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!

Introduction

So I finally completed on my first house in the beginning of December after what seemed an eternity of waiting, although in reality was only about 4 months, and have now moved in. It is an old Victorian terrace, I'm unsure of the year it was built but it was around 1890/1900. I thought the previous owner had lived there for around 50 years but it turns out that they had in fact lived there for around 80 years, and owned it for 50. It hasn't been particularly well cared for in recent years, understandably given the ages of the previous owners, and a lot of the work they had done; plumbing, heating, electrics were ‘bodge’ jobs so there is a lot of work to be done.  

A lot of this work needed is either a) prohibitively expensive for the time being (new bathroom) or b) a job best left to the professional (new roof)  or c) both (the extension). So mainly this blog will focus on the smaller jobs that I can do myself. I’m not expecting any readers but thought a blog may give me an impetus to get through the hours and hours of stripping wallpaper, paint, sanding floors, painting, tiling etc. that are to come.