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Creating A Bright Staircase

When we moved into our home the staircase was dark and dingy with dirty green carpet and drab wall colour. The handrails and spindles had been removed which made the stairs very unsafe.

Before...


The only aspects of the staircase that we liked were the dado rails and the existing light fitment.

The light fitment...


We needed to brighten up this area as there is no window in the stairwell. We decided on a light blue and white (colonial theme) which should create a lighter area. To decide on the shade of blue we bought a variety of testers and painted blocks of colour onto the wall (then wrote in pencil over each colour the exact name of the paint).

The walls with blocks of paint...




The first main job was to make the staircase safe to use. Our carpenter fitted spindles and banaster along the landing and down the right side of the stairs.









We then lifted the old carpet and disposed of it, leaving the gripper rods and underlay for re-using.

Once we had decided on the best shade of blue - which was aqua white - 'my fella' set to work on painting the whole area.
The ceiling was repainted with 2 coats of matt white, below the dado rail was painted in matt white and above the rail in aqua white. The spindles and banaster required 3 undercoats and 1 coat of gloss in white. The dado rail and pigs-ears rails were rubbed down, filled, rubbed down again and prepped with 1 undercoat and 1 coat of white gloss.

I was very lucky to find a beautiful mirror in the design of a window with shutters for £50 at a local furniture shop. This creates a fab alternative to a window and breaks up the huge wall area on the dog-leg staircase. The mirror also reflects the light from both the hallway and landing windows as well as being a super feature to the wall.

The results...




We chose a light coloured carpet in oatmeal which has a longish pile but is hardwearing (apparently it has a 10 year stainfree guarantee!) The pile in the carpet creates texture as you look up the stairs.

In all we were very pleased with the results of this area.

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