How to create a stunning staircase on a budget

We’ve wanted to redecorate our hallway, landing and staircase for years but we always lacked something that would help us get the job done…time.

Lockdown offered this to us in spades. Previously the space was a drab green/grey colour, stairs were carpeted but had been chewed by the previous owner’s dog and then clawed by our cat and it was just really uninspiring. I had tried to inject a bit of personality into the space by painting some panels on the staircase yellow [big mistake] but a complete overhaul was needed.

Creating the staircase of dreams

I spent a lot of time on Pinterest searching for staircases with amazing gallery walls. Time and time again, I was attracted to bold colour blocking or stair runners. Even in our modern house, I thought that would look really good.

…And I had decided that the colour pink had to feature because there are elements of pink [or there will be!] in all rooms off the hallway/landing. Making the staircase pink would tie it all in and create cohesiveness around the house.

So read on to find out the stages we went through to create our staircase of dreams!

1. Get rid of the carpet

We hired a skip to clear the garden so used this as a great opportunity to rip up the carpet and get rid! The stairs are pie shaped and we soon realised as we were ripping up the carpet, that our idea of DIY-ing the runner ourselves was potentially going to be tricky!

Nevertheless, I cracked on with my idea of creating a staircase that would hold a carpet runner.

 

2. Prep the staircase

After removing the carpet, we had to remove the carpet tacks and the underlay from the treads. You will need something like a chisel to help remove these because they are little blighters!

Once those were gone, we hoovered the stairs. Jeez, this was such a dusty job so you’d be surprised how much mess there was!

You may find that some glue has been left on the stairs where the underlay was being held. That’s fine – I just used sand paper in varying grit levels to take it off but also create a key for the paint on the existing white gloss parts such as the spindles.

3. Mask up!

I had seen these stairs on Instagram and fell in love! I wanted to recreate something like this so decided to keep the inside facing parts of the spindles white and the parts that faced into the staircase pink. Masking up was an absolute ball ache though!

4. Paint it!

Two years ago I discovered Frenchic paint [painted my UPVC front door] so I knew that this was the paint I wanted to use – it’s incredibly hardwearing, paints like a dream and doesn’t smell.

I ordered the Frenchic Alfresco Dusky Blush which is a sort of velvety dusky pink and got to work. The paint is so easy to work with and a great tip is to ensure that your brush is damp on the first coat. Another tip is to water the paint down a bit if [like me] you were painting during the hottest week of the year!

It took three coats to achieve a really solid colour with no streaks. I painted the treads pink and the risers in Frenchic Whitey White trim paint and left where the runner would go in bare wood.

However…

I didn’t like the staircase once it was painted. Sure, the spindles were fabulous but we couldn’t decide on a runner that would have been within our budget, so I decided to do away with the thought of carpet. We had got used to not having any carpet down – surprisingly it didn’t sound any louder when our mini elephants tore up and down it with or without carpet!

I decided to make it fully pink so spent another couple of days painting and shouting at the kids not to go upstairs for a few hours!

The beauty of Frenchic Alfresco is that you don’t need to apply a finish to it, so once it was painted and dry, nothing else needed to be done. It cures properly in two to three weeks and then becomes hard as nails, which is perfect for something like a staircase which has lots of traffic. Plus, because it is a chalk paint, it is not slippy which is something that I had worried about with the kids.

5. The walls

As I mentioned above, the walls were this green/grey colour, which didn’t seem dark but were. We wanted something light and airy, which created a blank canvas for us to display our art and photos.

I spent ages looking at Farrow & Ball colours but we knew that painting over the existing colour would take at least 4/5 coats so we settled on the brilliant white as a base to then cover over once we had decided. Needless to say, given the height of the ceiling and the fact that the ceiling was a brilliant white too, we stuck with the white!

6. Finishing touches

I added a pink line down the wall where the stairs are attached, painted the back of the front door the same colour and tied everything in with a pink line going around the door frames. I am really impressed with the makeover and all it cost was a tin of pink paint [about £17] and a big tub of Dulux brilliant white emulsion paint [about £22].

 

Hope you like it!

x

[If you enjoyed reading some interiors content, then you might like my post about 2020 interior trends here or read my recommendation on the five best easy care houseplants to have in your home]