The Staircase Reveal: Part One
July 14, 2009
Whew! After 30+ hours of intense labor, it is done. Ladies and gentlemen, friends and fans, we are proud to announce the rebirth of our foyer.
Welcome to the first of two articles about how we transformed our dated oak stairwell into a dramatic entryway. Now I make it a general policy not to bore you with too much yada yada, but please forgive the longwinded prelude. When you put over 30 hours into a DIY project, you milk it for all it’s worth.
Where to begin? First, I must explain the problem. The staircase was natural blonde oak. Dated and dreadful. NOT the first impression I ever wanted to give my guests. What was a girl to do? Replacing it with European style iron railing was the cost of an automobile. Fixing it seemed too daunting. Enter Rhoda. I love Rhoda! Rhoda at Southern Hospitality blog stained her entire oak staircase a lovely dark shade, from top to bottom, and planted a big seed in my inquisitive brain. Why if Rhoda could do it, then perhaps I could too.
That same week I was watching one of my favorite classics ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ with Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. If you can take your eyes off either of them, which is almost impossible since they’re both practically perfect physical specimens, you notice that they frequently descend the incredibly beautiful staircase of Big Daddy’s plantation home. When I saw it’s espresso dark railing, white balusters and base, it was true love. I had to have it.
So yet another seed was planted. After Rhoda, Paul and Liz, I was completely inspired. Off to the home improvement store I went, daring myself to do the impossible: transform the oak monstrosity into something sophisticated and stylish.
That said, let’s begin.
I’m almost embarrassed to show you, but here is the before:
But darlings, look ! Here is the dramatic after:
Transformed from bland to grand:
How I Gave My Ordinary Oak an Espresso Finish:
Step One: After all the prep work, taping off the balusters and laying down carpet protection, I stripped the existing varnish off the staircase with Klean-Strip. It was nasty, smelly full-of-chemicals stuff. I had to ask Mr. CG to keep the kids away for an entire day. I wore a mask, and the fumes gave me a bad headache. And I still had to sand afterwards.
Step Two: Sand, sand, sand, then sand again. I spent about 4 hours just sanding until my fingers cramped and refused another stroke.
Step Three: I cleaned off the sanding residue with wet wipes, then stained the upper hand rail with Minwax Gel Stain in Walnut. This is a wonderful product which I had used before to redo the highboy in the entry. It’s not Minwax’s fault that I wasn’t satisfied. It’s just the nature of oak. It’s such a grainy wood. When the stain was applied to the oak, it gave me too much of a stripe-like effect. Darker was much better, but the product only took me half way to the look I desired.
Step Four: I did something unconventional, and a bit daring. I glazed the wood with two coats of semi-opaque Burnt Umber acrylic craft paint. Yes, you heard me right. Craft paint. I know purist wood refinishers are absolutely appalled, but I’m telling you, the semi-opaque craft paint filled in the gaps and gave me just the espresso finish I wanted. See the difference after one coat?
Yessir. These were the three products that gave me the look I desired. Minwax Gel Stain in Walnut, Burnt Umber semi opaque craft paint, and Minwax Wipe On Poly.
They gave me this finish:
Hello gorgeous !
Using the glazing effect with the semi-opaque craft paint, rather than latex paint, helped to preserve the visible grain of the wood.
Step Five: With the help of a dear friend, and professional painter, we primed the bottom of the stairs with oil based primer, then finished it with two coats of ‘Swiss Coffee’ oil based white paint for durability. Thanks Mike !
Here’s another peek at the staircase before the base was painted.
And after it was painted:
Step Six: To the upper railing only, I applied one coat of Minwax Wipe On Polyurethane. This took maybe 10 minutes. No joke. Pour a few drops on a sponge, wipe on, and you’re done. It was dry overnight.
Here’s just one more look at the dramatic change. We plan to upgrade the carpet to wood steps when the children are a bit older.
The dark railing now coordinates with my refinished highboy in the entry.
I am loving the dramatic deep finish of the railing up against the white balustrade.
Tomorrow, in part two, I’ll share with you all about the wallpaper treatment I added to the staircase. You’ll be surprised to learn I used absolutely NO wallpaper paste.
But for today, I hope you’re all encouraged to take action, and transform your oak into something classic and wonderful. Yes you can.
Tags: oak transformed, staircase, wallpaper
I love love love the dark color, and am totally impressed that you thought to use craft paint. Brilliant. Love it all and cannot WAIT to see your process on the wainscotting. I've been coveting wainscotting in our dining room and am waiting with baited breath.
It's official, you are a genius!! Truly, it's stunning, and I'm beyond impressed. The craft paint is brilliant, and surely no one else would have thought of that. Gorgeous!!
And, PS – I think almost all oak needs transformed. Once we painted our dining room set (an appalling honey oak), I decided this was my new mantra – If I dont love it, paint it.
incredible!!! one of these days when i'm feeling reeeeeeeally crazy i'll have to start stripping all of the original woodwork in my house, which currently has several coats of paint on it (what were the previous owners THINKING?!)
these pictures alone are inspiration to get moving!
Hi Most Centsational One! I found out about you over at Rhoda's blog! Oh, my goodness! What a beautiful transformation you've made in your stairway area! Your railings are gorgeous and the wall! Oh, you're too good!!
Thanks for all the info on how to do this! I know I will be coming back to see you!
be a sweetie,
Shelia :)
Stunning…just stunning!
F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. I love high contrast with dark timber and white.
Oh my GOSH you have COMPLETELY floored me! I love love LOVE the use of the wallpaper, and the banister is perfection. WOW!
~Macy
You've completely given me hope on my light colored oak cabinets!! Great job!
GORGEOUS!!! I am still picking my chin up from my desk!!!
Okay…no joke…I've been planning to do the EXACT same thing to my honey oak railing (and adding white wainscoting on the wall leading up the staircase). Thank you sooo much for the great tips. I'm sure I'll be doing a post once mine is completed – although, I have a few projects to complete before I tackle this one.
Thanks again, your staircase looks gorgeous.
Really beautiful… and brave! The wainscoting is pretty fantastic too! Found you vis Southern Hospitality… I'll be back to get a better look around.
Hey, Katie! Hopped over from Rhoda's blog! Wow!! This is awesome! We need to call Southern Living magazine and see if they will go out to CA and do your before and after!!! Beautiful job!! Can't wait until tomorrow!!
Hugs!
Susan
Kate, I hope you're enjoying all these lovely comments because they're so well-deserved. And thank you for being so honest about all the time this took – that was a huge investment on your part but it certainly paid off.
I have kind of the opposite problem – my banisters have been painted (yes, painted)a nasty dark brown and I'm itching to do something about them. Your 'before' picture really is not so bad!
Amazing, that's all I can say. I can't believe you did this all by yourself! You're awesome!
I for real actually gasped at the "after" photo. What a stunner!
I am so freaking impressed!
It is gorgeous – love it!
wow, great transformation!
seriously. amazing. What an beautiful job you did! You are so brave and very talented! I love it!!!!! Quick question about how you stripped the railing? What did you use on the tight areas on the curved areas of the railing? I've heard a toothbrush works in the crevices, but it didn't work the best for me. Any advice?
That turned out beautifully! You are so darn creative!
it does look great and i love that bit of wallpaper right there.
as usual, it looks AMAZING!!!!!!!! i don't think any custom work done by a professional would have come out better than this! Huge pat on the back for you :)
That is gorgeous, and the EXACT color I've been trying to get my hand me down entertainment center to be! Good thing I'm not a purist wood refinisher, because I'll be mimicking your idea. Thank you!
Love this – Can't wait to try it out at myself
That is FABULOUS!! Thanks for the inspiration, this is EXACTLY what I've been wanting to do to my stairwell!!
Fabulous transformation!!! You did a fantastic job.
That looks absolutely fantastic!!!
holy cannoli! wow. that is just damn impressive! =)
Fantastic! Amazing and inspiring transformation!
It looks AMAZING! You are turning your tract home into a one of a kind!
If I had a stairwell, I would do this! I almost can't believe it. It's so beautiful! GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!! It was a lot of work but looks like it was more than worth it.
AMAZING!!! I love it!!! and I am in the middle of rethinking my own stairs, so this couldn't have come at a better time!
Wow.. that's such an amazing transformation!! I'm totally impressed. I love the mahogany feel of the oak… so historic, yet so modern. =)
Simply stunning! Thanks for the step by step – I'm going to have to find a project for this one – it's amazing! ☺ Diane
This looks great! Thank you for sharing! I have light colored floors and want to stain my railings as well.. my husband could not see it with the light floors so I sent him your pics! Great job!
Beautiful! I love love love what you did! You guys did an awesome job! :)
WOW! It looks AMAZING! I was irrationally excited to discover I have the same OB candle sconces as you. I bet I won't ever be able to walk by them again without thinking of your blog.
Hello Kate – oh my, what a beautiful staircase make-over! Just fabulous. Can't wait to see how you did that gorgeous wallpaper design! You are such an inspiration.
Blessings,
Marie
http://emmacallsmemama.com
WOW!!! This staircase is absolutely GORGEOUS! I am so jealous of your talent!
WOWIE! You did an incredible job. Even though 30 hours sounds like a long time, you did so much in that time! It's amazing.
This is absolutely incredible! The transformation is leaving me speechless. I can't wait to read about your wall treatment tomorrow.
Awesome! Can't wait to see part two!
Sherrie
That is freakin' beautiful! omgosh…amazing! I have been wanting to rip the carpet off my stairs and paint them. You've inspired me!
Beautiful! I love that dark stain and the white paint and I love the wall treatment you did in the stairway as well. It all came together perfectly!
OMG, one word. Rad-i-cool. You're a better woman than I. ;) Never in a million years would I have attempted that monster of a project. The wallpaper…maybe. Can't wait to see the how-to. Excellent job.
YOur transformation is AWESOME – totally! I adore the look of what you did. YOu are talented. Can't wait to see tomorrow's part II.
Bonnie
looks awesome! And I love that you framed teh wallpaer.
ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!:) I can't wait to hear how you did the wallpaper with NO paste lol
I love it. It doesn't even look like the same house! I love that you used craft paint. No high end, "professional" concoction but an item that anyone might have on hand.