Project One: Stairs

So (one of ) the next project I decided to tackle is the stairs.

There’s nothing wrong with them per se and they are in no way one of the urgent jobs that need doing however I was itching to do something that I could completely do myself and after reading many a home makeover blog was inspired to start the stairs.

I originally thought that I may replace the spindles, the current ones are just plain straight spindles so I thought I’d get some ‘traditional’ Victorian ones however my plan was foiled when I realised that mine were 25mm and now because of, good old health and safety and impact ratings, they have to be a minimum of 32mm so unless I wanted to replace the base rail and handrail as well I will have to keep mine.

Initially, I thought of keeping the spindles white, painting the base and hand rails along with corner and front post a dark walnuty colour, then doing the risers white and the treads in the walnut colour. I really like the look of these stairs (Stair Envy One) over at Little House on the Corner or these (Stair Envy Two) at Ugly Duckling House. However, my stairs and landing are quite narrow, there’s no window, just light from the front door and the rooms upstairs so I’m wondering if it will be too dark. I googled ideas for staircases and came across some gorgeous ideas like this so now I’m thinking about going for colours, maybe a purple or green or both.  Although I had planned to paint the walls red so would have to have a think. However colour schemes are long way off because there’s a lot of paint stripping and sanding to be done first!