Stairway Makeover!

by Designing On The Side

2 Materials

$1500

2 Weeks

Advanced

Hey everyone! We tackled a lot of decorating and remodeling projects last year and I am excited to start sharing them. First up is the stairwell from our main level to the basement. Last spring, I redecorated our main basement room and loved how it came out. But the stairs leading down to it were pretty bleak. Here's the before.

Ooof! Pretty bad. The carpet looks mauve next to the yellow-ish walls. And this high traffic area had a lot of stains. Ick!

When we bought our house 13 years ago, this wall was actually cinderblock. When we remodeled the whole house 4 years ago, the builder did this "stucco" treatment which didn't really make it any better.

This awkward light fixture was a literal headache. Terrible placement and not super attractive.

I decided I was going to cover the ugly walls in "ship lap" and bought Stikwood to cover them - which I used in the main basement room. But it did NOT work here. Looked terrible and kept falling off.

Here is the AFTER!!! I LOVE love love the way they came out. Disclaimer: I tried a few times to do all of the work myself but in the end brought in a contractor to help install the stairs and "real" ship lap. It took me about 5 months of searching to find one who would do it for a reasonable amount but in the end I am glad I did. Well worth the money and aggravation I saved myself.

The coolest part about it is that these are wood tread caps - they are made of solid wood and fit over the existing "utility" steps and then we stained them to match the hardwoods on our main floor.

I painted all the walls - in Sherwin Williams Pavestone. This was no easy feat in a stairwell - but I did it!!! We replaced the old railing with a solid wood one - again stained to match.

We added a photo gallery above the stairs and I love seeing all of our happy family memories. I bought all the frames at Target and because this wall is concrete - I hung them with velcro strips instead of nails or screws. So far they are holding really well!

Last but not least, we took down the old ugly light fixture and replaced with a recessed light in the ceiling. So much better!

So there you go...new stairs for a new year! For more info and other projects, visit my blog DesigningOnTheSide!

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