Christine loved the period details of her dream home — though some of them had been lost under years of paint. Though it took a while (250 hours of stripping alone!), the results of her staircase restoration are light and bright and a little breathtaking.
From Christine:
We'd been looking for a house to buy for ages and within seconds of entering this house we knew we'd finally found “The One”. Looking past the dirty walls, chipped paint and general mess, we could see that we'd managed to find a real gem.
Lots of the original Edwardian features, like some amazing stained glass and original doors, are all still in place, but our favourite feature in the house is the staircase — well at least it is now! It was in a particularly bad condition when we moved in: the carpet was worn and all of the original detailing in the wood had been lost under layer upon layer of paint. Admittedly restoring it was much more work than we'd anticipated. All in all, it ended up taking us about 1.5 years to finish the project, first stripping, then sanding and finally painting and staining everything.
The whole hallway is so much lighter and brighter. We'd still like to renew the floor and sort the walls in future, but for now we are so relieved that the project is finally completed. We couldn't be happier with the result and feel that all the hard work was definitely worth it!
For side-by-side before/during and after photos (plus a look at the gorgeous stained glass), check out Little House on the Corner.
Thanks, Christine!
Have your own Before & After project you'd like to share with the editors? Submit it here.
(Images: Little House on the Corner)
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Wow, so lovely!! All that hard work really paid off!
Just waiting for some predictable gasps of horror from the usual suspects regarding the -shock! horror!- painted over wood. It looks divine to me. Very scandi, very chic. Better than dark, drab original by a mile. :)
It looks good now, although a bit too clinical a white for me, .....it won't look good for long. The white riser will require magic eraser sponges to remove the black scuffs. The black painted step will show every bit of dust, quickly get worn off in the middle and require constant repainting. The railing spindles will chip requiring frequent repainting. Stained wood of a medium tone with shellac or lacquer over it or gasp polyurethane would not need touching again, other than dusting, for 25+ years. Don't just go for looks, think about the time, money and effort it will take to keep things looking good. Spend time with friends and family doing what you love instead of on housekeeping tasks.
tenantproof
You mean to say that you can't tear yourself away from your family and friends for a few minutes each day to clean and maintain your surroundings? You sound that you don't believe in dusting or regular upkeep. Any choice of finish is going to require touch-ups to some degree. I have a similar style as shown in these pictures. Yes, painted steps do develop a patina, like any wood surface will. But it's also super easy to cover up nicks and match new boards to the old ones. Keeping things looking good is not nearly as difficult as you're making it out to be.
Much, much better!
Oh, man! Beautiful!
Gorgeous!
For a lot of people it's the norm to not wear shoes in the home. I don't think there would be black scuffs if that was the case. And when there's dust, you dust and vacuum. Any dark surface will show dust - it doesn't mean we don't still use them. Any light surface will show dirt. It doesn't mean we don't go walking outside.
I wish the folks at AT would use the correct terminology for showcasing projects. This is not a "restoration". It is simply a new paint job.
There are some applications, such as here, where white-painted wood gives a much brighter and less dark look to a space, moreso than unpainted and stained wood.
I do however, totally agree with the above poster who said that wood is much easier to maintain than white painted wood.
One way to split the baby, and which I would do to something that looks blindingly white like the above, is to paint some of the white in paint colors that don't show every scuff like white does. Were I to move in here, I'd paint the risers one color, and the wall molding going up the wall with the stairs another color, and I might paint the newel post as well. I'd probably leave white (or, more to my taste, paint in off-white or some other color that coordinates well with both the colors in the adjacent room and the colors I used on the staircase) the beadboard in the room on the exterior of the staircase.
yay!
Totally understand what you went through- having done it myself, but results are so worth it. It looks gorg.
I don't understand the "upkeep" issue. I don't see how the poly'd steps ar any different from hardwood flooring. Strange comment!
-team paintstripping.
I'm in the middle of my first paint stripping/wood restoration project and I can't understand why you would spend all that time stripping off the old paint just to replace it with...paint. Was the wood in poor condition? It looks very nice and I give you kudos for the effort, but I would have sanded, sealed, and repainted instead of stripping.
I'm so impressed with the kick-ass mitering job on the wall. Sweet!
were the treads painted or stained?
I didn't poly my steps....didn't feel like ice skating off them!
Absolutely stunning!
this is seriously beautiful.
The original stairs looked awful after all the carpet had been pulled. For the record, they stained the stairs and painted the spindles.
Looks great and would love to have this staircase in my home. I don't understand why people have to pick out only negatives to a project, that so much hard work went into. The owners are clearly happy with the outcome and it suits their style. If you don't like it, or don't agree to the point of bashing their reno....then move along to another post that does interest you.
Congrats on a job well done to the homeowners :)
gorgeous. kuddos on all the stripping time!
To the folks who say "White gets too dirty, too fast," what colors do you live with?
But, um, were those raised panels lost under paint?? That would be a LOT of paint to be lost under!
Stunning! Clearly more than "just a paint job". Nice work!
@The Creeping Cat - I lived in a rowhouse that seemed to have 20-30 layers of paint on each trim surface. Every gouge in the wood was painted over and over, leaving a very irregular surface...we used to call them bite marks because of the chunks. Sometimes you have to strip away some or most of the paint layers to return to something smooth enough to work with. Puttying, sanding, etc. help too. I often thought about stripping my trim and repainting it, but other projects consumed me.
Overall, I think it's a very admirable job and should be commended!
All these negative comments are not helpful. The job is done and it is beautiful.
My first thought was Oh no they painted over period wood detail. But then when I thought about it. I realized it wasn't that much wood detail really and it looked in pretty bad shape. Plus by adding the detail of wainscoting on the other side it really elevates the staircase into a showpiece, which is good since you walk right into it through the door. It is the first thing people see. But if they had tried to do something in a wood on the other side it would have been very difficult to match. So I am all for the white.
Also as someone pointed out the steps are actually stained a dark mahogany which you can see better at their blog.
This looks amazing! The hard work looks completely worth it to me!
Congratulations. Over the years we have had several homes that started out looking like this you'll never regret the time you've put in.
Sounds like you are better off living in a one story home. I grew up with steps like these, and they were not hard to keep clean or in good shape. If the steps are getting dinged up, and abused maybe the people using them needs to learn not to be so destructive.
Glorious! What a great difference!!
Absolutely gorgeous! We did a similar stain and paint treatment 2 years ago and have had no scuffing issues (like mentioned above) and we love the dark stain on the treads, very dramatic and timeless too. Yes, the dark stain shows dust faster than medium or light stained steps but a quick wipe once a week with a Swiffer style cloth does the trick. Stunning look, bravo!
Wow, that's dedication! I've done paint stripping projects before, not fun but the results are usually well worth it as they are here. A lot of the old wood details are not in good enough shape to stain or varnish once you get down to the last layers. Big disappointment if you had your heart set on wood but once filled, sanded and restored to smoothness it can look good with a clean, unchipped paint finish.
Good Lord, will the wood police get a grip?!
The new steps are stunning - fantastic job! Thank you for sharing.
I don't mind the paint though I am not a fan of blinding white. What I want to know is if they kept that awesome red door!
Gorgeous. All of your hard work paid off.
The treads aren't black, they are stained a dark brown colour which has then been varnished, so shouldn't need touching up in future. We are also planning on installing a runner on the stairs so that they should stay looking great for a long time!
Cx
Beautiful job and love the new look. I'm curious though, why it was necessary to spend 250 hours stripping if the wood was to be painted? I'm about to embark on something similar with my own staircase (though I'm lucky to have beautiful old oak on the treads so will be able to keep those as they are), and no way on God's earth am I willing to spend 250 hours stripping it first!
@ The Creeping Cat
Everything was in an awful state and had been painted so many times, that it would have been impossible to just paint over it again. There were also a lot of holes and dents that needed to be filled, so we decided that painting everything would give a better result. It's also more in keeping with the style of the house.
Cx
@ katalyst
Thanks! You've described the state of our wood perfectly. The finish would have been awful if we'd just painted over it!
Christine @ Little House On The Corner
@ EdmundD
The treads are stained and varnished. Should hold up better than if they'd been painted.
Christine @ Little House On The Corner
@Star Princess
If you check out the blog you can see that it was a restoration and definitely not just a paint job.
Christine @ Little House On The Corner
Thanks guys for all of your amazingly kind comments! We appreciate every single one of them!
Christine & Jan @ Little House On The Corner
@tenantproof - One person's hassle to keep up is another person's cinch.
Personally, I love this look and have plenty of painted white in my house that looks exactly like it did 10 years ago. Because I either cleaned off scuffs as they happened, on a regular basis or I took the one weekend every few years to repaint areas. I think paint costs are minimal.
It's really not that hard for most people to keep this kind of thing looking great.
I think they did a great job with this and how you clean isn't too relevant to their redo.
It's gorgeous! I love white painted wood, there is something so clean about it. We painted all of the trim in our house bright white and I love it. We don't have any problems with scuff marks either.
I've been obsessed with stair runners lately, so I would add one (reading their blog I realized that they are looking at runners too). Sisal would look nice and work well with the dark stained stairs. Or I would go with a fun striped one (saw a zig-zag one with about 10 colors the other day that was stunning).
Absolutely beautiful, and totally worth all that hard work. Congratulations!
My thoughts exactly! Why not just use a deglosser, a quick sand, and start to paint? Very strange indeed.
For all of you worrying about our paintwork staying clean and chip-free we are planning to install a runner! We've narrowed it down to 5 carpets but can't make up our minds. You can take the vote here: http://www.littlehouseonthecorner.com/the-runner/
We'll be installing the one that gets the most votes!
Christine @ Little House On The Corner
A lot of the woodwork in old British houses was never meant to be seen au naturel, it was always intended to be painted. As a result it is often cheap knotty pine, which does not look great stripped back. It was fashionable in the 80s to have lots of stripped pine, but it really does look better painted.
Why spend 250 hours stripping paint? Because the end result looks like this.
kudos to you guys for taking on this job! well done!
That's dedication but serious kudos for preserving the original details of the house. I love the extra trim you added on the wall and the black and white is very classic.
The photos on your blog really show the whole picture. The front door windows are so beautiful and the entire strip, sand, paint job you did was worth the work. I know you feel happy every time you walk in the front door.
We have poly finish on our fir stair treads and they are not too slippery.
Good luck.
WOW! Looks great.
Well done. Love the dark newel cap.
A word, though, to people like ChooseHappiness and npogue about "negative" posts:
I do think that commenters who just say "yech" or even "not my taste" are not being helpful at all and they should bug off. However, I often look at these posts for inspiration, yes, but I am also interested in some of the pitfalls of the restoration, fix, renovation, redo, whatever.
Haven't you ever been about to drop an extravagant amount of cash on something when a friend who's with you warns you against it? And you were later glad they did? I'm grateful for folks like tenantproof who can add a caveat here and there. You may say that tenantproof should have just horned in without adding, "Oh, but I loved how it looks!"... Eh, maybe s/he didn't feel that way.
*shouldn't have horned in...
It looks fantastic. And I'll echo the comment on the mitres on the wall woodwork looking dead on.
Painted wood is fine. I don't quite understand the negative comments regarding doing so. It looks clean and, as marina_g points out, sometimes wood was intended to be painted. It's hard to believe that any type of wood has become a novelty now when at one time it was one of the few building materials available.
Along the same lines, often lesser quality woods were used in the middle section of flooring where a rug would cover it. Now that same wood from would be sought after in favour of character over the average floormica in most modern homes (mine included).
@Maybe Someday
Thanks! I can understand people preferring natural wood, but the quality of all of the wood in our house just isn't good enough. Although some people may have just painted over the existing layers of paint, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and wanted to achieve a perfect finish with as much of the period detail visible as possible. No chipped paint in sight!
Christine @ Little House On The Corner
There are other reasons to strip paint before repainting. If there are chips or rough spots, most old homes have lead paint. You can't sand it. So to get any kind of a finish at all you need to strip it first. I had to strip my window trim for this reason. Also the previous owner had done a terrible job painting.
Stripping is definitely the correct way to deal with the wood in this case: sanding would have created possibly toxic dust, and may have destroyed detailing.
Bravo to the homeowners for their hard work -- they will be able to enjoy it for decades to come!
Can't wait to see the new stair runner and entrance flooring (fingers crossed for encaustic tile!) -- it's already an enviable entrance, and will be even more stunning.
Looks nice but I would not have put 250 hours of work into this paint job. I fully understand all of the comments and why what was done was done. It just doesn't really blow me away for the time put into it.
Beautiful job
That looks so nice, I want to lick it.
Amazing. Well done, you can really see theveffortbthst went in to this. Totally worth it.
It looks nice, but I really like the red door!
@rmbnn
We completely stripped and repainted the door, too!
http://www.littlehouseonthecorner.com/front-door-makeover/
Glad you like it!
Christine @ Little House On The Corner
You did a brilliant job with the front door too!
One piece of advice though: front doors need a more hardwearing finish than other exterior woodwork, and so should be either high gloss or semi-gloss traditional oil paint or acrylic enamel. Eggshell will not last as long, or clean up as well, as a higher gloss oil.
The best paint I know of for this sort of project is Hollandlac; not sure if it available in England as well, but the UK market must have excellent purveyors of traditional paint for this purpose -- Little Greene, and others.
@mschatelaine
Thanks for the advice! We used a Farrow & Ball Exterior Paint for the front door. It's been finished for about a year now and still looks like it did when we first painted it.
What you can't tell on the photos is that we also have a small porch, which means that the front door is not actually outside.
Will be keeping your advice in mind for any other outdoor painting we have!
Christine@ Little House On The Corner
Beautiful!
Also, to those who have negative opinions, it's a work in progress, right? There may be a colorful runner soon. There will be skim coating of the walls, after which, who knows, a WALL COLOR might replace some of the white... After so much prep (and NOT taking the easy way out), they deserve to brag a bit about the project even if it's not absolutely done.
Meanwhile, it looks miles better and the raised paneling is the perfect addition! (Oh, to the person suggesting that the paneling is what was obscured by the layers of paint -- if you look at the blog post, I submit it was actually the grooves in the newell post, totally lost in layers of paint, but a lovely original detail that wouldn't have been visible if they hadn't worked for it.)
Definitely an improvement! The wood is so much better than carpet.
Beautiful.
I know the stairs are the star, but that red door is just beautiful. I have a thing for doors.
Love it!!! I think you did a great job!!!
GORGEOUS! :)
I LOVE IT. Great job!!!!!
When I first clicked on this before and after I was like, "wow!" It's beautiful!
I don't understand the big maintenance deal with painted woodwork. I've had both and LOVE my painted woodwork - and it IS white. I've had it for several years now and feel it is much easier to take care of. If you use a good paint, I used Sherwin Williams Latex Enamel, you won't have a problem. Plus, you do know you can urethane over paint for an extra coat of protection, right? I was forever touching up all the little scratches, dents, and gouges in my stained woodwork. Imo, there was much more upkeep.
I hear what you're saying about painting over vintage woodwork but to be honest some vintage woodwork may have looked better painted in the first place. Paint is not new...urethane is, though. Anyone remember how tacky varnish used to be