Has anyone painted their stairs......

peachyprice

.....and regretted it?

I'm in the midst of painting the hall and landing and am considering painting the stairs. At the moment they are natural pine, open tread with an arch shaped riser, I'm thinking of painting them white and grey.

I'm wondering, will they chip and scuff easily and is it one of those things that look good when first done but deteriorate quickly?

sevenhills

I have painted banisters and I am thinking about getting either new varnished ones, or stripping the paint off.
I think it will make things look better, with chrome or brass fittings too.

vansboy

I painted the stairs at a previous house, with a water based white paint, for floors, which worked very well.

Was easy enough to clean and touch up, during the short time I lived there, but not sure how long term wear would be.

I was going to paint alternate steps black/white, but it showed every uneven, or worn parts of the steps and looked rubbish. So grey might be a similar issue.

VB

onejontwo

I would second vansboy's point and use a water based paint. Although not as durable as gloss paint it is a lot easier to apply and if you are doing all the stair spindles and banisters it does take a heck of a long time and is a very repetitive and boring job!

zoothornrollo_2

peachyprice wrote: »

.....and regretted it?

I'm in the midst of painting the hall and landing and am considering painting the stairs. At the moment they are natural pine, open tread with an arch shaped riser, I'm thinking of painting them white and grey.

I'm wondering, will they chip and scuff easily and is it one of those things that look good when first done but deteriorate quickly?

I would be wary of painting any high-traffic floor a very light or a very dark shade - they both show up scratches and chips but most importantly dust and general detritus, glaringly.

We painted our kitchen and bathroom floorboard white and it's very hard to clean well and impossible to keep clean.

We are repainting a mid grey.

We used F&B floor paint which is water-based and was very good, and will use again.

-taff

I saw some in a house where they'd painted roses and vines growing up the stairs. Looked lovely.
I expect a few coats of ship varnish [can't remember what the proper name is ] will make it last quite a while.

peachyprice

Thanks for all your comments, my OH thought they would get dirty to. We don't have bannisters to paint so it's only the treads and risers, not too big a job. I'm not arty enough to do anything more than plain colours though :rotfl:

Anaheim

We ripped the carpet off of our stairs about 2 years ago, sanded the treads, and gave them a few coats of white oil based floor wax so that the wood grain shows through. They’ve lasted well and we haven’t had to re coat them yet. Really easy to clean and non slip. The risers are covered with strips of flowery wall paper cut exactly to size and sealed with a pva type glue. Cost next to nothing to do, but the sanding was rather messy!

[/IMG]

EachPenny

My main concern with painting the treads would be ensuring they are sufficiently non-slip. Gloss paint and wet feet rushing to answer the door or phone could spell disaster.

Most paints don't stand up well to being walked over on a regular basis - and stairs and corridors are the worst when it comes to foot traffic.

ancientofdays

I used a clear, matt acrylic varnish over the paint and that worked, was not slippy.

DavidFx

A quick tip - paint alternate treads and when dry, paint the others. This way you can still use the stairs (at a push) before the paint is dry.