DIYing a stairway remodel from carpeted builder grade rough-in stairs to stained wood with painted raisers is not for the faint of heart. Rebuilding stairs as a “non-professional stair builder” is a feat in and of itself. Then there is the sanding, the wood filler, the caulk, the stain, the sealer and the paint – all while maintaining a usable path to the upstairs bedrooms. It’s a backache filled, not-fun-at-all process but the final product is 110% worth it.

After we installed the pine wood floors throughout the dining, living and family rooms, we tackled the stairway. Sadly, I apparently never got a before picture of the carpeted stairs. But you can see in the first photo on the left how we changed the traditional rounded bottom step to a more modern squared off look. The original stairs were just basic stairs that were carpeted over. We tore all of that out and replaced with pine treads and risers that could be stained to match the floors. Once the basic stairs were done, I took over distressing the treads like I did the floors, sanded everything (holy cow the mess!), filled the seams with stainable wood filler (since caulk can’t be stained), caulked around the sections that would be painted, stained and sealed the treads and then painted the risers in Sherwin Williams Extra White. I don’t even want to think about the hours spent bent over those stairs obsessing over getting perfectly straight lines where the paint met the stain on each and every step. Would I do it all again? Well, I did push a second human from my body with no medication after I said never again after the first one. So, it’s safe to say, I would probably repeat the stair process again if it meant getting the exact look I wanted. Can I get an amen, ladies?

Fast forward after many, many months of unfinished stairs and now we have crisp, clean , classic stairs that don’t squeak and crack with every step. Thankfully we did this after the “teens sneaking in after curfew” stage of life.

Slowly but surely, as the third owners of this home, we are breathing new life into these old bones and adding to the many stories these walls could tell and we couldn’t be more honored.

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