stairway to…

It’s been a while since I posted about our house because it seems like while we’ve been making progress nothing is at a state of being really done.  But finally something I can cross off the list, the stair.  We have a raised ranch, so the main living is on the upper floor.  That means the stairs are not only physically important but they also set a tone for the rest of the house.  Here is the picture from the front door the day we bought the house.

Blah.  I can’t even remember that carpet, thankfully.  We had the floors upstairs refinished before the movers brought our stuff, including the stairs.  To save a little money we decided to just have them finish the treads and not the risers.  I’m a fan of painted risers because it creates more depth to the stair run (with the alternating use of color/wood) and I’m thinking of buying Benjamin Moore stock.

There was  piece of trim under the nosing of the stair that was too curved for my taste so we pulled, or chiseled, it off.  Here is a picture with the curvy trim and one after.  We had to do some wood filling and sanding to get it ready for paint.

Unfortunately the scroll piece is integrated into the actual stair treads!  I couldn’t believe it, except I also ran into the same condition on a project the other day coincidentally.    So we couldn’t take it out.  See how the scroll piece goes behind the tread in this pic?  There was no way to pry it out without ripping apart the treads we had just paid to make nice.It took me a while to paint the risers because I was going back and forth about what to paint that damn scroll.  I was set on the dark grey for the risers.  So the scroll could be the same dark grey.  Or the scroll could be the light grey of the walls, but then meeting the two colors at the corner of scroll and riser had to be dealt with.   So maybe the risers should just be the light grey?  But the dark grey really highlighted the nice honey color of the tread.  Plus with little muddy feet, and big husband feet that barely fit on the treads, around it would be a losing battle to have a light color and not be repainting over scuffs.

We went with the dark grey and decided to paint the scroll dark.  Our new view from the front door and the scroll.

As you can see, the scroll isn’t noticeable from the front.  You can only see it if you’re walking from utility room in the back.  And anyone who sees that disaster area and makes it back alive will have plenty of other bad things to say about us!

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