Painted Stairs

Last time I left off our staircase was at the beginning of its revival. We finished patching them up with wood filler and sanding them so next up was the primer. We chose Aboff's Latex Primer-Sealer. Aboff's is a local paint supplier that carries its own brand of paint and Benjamin Moore paints.

Tony started by covering the entire staircase with primer using a regular angled brush. Here's the first coat being applied. 

And then here's a picture of the first coat of primer all the way through. Looking waaaaaaaayy better already. 

As soon as we gave that coat of primer a couple of hours to dry Tony went back in with a second layer to be sure no staining bled through after painting.

I was torn between painting them all white or painting them white with black treads. The initial plan was to stain the stairs a dark mocha color to match our floors, but that plan was moot after we realized what condition our stairs were in. I figured we would just go ahead and paint them all white for now since I did stumble across many pictures of white staircases and thought it looked great. If after we got the feel for the house and the knew what direction we'd be decorating it maybe we could go back in later to paint the tops black. After all it's just paint right? It's easy enough to change.

As soon as the primer dried we used Valspar's Porch and Floor paint  to cover the stairs with another two coats of crisp white color. It's amazing how open and clean our house felt after all the painting was done.

Oh, but there was one more thing we had to do. Some of the steps didn't actually line up with one another between the risers and treads so all we did was run caulk through those cracks. If you look at the picture below you can see how obvious those cracks are especially against the white paint. They're long black thin eyesores. Eek!

Here's how big a help that caulk was. No more dark cracks!

And finally after all the prepping and painting I present to you our staircase:

Isn't she a beaut?! Love it.

Its certainly a huge improvement from where we first started.

HUGE!

Of course we're not finished yet. Eventually we'll have to put in a new railing and some small round molding where the stairs and short kitchen wall meet. Slowly getting there...