Stairway to Heaven

Okay, well not really Heaven.  It's just our second floor.  The stairway project I talked about a couple weeks back is finally {nearing} completion.

So just to recap, my crazy Hubby decided late one night to rip up the runner in our stairwell.  It was old, dingy, and needed to be replaced.

...which left quite the mess.

The stairs underneath were in rough, rough shape.  They had huge dings, the stain was applied in two different directions, and the risers {as you can tell} needed to be repainted.  So Hubby got to work removing the original stain.  He used two sanders to get all the stain off the steps, a "normal" sander {using 60 grit sand paper, which is apparently heavy??} and he used an "edger" sander, to get into the tight corners.  And where those tools weren't enough, he used good old fashioned brute strength {aka elbow grease}.

The second floor of our house used to be an attic, before the prior owners converted it into two bedrooms.  So these stairs were never really meant to be used frequently, let alone seen regularly.  As a result, the risers are higher than normal, the planks are a bit shallow, and the stairs are generally steeper than your run-of-the-mill staircase.

So it didn't surprise us that the planks were in rough shape once all the stain was removed.

At this point, Hubby had done most of the sanding.  He still wanted to do one more quick pass, just to be "sure" and to try to remove a few more dings.  He had also put a first coat of white paint on the stair risers.

As you can imagine, this whole process created a LOT of dust.  Luckily, we have a doorway leading to the upper floor {where I imagine a permanent door once hung to close off the attic}, so Hubby tacked up an old sheet to the door frame, which helped keep some of the dust "contained".  {I say that with great hesitation, since we have since cleaned our floors like 4 times and wiped down every surface in our house on, at least, half a dozen occasions.

But even with all that sanding, and all that dust, some of the stairs still had significant dings.  Pretty much no amount of sanding would get those out.

So now we had a choice.  Most of the floors in our house have a light stain, and in an ideal world - these steps would resemble our wood floors.  However, since the steps had a dark stain, and it was almost impossible to get them down to the bare wood, we were left with dark divots.  So we decided to throw caution to the wind!  The stairs would have to be dark once again.

Looking at all the tiny sample swatches at Home Depot can be challenging, but we thought we picked a winner, Mixwax "Bombay Mahogany".

Hubby applied the first coat tentatively {which, by the way, stunk up the whole house}.  He was barely finished, and I think my first words were, "You stained our steps purple."  We had hoped for a deep brown with slight red-ish undertones.  But Bombay Mahogany was so red, it was almost purple.  We had purple steps.  Plus, we had hoped for a glossy sheen to the steps, but the "satin" finish was really quite flat.  The stairwell is quite dark, and the lack of sheen on the stairs just seemed to soak up any extra light.

So, once again, we came to a cross roads.  We could either re-sand ALL the steps again, down to the bare wood - or - we could try to salvage what we had started.  We figured that if we added a second layer, closer to our original vision - maybe the two shades combined would be at least in the right ballpark.  And not purple.

The next trial can was "Antique Walnut" in a gloss.  Hopefully this would get us closer to brown and more of the sheen we were looking for.  This time, Hubby tested the layering technique on an old piece of wood, before I would let him anywhere near the steps.

And?

Success.

The steps are now, legitimately, brown - not purple.  Which is nice.  Much higher shine than we initially had.  Also nice.  And although the steps do not match our floors {as you can see peaking past my socks}, the darker stain really covers all the divots you saw in the unfinished stairs.

The risers are also getting a fresh coat of white paint, and Hubby added shoe molding to each step.  Since these attic stairs were never intended to be finished - the risers and the steps didn't fit together exactly as I would have liked.  The trim molding covers any gaps in between the steps, and somehow, tricks the eye into thinking the step isn't as high as it really measures.  Not bad.

So what's next for this project?  Well I still have to hunt down a runner option.  I have it narrowed down to two - so I just have to pick one and order it.  The stairs look so much better, I am tempted to keep them bare - but they are just a little too steep, and Riley's legs are a little too short.  I think adding the runner will make these steps a bit easier to navigate. 

Otherwise, the railing doesn't match the new steps, so Hubby plans to give that the once-over, double-stain treatment, too.  And who knows?  Knowing this house, don't be surprised if the walls get a new paint color, as well.  Guess we'll have to wait and see!