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Boring to Beautiful Back Yard Steps
by
Maurine
(IC: homeowner)
$20
10 Hours
Medium
The new boxed in brick steps had plain wooden risers that from below looked like a stack of lumber until they got a great new look.
This is what the new brick steps looked like as you walked up them, From this view you can see the bricks and they look fine, but the yard is on a hill and further down the step risers all blended together to resemble a stack of lumber. BORING!
This is what the steps looked like while approaching them from the bottom of the hilly yard. Using your imagination, the step risers can be visualized as a vertical canvas for a design.
Take a "before" photo and make several copies of it to try out different designs by using markers or colored pencils. Don't worry about lines crossing over to include more than one step. In fact It's more eye catching when the design is fluid like an optical illusion. I made four designs before I drew the one I wanted to use.
Once the design is decided upon draw it on 8 1/2" X 11"graph paper; one square equals one square inch of step riser. Number the steps on the design to keep track of them later. Also label the colors. Then transfer the design square by square to large easel-sized newsprint paper; the kind with the grid squares, like the graph paper has. You will have to cut and tape pieces the newsprint together to make the correct "life sized" patterns for each step.
This was taken on a very sunny day so the design on the top-most steps isn't as visible as it really is. But the effect is awesome!
The cost of this project will depend on whether you have to buy paint and graph paper, or whether you have some already on hand. I used exterior wood stain in four colors.
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Published July 24th, 2015 9:50 AM
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3 of 16 comments
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Lisa on Jul 25, 2015I think this was very imaginative and I love that you used stain. Paint might have stood out more, but then you would have had to deal with peeling and chipping. Awesome job!
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