commented to say they used it on furniture and really liked it (they also had luck with the satin finish, so maybe try that one)? Good luck!
xo
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Cf Betcher says
Love it! My stair case has a turn in it, 3/4 of the way up– I’m not sure how I would do the landing, otherwise I would be doing this this weekend.
Would love to see a shot of your stairs from the toy closet (?)– that is, from an angle…
YoungHouseLove says
We’ll have to get more shots of the stairs/foyer as we go (we still have some other foyer updates to attend to) as well as for our Before & After page! As for your staircase with a turn, someone in the comments shared a link to a staircase that had a runner on the steps and a bare landing between them where the turn is and it looked great, so I hope that helps!
xo
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Kristi says
I love this update!!! Looks all around gorgeous and very put together!
Anna, Sydney says
So glad you decided to go white on the newel posts. The stairs looks fantastic!
When I see your whole entrance though I realise I have no idea where your Craigslist green console went? I recall a post about ridding of furniture that doesn’t fit this house, but I don’t remember that being part of it, and now I can’t find the post, doh.
Great job as usual. Hope $herdog is feeling better.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much Anna! The green buffet is actually in the dining room, but it’s on the wall across from the built-ins so it hasn’t made it into many photos yet. I think once I finally finish removing wallpaper in there and we paint we’ll have a lot more photos/angles to share!
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Anne Phillips says
I love this so much. Let’s pretend for a moment that you had banisters (railings/newel posts/spindles) on both sides of the stairs at the bottom and chose to stain the newel posts instead of paint them. Would you have also stained the half-posts (the ones that but up against the wall)? I am trying to make this decision.
Also, did you just put a double layer of padding under the treads or did you put one layer all the way down and a second layer on the treads?
YoungHouseLove says
We just did padding on the treads since you don’t walk on the risers, and we could get by with using just one 5 x 8 pad if we cut them for each step instead of wasting yardage on the risers too. As for the posts (if we had them on both sides), I’m torn. We have seen inspiration photos with two posts in a balanced placement like you describe and it seems that half of the people stain them and half of the people paint them (it’s such a 50/50 thing because some people just do all the posts white, whether they’re the end ones or not, and some people visually connect them to the rail on top by staining them). So I’d just look at photos (Pinterest has some good ones) and see what you like!
xo
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April says
This looks amazing… you two should be proud! I’m also intrigued by the dark stain… does “roughing up” with steel wool produce a lot of dust? And do you need to do it in between each coat, or only initially?
YoungHouseLove says
You have to sand it initially (just to rough it up so it’s not super slick, but not to get down to the bare wood or anything). Then between coats you use the fine steel wool, which isn’t too dusty, but seems to smooth it out and get it grippy enough to hold onto the next coat firmly. Hope it helps!
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Sammy says
That’s quite a difference! It looks great =)