I am overwhelmed at the positive response to yesterday’s post about the staircase remodel.  Thank you so much for your kind words. 

As you can recall from the ‘After’ picture, I not only redid the railing, but for additional drama, I added a wallpaper treatment to the very blank and boring wall. 

Originally, I was going to play it traditional, and add plain white panels to the wall, with molding on top.  But I decided to kick it up a style notch, and add wallpaper panels instead.  It was more dramatic, and less expensive. 

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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. 

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Last week I found a beveled glass mirror at the local thrift store for $8.  It was the perfect size for my daughter’s bedroom.  The only problem was that it was oak.  All it took to transform it was just some sanding, a bit of primer, and some white spray paint. 

Here’s the Before and After:

There are two schools of thought on painting oak. 

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