At least that’s how I feel about them. I know some people hate stairs, but after seeing about a million gorgeous staircases on Pinterest and a whole bunch of awesome DIY stair upgrades, I was all “I waaaant stairs.” A la that girl in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory who sings about wanting a bean feast (?!). And then, as luck would have it, after seven years of owning one-level houses we fell in love with a house that has stairs. Half of me feared I’d live to regret the change, and half of me couldn’t wait to go on a blind spree, pinning ten million staircases per minute. I was like Ariel singing about being “part of that world” but instead of daydreaming about strolling around on that – what’s the word again? street! – I was daydreaming about stairs and runners with a shell bra on.
Well, after three and a half months of living in a house with stairs, I’m certain about two things:
- We actually like stairs! It’s nice to have some division between the living areas of the house and the private/sleeping/getting ready areas that are tucked away on the second floor. We’ll always have a soft spot for a cool mid-century ranch, but now when we have people over we don’t have to clean every last room – we just tend to the first floor and it’s all good if there’s a pair of underwear or seven million toe-murdering legos on the floor upstairs.
- We have woefully ignored our stairs this entire time – even after being intensely excited to make them over. Yup, between the blue baseboards and balusters to the old carpet, it’s looking pretty bleak.
Why is that stair runner still there? Well, we were going to pull it out before moving day, but John mentioned that it might be nice to keep it there to protect the wood stairs from any moving-day beatings they might have been subjected to as we dragged half of our worldly possessions up there. We also thought Burger and Clara might benefit from us keeping the stairs covered with some sort of a runner, so we didn’t want to rip it up until we had something new to put down. So we gave it a thorough cleaning, moved in, and figured we’d get to it within a few weeks.
A few weeks turned into a few months (oops) but I’m finally ready to pull the trigger on a new runner thanks to seeing a few pictures of black and white stair runners on (where else?) Pinterest.
- Let’s see, there’s this one (this runner was my favorite, but there’s no ebony rail with white balusters here, which I’d like to add)
- Then there’s this one (the rug pattern isn’t my favorite, but we’re aiming for a dark ebony railing with white balusters like this)
- There’s also this one (the rug’s a little boldly striped for me, but of course I love the dark rails with the white balusters)
- And this one (once again I fell for the high contrast striped runner, paired with a dark railing and white balusters)
*Spontaneous drinking game (the secret word is balusters).
Anyway, I showed John those links (he’s a visual creature, so it’s nearly impossible to get him on board with anything using words alone) and it was enough to spur both of us into “let’s really do this” action. So I did some googling in the hopes of finding a runner that was well rated to stand up to lots of wear and tear (no sense putting in something that’ll look terrible in six months) and also in the hopes of finding something that we liked when it came to the look of it (without spending 1K on a new stair update). My BFF swears by Dash & Albert (she has two crazy active kids who each have ten of their friends over and beat up on all of her rugs, but they still look great years later thanks to being well made) so it was nice to have that lead to pursue. And after clicking around over there, I found it. Almost the exact same (if not THE exact same) rug from my initial inspiration pic – the one I liked best of all:
It was nice to see it used on a staircase in the photo, since that suggested to me that they thought it would be good for that application (guess I’m a visual creature too) and even though the stairs were all white with a modern black & white railing, I had this original inspiration photo to remind me what it could look like on wood stairs, and this one to remind me what adding a dark railing and some white balusters might do to the whole shebang.
When I showed John what I had found, he was sold (I even earned a highly coveted hubby-high-five) but before entering our credit card number I searched for other Dash & Albert vendors, just in the off chance that someone was running a sale. Bingo.
A site called rugstudio.com came up, and I was psyched to score a discounted runner price (we’d need two 2’5′ x 12′ runners, so we saved $32 through this sale) along with free shipping. On top of that they were also offering 20% off every order with the code CLEARANCE20, so it sort of felt like stacking three coupons. In the end it was under $199 (instead of $280!) for two extra long runners that we hope will last a crazy long time once we tear up the old carpeting and install them ourselves. They’re back-ordered for another week or so, but we hope they’ll show up soon so I can work on my rug-pulling muscles and send the old runner packing in lieu of our swanky new striped one.
So while we waited I thought it was time to start painting all of that blue baseboard and those blue balusters on the bottom half of the staircase.
Oh but we can’t forget about the two up here in the hallway now, can we?
First I broke out some primer and did two coats (I know the drill with this blue trim by now, it takes four coats – two of primer and two of paint).
This is it after two coats of primer and one of white paint. We chose BM Simply White paint (in semi-gloss) to match the rest of our trim, but here are some other designers’ favorite white paints you could choose instead. See those blue lines peeking through? Infuriating, I tell you.
No sirree, third time’s just not the charm in this case.
But something magical happens after coat #4 and everything dries and it’s white! Glorious not-blue-peeking-through white! So even though it took about five hours over two days to have at it with a short handled brush (that’s my secret to not having to tape off – it gives me a lot more control) it was WORTH IT.
There might have even been a mic drop in the middle of the foyer. And by mic drop I mean paintbrush drop. After it was clean and dry. Because $herdog’s no fool.
Boom. We’re one step closer to the whole striped runner + white balusters + dark railing equation than we were back when these stairs were blue city.
In fact I had a little fun with Photoshop on the railing. Are you picking up what I’m putting down?
Oh man, I still can’t believe we have stairs.
kate says
did you feel like the spindles came out smooth and not gloppy? we are about to paint ours (they are already white, but need a refresh) and we are also going to do the sand/stain the railing …and i’m scared! it could go horribly wrong.. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, they’re nice and smooth! If yours are rough I’d sand first and then just be sure to use thin and even coats of primer and paint (you can even sand between those to be sure it’s smooth).
xo
s
CJ says
Just one teeeeny thing….you say, “After three months of owning a house with stairs,” but you’ve owned it for nearly a year!!
YoungHouseLove says
Sorry, after three months of living in a house with stairs. Will make that change for ya!
xo
s
Rebecca says
I’m contemplating a similar project for the stairs in our 1941 colonial. Would love to know if y’all are planning to paint the stair risers white. Like yours, all the inspiration pics I’ve pinned have white risers, but it may be an uphill battle to convince my husband to paint the wood!
Jen says
It was so weird to see this blog post only a week after we had a local flooring company over to look at installing this exact same rug on our stairs! Have you researched 100% cotton rugs in high traffic areas? The flooring shop owner wasn’t optimistic about it and strongly encouraged us to use the indoor/outdoor runners instead. He said cotton won’t hold up on the stairs and would be a waste of money. We still haven’t made a decision.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so funny! What a small world! We have heard from others who used cotton runners by D&A on stairs and loved them, so maybe it’s a quality thing? They’re known for their quality/well made rugs, so perhaps other thin cotton weaves don’t wear as well?
xo
s
Janet says
That Pic of you as Ariel is Freaky Hysterical!
Natalie says
I am so happy you are finally doing the stairs. I will be doing mine very similar to yours and you are making me think about a stripy runner. I was going to go plain but I will see what yours looks like first. I am not sure I am that brave.
Baa House says
The pictures are really fantastic….Thanks for Sharing…
Jenny says
Sherry- I know I don’t actually know you but that Ariel picture is the reason I think you are da’ bomb.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thanks Jenny!
xo
s
Evelyn W says
The Ariel shot prompted me to finally write you guys.
Can I just say how much I adore your precious quartet (Burger counts as a child)?
Any time I get stuck arguing about DIY cornice curtain boards with my hubby, I always say “What would YHL do? They just go with it, mkay? Why can’t we just be like YHL and relish that we painted 1/10000th of the blue trim?”
You guys are the best. Always reminds me that in the end, this tile or that tile, so long as the family is not staple-gunning itself, it doesn’t matter.
Also, HUGE fan of the terrace changes. Can’t wait for the tile and fireplace! Great decision!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, thanks so much Evelyn! You’re so sweet!
xo
s
Letty says
The stairs are looking good, and I’m excited to see how they turn out. But I really had to comment to say that the picture of Sherry like Ariel cracked me up! The best ever! Haha!
Heather says
I went on a home tour and the woman had bought 2 (cheap) rugs at IKEA and used them as a runner. It looked like a million bucks and was well made and looked like it would last a long time!! They just seamed the rug under the lip of a stair and no one knew the better!
Trudy says
Loving this look! Can’t wait for the post where you paint the railings the dark color… I’ve been wanting to do this in my house forever, and I’m just needing some “hey if they can do it themselves, I can too” motivation! Thanks so much for all your inspiring posts!
Janet says
After our dog falling down a flight of stairs and tearing her ACL I’ve decided to bite the bullet and get a stair runner. Your timing on this post couldn’t be more perfect. I used the same website…thank you and ordered my two runners today. Found a GREAT install video from This Old House that made me feel that I could tackle this project. Can’t wait to see how both sets of stairs turn out!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the TOH video tip! Will have to check it out. Hope your dog is doing great!
xo
s
Aimee W. says
Congrats again on the new bean! I was just wondering if you got in the new runner and what your thoughts were? Think it’ll look as great as you hoped?!
YoungHouseLove says
It’s back-ordered! Boo! They’re saying the end of October now, so I’m hoping it comes in a few weeks!
xo
s
Katie says
Have you finished the banister yet? I’m doing the same thing in my house and my husband wants to paint the banister, but I think we should stain. Would love to hear if you’ve completed the project and how it turned out. if you chose stain, how did you select the finish color?
YoungHouseLove says
I haven’t tackled it yet, but I’m gearing up to soon! Maybe within the next month?
xo
s
Carmen says
You might have already mentioned else where, but I haven’t been able to find it, how did you go about measuring your stairs to know how long/ much you would need?
YoungHouseLove says
I just manually did it by hand, measuring each riser and step all the way down and adding it up (do it twice to make sure you’re right). That way you account for if a certain riser is too tall or another step is slightly shorter, etc.
xo
s
KC says
Hello, We have stairs that look very similar to yours and I love your design! Has the cotton runner been slippery at all with the kids? We have two little ones as well. Also, is the cotton still holding up nicely? Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Thankfully it has been great for us so far. No real slips (we have a no shoes or socks rule) and it still looks new as long as we keep it vacuumed!
xo
s