Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Adding A New Runner And Molding To Stairs

When Rhoda sent her amazing DIY staircase makeover we had to share the goods. Here’s her letter:

I wanted to pass along photos of my latest project, since y’all are such DIY loving people. I hated the carpet on our downstairs set of steps, so I ripped all the carpet up. Oooops, you can see from the pics what I had to work with… and these stairs were never meant to be shown to the public.  But, I slowly transformed them by adding TONS of molding (I just used my hand miter box and lots of paint- including porch and floor paint for the stair treads). Then I added a natural jute runner down the middle (from Overstock). After stapling it on our stairs look absolutely fabulous, if I do say so myself. This is by far my most favorite DIY project that I’ve completed to date! Oh and you can find more info on my blog. I hope you enjoy! -Rhoda

Here are the terrifying before photos to show you what Rhoda was really working with:

Rhoda RR Pic1

Rhoda Rr Pic2

And here are the amazingly polished and pristine after photos after Rhoda worked her magic:

Rhoda Rr Pic3

Rhoda Rr Pic5

Rhoda Rr Pic6

Is your mouth totally hanging open like ours is? We’re amazed and inspired by Rhoda’s hard work and unyielding DIY confidence. And we can totally see why it’s her favorite home makeover project to date! Everything from the chic black and white paint to the affordable and perfect-for-stairs striped runner has us drooling over here. What do you guys think? Did Rhoda show those stairs who’s boss or what? Anyone else inspired to attack their less than stellar stairs now that they’ve seen her work her magic? If only ranch houses had stairs…

Comments

  2. Laura B. says

    I actually gasped out loud at work! What a beautiful transformation! If there were a Homer Simpson drool emoticon, I would def. be utilizing it :).

    Reply

  4. Kathy says

    Wow, amazing! Our ranch house does have stairs to the basement. They are going to be the very final phase in our complete remodel since we tromp up and down them with all manor of things on our shoes and dripping all over on the floor. Hopefully that very final phase is coming in about 8-9 weeks and this was totally inspirational! Thanks for sharing Rhoda and thanks to YHL for posting.

    Reply

  6. Teresa says

    This is an awesome transformation! Gives me a great idea for our stairs leading down to the basement. Great job.

    Reply

  10. Jen Z. says

    OMG that is gorgeous! I must show this to my husband. What a great job Rhoda! I’m headed over to your blog now to look more at your DIY projects. {clapping, clapping} Thanks YHL for sharing! :-D

    Reply

  13. Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality says

    Hey, John & Sherry, thanks so much for the shout-out! I saw a whole bunch of people on my blog & then figured out it was coming from here. Ya’ll have SO much blog power. Fun to share & I hope others get inspired to try this at home. My stairs had to be the worst EVAH!

    Reply

  14. Lorrie says

    Amazing….I love the black and white. I would be tempted to paint the bannister either all white or black at this point! Great job!

    Reply

  15. jodie says

    we ripped off our carpet, too, but chose to stay with the basic step shape, because it reflected our more modern decorating approach. to me, the moldings make it look too fussy (just as for rhoda, it’s too simple without them). the transformation has been equally remarkable and we now have dark green stairs. they look great and it was easy, easy, easy and far less expensive than putting in hardwood.

    Reply

  18. Eileen says

    Love it! I’ve been dying to rip the carpeting off my stairs, but was scared to. Now, I am going to do it for sure. Thanks for the inspiration & advise.

    Reply

  20. Jenn says

    Rhonda did an amazing job! I am STILL in the process of doing the same to our two staircases in our 1980’s townhome. Lots of hard work, but they look soooo much better afterwards!

    Reply

  22. Lindsay W. says

    I’ve come across Rhoda’s blog before and found this amazing transformation which is totally inspiring. Last year I ripped off the carpet on the stairs leading down to to out basement (the carpet was grungy and already falling off), and have wanted to paint them ever since…..but since we have so many other projects to do, this one hasn’t happened yet. When the time comes, I’m totally going with the classic black and white combo and adding some molding to cover some of the ‘imperfections’. Good find!

    Reply

  23. Lindsay says

    I’ve seen this on Rhoda’s site and it is so inspiring!! It was so inspiring that I showed it to the hubs and even *he* was in love! Good work, Rhoda!

    xoxo,
    Lindsay

    Reply

  24. Patti says

    Ooh love Rhoda’s blog too … when I first saw this I gasped out loud! She has so many good decorating ideas, I found her through the Lettered Cottage blog (another amazing decorating site!).

    Reply

  27. Dandy says

    I can’t tell you how many times I just looked at that. I think I would have cried when I looked at the original state of things. I seriously cannot get over this transformation.

    Absolutely shocking. Gorgeous!

    Reply

  28. d says

    I’ve always wondered what it’s like under the carpet of my stairs, and what kind of daunting task it would be to rip off the carpet.

    Would anyone do that to the main stair cases? and also what would it be like if the jute runner was left off and just have the bare painted steps?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hey D,

      We’ve seen many people remove the carpeting from their main staircase and keep the steps bare (either stained or painted). It’s another great solution!

      xo,
      s

  31. Nancyk says

    What a great transformation!!! However, I have to say that I bet she spent a few bucks on all that trim!! We just bought trim to personalize our kitchen a little bit and man it adds up fast!! The stairs really do look great though!!

    Reply

  41. Heather says

    These steps are gorgeous! I will have to keep this in mind. Hopefully someday I can have stairs that look that great! :)

    Reply

  42. Lisa in Seattle says

    Rhoda is amazing. I’d have given up in tears before finishing pulling out all…those…staples. The staircase is so graphically striking now.

    Sherry, are there any guidelines to using a runner on hardwood stairs leading to a hardwood floor? Where do you start the runner? Where Rhoda did, under the topmost step? I have to add either a runner or a little ramp because my oldest, tiniest ferret and my fattest one can’t make it up and down the stairs.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hey Lisa,

      We’re big proponents of just doing what looks best in your space, and if you have hardwood floors above the stairs stopping the runner as Rhoda did in this post makes perfect sense. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  43. Ann says

    I really admire Rhoda (and everyone else who loves these kinds of projects). My idea of DIY is pulling up the carpet and having beautiful wood floors. Awesome redesign!!

    Reply

  46. Dave says

    First of all I don’t want to sound like I’m bashing anyone or sounding negative. I have to give props to anyone that attempts to redo stairs.

    Stairs are often a major architectural feature in a home. This would have been a great idea if you had real wood stairs that someone decided to put carpet on them one day but what is shown here is a stair built out of the worse wood possible because it was mean to be covered by carpet (and you knew that) which make attempting this even cooler. However there are better ways of doing this. Take a look at this web site might give you ideas the next time you or someone else does their stairs.

    http://thestairdoctors.com/gallery.html

    I’ve done this with my stairs. A bit of veneered wood ¼ stuffs a few real stair trends and some paint. The trick is to remove the edges of the stair with saws all and a jig saw and the rest is simple.

    The runner is fantastic though, very, very nice.

    Reply

  47. Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality says

    Thanks for all the compliments! I would do it again in a minute.

    D, I totally would have been happy with just the black & white stairs too, but thought the runner would add that extra bit of pizazz & I love it.

    Amanda, I worked on this project off & on for 2 weeks, so not bad at all. Once I got all the molding cut & installed, it went pretty fast.

    Nancy k, the total on this project was around $200 and that includes all the molding & the jute runner. Not bad at all, I didn’t think!

    Reply

  48. Carole says

    very creative! I see a lot of staircases where people paint the risers and leave the treads stained, but this is sooo much more stylish!

    Reply

  49. Heather says

    Wow! What a transformation. I want to rip up the carpet on our stairs soon, but am SO afraid. I love the color combos, and I especially LOVE the jute runner. What a great great idea. I was wondering if Rhonda could share how she attached the runner to the steps. Thanks!

    Reply

  50. Rachel says

    My sister had shown me this blog,love the stairs. thinking of doing mine, even my hubby was interested, yay!! congrats on the baby! Many blessings.

    Reply

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