The Twilight Home

by Heathered Nest

$75

5 Days

Medium

Last year, we moved out of our urban, city-living comfort zone, and moved into, I'd have to say, a bit of a country twilight zone. We bought a home on a little land...a place where the kids could run, frolic, and enjoy the wonders of the great-out-of-doors. Problem was that the in-of-doors was a tad of an ugly-80's nightmare.
This was kinda ok, because I do love me some 80's. If I had to have picked a theme song for our pad it was probably that Golden Earring song...you know, "Help, I'm steppin' into the twilight zone..." Or possibly Guns n Roses' mega hit "Welcome to the jungle"...

the twilight home, home improvement, painting, stairs

You don't get more classic 80's hair metal than that one, right?! To prove this home's 80s-ness, check out this totally gnarly, gag-me-to-the-max bathroom we had. Seriously. And if you're still not convinced of this time warp we were dealing with...check out the shower curtain we inherited when we bought "The Twilight Home".

DO YOU SEE THAT??? Our inherited bathroom curtain MATCHES Axl Rose's outfit!!! I moved into the 1980's...drop the mic.

More on this bathroom down the road, but right now, I'm gonna focus on another part of the Twilight Home. This was our 1980's smurf-er-ific stairwell that led into the 1980's basement (side note: that smurfy blue color follows us everywhere...check out the blog post "How we Killed the Smurf" about the remodel of our daughters' room).

In the words of that aforementioned 80's icon Axl Rose, this place was gonna bring us to our "sha na na na na na knees, knees"

So, we got to work. Oh, that's us...in our normal weekend leisure garb. Wish I was kidding. The masks? Those were to avoid inhaling the mold that we found while renovating the basement and stairs. Again, wish I was kidding.

Our first thought for the stairwell was that we would stain it to match the hardwoods in the rest of the house. The treads on these steps are pine. Pine isn't the easiest to stain. We gave it the ol' college try...you can see the result on a couple stairs in the picture above. Not good. Our buddy Axl Rose probably would have said "All we need is just a little patience". He's a very sage and wise fellow. And I wish that we were better with the whole "patience" skill. But we're not. So we moved on to plan B.

Plan B was paint. Paint and utility grade unfinished oak hardwood flooring for the landing (you won't believe the price tag...check out the blog post). Above is our work crew. And yes, that's their weekend garb. Pajamas. Listen, there's a reason I don't write a fashion and/or a parenting blog.

To save costs and time, we kept the existing handrails and gave them a DIY update.

And voila, no more 80's-ugly! We wrote a tutorial on how to paint stairs, if you're interested!

The mirror? We removed an old builder-grade vanity mirror from that bathroom in the first picture, cut it, and framed it out in some scrap barn wood we had from other projects. Tutorial for the DIY mirror on the blog as well.

That light fixture? Guess how much that cost. Another big ZERO! It used to be one of those old builder-grade-boob-lights (yes, that's a real term, didn't make it up). Here's a pic of the light before...

Now, I think she's a "total babe" as they said circa 1988.

That DIY lighting project is a 5 minute hack...seriously. Check it out!!

To me, the white handrail with gold hardware feels clean and bright, which are helpful in a darker basement.

We've done a lot of stairwells in our time. Funny thing is, this is one of the cheapest we've ever done (about $75 TOTAL), and despite the low price tag, the finished product is easily one of my favorites.

Hope you like the results! I'm happy to say that we haven't ditched the decade of valley girls and pinch-rolled jeans completely in this house...it's just now, we keep our 80's blastin' on the 'ol boom-box rather than staring at it all over our walls. The 1980's is definitely a decade that is much better heard, but NOT seen.

More Heathered Nest stairwells, barn wood projects and more...on the blog.

And why not be our Facebook pal? We can all use a few more friends. https://www.facebook.com/heatherednest Or there's Twitter, but don't expect much of us there...we're still a bit behind in the world-o-hashtag: https://www.twitter.com/heatherednest

Enjoyed the project?

You can do it! Saved to your projects

Frequently asked questions

Have a question about this project?

Ask a Question

1 question

Grinnin on Mar 30, 2016
ON the right Of the painted staircase, look at the door which appears to be hanging on a rod. Hmmmmm I am most interested. Could you post about that? How will I know if you respond?

0

Comments

Join the conversation

3 of 65 comments

Linda on Jan 19, 2016
Awesome Job! The mirror really lighten up the stair well. I can see your beauty of a daughter practicing coming down the stairs for her first date.

Like Reply
- Heathered Nest on Jan 19, 2016
  @Linda Aww, thanks so much Linda!
  
  Like
Grinnin on Mar 29, 2016
I saw a old door in the background of the pic. It appeared to be hanging on a rod. Hmmmmm I am most interested. Could you post about that? How will I know if you respond?

Like Reply