A few weeks ago I shared some of the ideas I was wrestling with for a colorful stairwell makeover, and now I’m back to declare triumphantly that I DID IT. IT LOOKS AMAZING IF-I-DON’T-SAY-SO-MYSELF. I AM SO EXCITED. Sorry in advance, this post is pretty long. I have so many words and feelings to describe my new stairwell.
Quick recap on the hallway project. First, I painted the walls, trim, and doors in the hallway and turned the pantry into colorful open shelving:
That made a huge difference, but left the stairwell untouched. Dark…wood paneling…yellow walls…it was not good.
It was time for a change! Paint to the rescue. First I had to remove the banister from the side of the stairwell. It’s very strange — someone cut it to be wayyyyy too short for the space:
I think we’re legally required to have a railing along the length of the stairs, so I will be getting a new one sometime soon. In the meantime, please don’t tell on me….
Then I slathered white paint all over everything. By which I mean, I painstakingly, tediously applied a coat of primer and 2.5 coats (ie two complete, and then touch-ups) of white trim paint to the paneling, newel post, banister, balusters, upstairs linen closet, and the doors to the upstairs bedrooms. Since I’d decided to leave the stair treads natural wood, I had to be very careful edging along the stairs:
Also, whoever built our house appears not to have heard of caulk, because I had to use two tubes of caulk filling gaps in everything. But it really makes such a difference — here’s a side-by-side showing some of the trim before and after caulking:
Goodbye dark cracks!
The white paint was great, but made the awful yellow walls even yellower.
So next was two coats of gray paint (Moonshine, by Benjamin Moore, to match the hallway and living room). I decided to paint the ceiling of the stairwell the same color, as it is low and narrow so it seemed jarring for it to be a different color. (I fell in love with the idea of painting ceilings after I did it in the bathroom and it made the space feel so much less disjointed.)
I was able to use a roller on a long detachable handle to paint the ceiling, but to get the seam between the wall and ceiling I had to rig up a little device — I just taped a paintbrush to the detachable handle (the end of a broom stick would work too). It was like a paintbrush spear, except less deadly than a normal spear:
Here’s the finished result of painting, as seen from the top of the stairs:
Ignore the open light switch — the tip of the switch broke off, so I need to replace the whole thing. I’m waiting to do it when I replace the hallway light fixtures, so I can have a fun day of trying not to electrocute myself.
BUT, enough about painting. That was fun and all, but the real fun was what I decided to do with the stairs themselves. You guys gave me a lot of great advice a few weeks ago, and most people recommended keeping the treads woods and then doing something colorful with the risers. And that’s exactly what I did! Ready for the finished result?
What do you think? I thought about painting them, but ultimately I was really drawn to some of the patterned wallpaper inspiration images. But you guys, wallpaper is so expensive. Especially fun graphic wallpaper. And also, it’s usually between 21″ and 27″ wide for a roll, meaning that there would be a seam in the middle of every single riser. You know what isn’t expensive, comes in lots of awesome patterns, and is usually 40″ wide or more? FABRIC.
Yep, I decorated my stairs with strips of fabric. And since I know I have inspired you with my creative genius, I will tell you how I did it so you can immediately rush out and do the same.
First, I picked out the fabric. I love the selection and prices at Fabric.com — there’s a lot to weed through, but you can find some really great stuff (that’s where the fabric for our living room curtains is from, too). After lots of deliberation, I settled on the Sunprint Feathers in Teal. Here’s the photo from the website:
It looks green here, but I knew from the product reviews that the color was bluer than it shows on the website, so I thought it would tie in nicely with the built-ins. I calculated that I would need 2.5 yards, which came to $23. TWENTY-THREE DOLLARS. From my research, I knew that this amount of awesome cool wallpaper would have cost me at least $100, probably a lot more.
I decided to use mod podge to adhere the fabric to the risers, since it seemed like people have had good experiences with fabric + mod podge + wood to do things like decoupage table tops. I bought a large container of matte finish mod podge, because I knew I would do a protective top-coat and I didn’t want the stairs to be glossy. But that would probably look cool too!
Here’s how the whole thing went down one Saturday afternoon:
Step 1: I washed, dried, and ironed the fabric.
This is what ironing looks like
Step 2: I read a few tutorials on using mod podge for decoupaging with fabric that suggested first coating the back of the fabric with a layer of mod podge and letting it dry. The benefits promised were twofold: this would prevent the fabric from fraying when cut into smaller pieces, and it would make the fabric stiffer and easier to work with. I was a little skeptical about whether this was fully necessary, but I figured I’d give it a try so I laid the fabric out face down on a big table we have in the basement, and brushed on a coat of mod podge. It took awhile and the fabric puckered and wrinkled, but I persevered (and the wrinkles all worked out when it came time to put the fabric on the stairs).
After coating the whole thing, I let it dry about 45 minutes. When it was dry, it had a heavier feel, more like paper than fabric — this made it a lot easier to work with down the road. And when I started cutting, indeed there was no fraying. So even though it adds time and uses up a fair amount of mod podge, I definitely recommend taking this additional step.
Step 3: Once the fabric had dried, I started cutting it out and applying it to the stair risers, one piece at a time. Every riser was a little different in size, so I went riser by riser measuring, cutting, and gluing. On each riser, first I used my sewing measuring tape (which is more flexible than a regular measuring tape) to measure the length and width of the riser and then mark that on the back of the fabric and cut it out to size.
Step 4: Next I painted the riser with a liberal coat of mod podge. It doesn’t need to be perfect and it’s okay for it to get on the stair treads, since it dries clear and wipes up with water. It stays wet long enough to coat the whole riser at the same time.
Step 5: I started every riser in the top left corner, placing the fabric so it aligned perfectly in that corner and then working from there. My process was to gently press the whole length of fabric against the sticky riser, but the mod podge stayed wet long enough for me to slowly reposition the whole thing as I worked across to it stretch it out and eliminate bubbles. I used a credit card (errr, an empty Starbucks gift card) to smooth out the bubbles and make sure the fabric was firmly pressed against the riser (especially along the top and bottom edges).
I take really high quality one-handed photos on my phone, clearly.
I usually found that I had a little excess fabric along the bottom and right edges because the fabric stretched a little during the process, but this was easy to trim away with an x-acto knife later (just make sure to do it before the mod podge dries).
The only wrinkle in this process was that the bottom step was a little longer than the width of the fabric, so I had to use two pieces of fabric. I cut them so that the pattern would match as much as possible, and the seam is really not noticeable.
Step 6: After completing these steps for every riser, I jumped around with joy and made Sam stand and stare at it with me for a good long while. These kinds of celebrations are important for keeping morale up when you’ve spent every weekend this month contorted on your hands and knees in that darn stairwell and finally it’s looking awesome.
Step 7: As mentioned previously, I trimmed off excess fabric with an x-acto knife.
Step 8: To protect the fabric from getting scuffed up, I went back over each riser with an even coat of mod podge. This converted the surface from a soft fabric feel to a harder lacquered texture, but it looked exactly the same (since I used matte mod podge — if I’d used gloss, it obviously would have created a glossy surface). I kept a pair of tweezers on hand to pick off a few stray cat hairs that got caught on the risers, since I didn’t want that solidified in the mod podge when it dried. This step isn’t necessary if your floors aren’t as gross as mine.
And that was it! All told it took about 6 hours, which really isn’t bad. (This does not count the eleventy-million hours it took to paint everything.)
I’m going to be totally honest: I’m kind of obsessed with it. I spend a lot of time these days standing at the bottom of the stairs admiring my handiwork.
Next I am charging ahead with a few final details to complete the hallway: new light fixtures in the hall and at the top of the stairs, painting the inside of the front door, and art in the hallway and in the stairwell. Hopefully I will be able to get that done and share it soon! And I’m also starting to collect materials to tee-up our next big project: our basement home gym. Right now it’s high on function, low on form:
Stay tuned!
Update: be sure to check out Phase III of the hallway makeover, all the finishing touches (including new light fixtures, art, and painting the front door)!
(FEATURED at Thrifty Decor Chick, and sharing at A Bowl Full of Lemons, Think and Make Thursdays, AKA Design, Pure Blog Love, Link Party Palooza, Sarah Celebrates, DIY Showoff, All Things with Purpose, and Whimsy Wednesday)
Wow, the fabric on the risers looks great! And the whole stairwell is so much lighter. Beautiful, Sage! Can’t wait to see it in person, and will try to keep my sticky hand-prints off the walls if banister is not back up yet ;-). xoxoxo
Thank you, glad you like it! Hopefully by the time you see it in person, the rest of the finishing touches will be done!
Bravo, Sage! What a tasteful stairway makeover – AmbitiousandDelicious! Those of us who were skeptics about painting/ covering up any natural wood are saying Wow! Can’t wait to see the fitness room job…
Thank you Fred! Glad I won you over!
Beautiful! I have to say that I thought it was ceramic tile. It looks like a brand new home….don’t you love when that happens? I love the way you removed the doors. Great job!!!
Thanks Debbie! Ceramic tile, I hadn’t even thought of that! That would be very cool for an outdoor space where fabric wouldn’t hold up. And yes, I’m so relieved that I’m living up to my claim when we first toured the house that I could make it look totally different…phew!
Wow! It looks awesome! I wouldn’t have even thought of using fabric, and you did such a great job. Let us know how it holds up to the wear and tear, but it should be fine because its just the risers 🙂
Thanks Kim, and I’ll definitely be sure to share an update if we have any issues down the road! Hopefully they won’t take too much abuse because they’re just the risers, and the topcoat of mod podge will allow us to wipe up minor scuffs. But we’ll see!
THIS LOOKS INCREDIBLE! Yes, it also warranted all caps. Kudos!
THANKS STEPHANIE! (And yes, your enthusiastic all caps comment warranted an all caps response!)
Wow! That’s a pretty impressive transformation! I love the fabric you chose!
Thanks so much, Gretchen!
I am totally impressed. I used a sticker type wallpaper in the back of a custom bookshelf and had to cut each and every piece as I went. To try to do that with fabric!!! Ugh to say the least. It looks ah-mazing. I have never heard of coating the fabric before. I will have to try that as I have always struggled with wrinkles on large decoupage applications.
Thanks Brianna! It really ended up not being too bad to cut out all the pieces, but it may have been because I’d spent the previous weekends putting endless coats of white paint on the walls and this felt like so much more fun in comparison. It’s all relative 🙂 And coating the fabric beforehand worked so well — I had zero issues with wrinkles.
Oh, and I love your blog! Love your projects, love your voice.
Wow, that looks freakin’ awesome! What a change just painting the sides. BUT the risers, look fabulous! Good choice on using the fabric, its beautiful. Great job!
Thanks so much, Laurena! After I got the white paint up I briefly reconsidered since it looked so much better already, but I’m glad I took the plunge to do something a little more exciting.
It looks soooooo good! Love it.
Thanks Kim! Careful though, my ego is ballooning 😉
This is a total “WOW!” makeover! I love the tip you shared about mod-podging the back of the fabric first. This makes so much sense! The possibilities are endless…. literally. Oh and the brightness of the stairwell shouts with delight. Great going and thanks for sharing all the details! 🙂
Thanks so much Christina! So glad you found it helpful, and thanks for all your kind words!
This turned out so beautifully! Fantastic choice of pattern.
Thanks so much, Sandy! I loved the ombre idea, but couldn’t help but try out a little pattern.
This is absolutely stunning! I painted my stairs a few years ago and it brightened everything up so much… but was such a pain! I think I stayed in bed for two days when it was all finished! Great job!
Thanks so much, Karrah! I hear you — I’m soooo relieved to be done with the painting (in this room at least)! It’s impressive how a small space can take so long.
that is major! i loooove it.
enjoy!
b
Thanks so much!!
THIS LOOKS AMAZING! I love this idea. I doubt I’ll get my husband on board with it, but maybe it’ll convince him to at least paint the risers a different colour. Thanks for the awesome inspiration. In my dream-I-live-alone-and-can-do-whatever-I-want house, this is what I’ll have! 🙂
Thanks so much, Sarah! My husband was definitely skeptical at first, but I’ve developed a bad habit of just charging ahead anyway unless he strenuously objects. He almost always likes it once it’s done 🙂 But paint would look great too, and be a little more accessible for less adventurous spouses.
Thanks for stopping by, and I’m having fun looking at *your* blog now!
This is freaking awesome! You are definitely winning some link parties with these stairs! The entire transformation is fantastic. My husband always gets so bent out of shape when I want to paint wood. OMG it looks so much brighter, newer and nicer painted white. Way to go!
Thanks Liz! It helps that the wood in our house is in terrible shape, and also that my husband doesn’t seem to care what I do to the house most of the time 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words!
Excellent visual transformation of the the staircase. However, the removal of the hand railing may make for a cleaner, “brighter” space, but it adds risk to children and adults who may need more support than a flat wall. In my mind, the safety of those ultimately utilizing the space should be a major concern. Good luck!
Thanks! Totally agreed — that’s why getting a new one soon is on the to-do list. Since we don’t have kids and the upstairs rooms are currently unused bedrooms, in the meantime we don’t have anyone going up and down the stairs. Otherwise, I agree it would be a safety concern in the short term before we put in a new one!
Amazing job and so darn creative! I’m sharing and pinning! Liz http://www.HometoCottage.com
Thanks Liz, that means so much!
This post is literally loaded with awesome. First I saw your bookcase and was like “that is so pretty!” then I saw your white and blue two toned paint job on the stairs “she found the perfect shade of blue… so pretty!” AND THEN you took the cake with your fabric covered stair risers! They look amazing! I love the graphic pop they give the whole space! Unfortunately we live in a one story house so I can’t run out and do the same… but we are moving soon so there is hope! This would even be a great project for renters since you can do the whole fabric/starch thing and remove the fabric when you move again! Haha! Absolutely loved this… I am going to share it on facebook.
Thanks so much Betsy, you made my day! Naomi is also majorly jealous since her house is one story 🙂 It’s exciting that you’re moving — good luck with the whole process! And you’re right, with starch this could be a totally temporary makeover. Thanks for your comments and for sharing the project!
You did a great job on the painting alone. Such a huge and annoying task with the ceiling and all. I like the riser
Treatment. Genius to use fabric. Do you think it is permanent? How can it be removed once I tire of the fabric pattern? Thoughts?
Thanks Nadine! The painting was definitely tedious. For the fabric, I think the mod podge makes it pretty permanent since it dries very solidly. BUT, I’ve heard of people using starch to adhere fabric to walls, wood, etc, and that’s completely removable. Here’s one tutorial for using fabric as wallpaper with starch (http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-make-removable-fabric-w-74483), and I think you could easily adapt for the stairs so that you could easily switch it up when you’re ready!
WOW i am in awe of your hard work. it looks fabulous!i am very tempted to give it a go.
Thanks so much! I say go for it — it’s really not that hard!
This is so awesome! It’s amazing what a little paint can do! I can’t believe that is fabric. I really thought it was some kind of stencil or something. Really cool.
Thanks Jessica! I thought about using a stencil when I was trying to figure out how to do it more cheaply than wallpaper, but fabric ended up being so much faster and easier. Plus by the time I was done painting the walls, trim, paneling, etc, I needed a break from paint 🙂
I love this look – great job!! We’re having new floor put down in the lower level of a split home (700 sq ft of inexpensive, I mean lovely economical vinyl planks…) I need some style on the risers. I am definitely going to use fabric instead of paint now that I see how nicely yours turned out!
Thanks Kathy! Glad this was helpful, and I’d love to see how your stairs turn out!
Wow! This is amazing! I would totally do the same, but I’m not sure the fabric would hold up to 2 spazzy kids and a nutso dog. Still, you have sparked some ideas in my head, thank you!!!!
Thanks so much, Stacey! I love the image you paint of your kids and dog 🙂 A stenciled pattern with paint might hold up better and still add some pattern and color! I haven’t had any issues with durability yet, but it’s still early and the only spazzes in our house right now are two crazy cats.
OMG U guys I love love love this!!!! I have been trying to figure out what to do with my stairwell and I think u guys have provided me with the solution!!! Pinning right now!!!
Thanks so much Timisha! Would love to see how it turns out!
Hi- well I’m smitten! With the beautiful stairs and with you and your budget-friendly DIY! Happy to join and read your blog. Keep up the great work.
Thanks so much Alli, so glad you like the project and the blog!
This is brilliant. i might have to do this for our basement stairs when we start working on t he basement. wanna come help 🙂
XO Ellen from Ask Away
http://www.askawayblog.com
Hahaha, I’d be happy to help! It was seriously so easy.
Sage – What an inspiring project. Thanks so much for the excellent step-by-step instructions and photos.
Thanks so much, Linda!
Thanks for such a detailed tutorial on adding fabric to the stair risers. My 13-year-old daughter and I just finished doing our own stairs, following your instructions and it looks pretty nifty! I’ve wanted to paint or wallpaper the risers for ages, but was much too intimidated by the cost and expertise involved in either of those options (I am so not a detail person). Your method took a bit of time (maybe 5 hours working together), but if we could do it, anyone can. Thanks again!
That’s so exciting to hear, thanks for letting me know Susan! I’d love to see how it looks! It definitely takes some time, but I totally agree that it isn’t hard once you get the hang of it!
Hi- I was looking for a way to jazz up my Dark stairway. The walls are dark paneling. Yuck. So I primed them twice already and trying to decide on a light color for the walls. I’m thinking light “sage”:) then i wanted the risers to look unique. I just found this blog u wrote last year. After
I do a little more touch up on the white primer wood panel walls then paint after a littler breather cuz priming every nock and cranny was tedious for sure, I’ll paint them then try your fabric idea for the risers. I don’t mind if it lasts through early winter as a project because I want it done right I don’t want to lose my enthusiasm by trying to do it all in one weekend either. Btw- the way I found your blog was by googling “mod podge stairs to seal risers”. I love mod podge. <3 Barbara