Painting Stair Risers for an Updated Look

I love the modern look of white stair risers, and I thought it would be great for my stairs. I live in a small townhouse in the city, and my stairway is a tiny closed in space.  I was hoping that by painting the risers white it would help brighten the space and make it appear a bit larger. In case you were wondering from this pic, I was also redoing the room next to my stairs, so that whole section of my house was a hot mess for a while too.

Nacho cheese walls!? What was the previous owner thinking?

 

This pic is an example of what I was looking for, plus I am crazy about the contrasting blue walls with the dark floors and white risers! I’m also obsessed with dark rich wood floors. Oh, so pretty!  *Sigh* one project at a time…

 So being the genius that I am, I stained my floors a darker color before I painted my risers. I’m not the best painter in the world, so needless to say there were many freak outs when I accidentally got white paint on my new beautiful stained floor! Ahhh! Tip, if you don’t use painters tape (which I highly recommend) keep several rags handy to quickly wipe up any paint that drips or smears.

What a huge difference! I think I accomplished my goal of making the space seem more open and not so tiny. Goodbye nacho cheese walls, you will not be missed.

Another Vanity Restoration

Here is another makeup vanity restoration I did. I forgot to take a before pic, but I still want to share it. This was my hardest restoration because this piece looked pretty rough when I purchased it. I spent a few days just filling in cracks and scratches with wood putty, and then sanding out any other damage I could. Once the hard part was done I primed, painted, and replaced the old handles with new modern ones for a beautiful finish.   

When I purchased the vanity, it did not have a bench with it. A few days later I found a small and very old bench at Goodwill. The stuffing was deteriorating and coming out of the seat every time someone sat on it, so I ripped everything off of it until I was just left with the base of the seat. I had never reupholstered anything before, but I thought “it looks so easy on when they do it on HGTV, how hard could it be?” HGTV lies. It was not easy, or cheap (FYI every week JoAnne Fabrics, Michaels, and AC Moore have discount coupons, and will match the other store’s coupons). I put the foam where I wanted it on the chair, wrapped my fabric around it and then stapled the fabric to the bottom of the chair. Finally my vanity was complete!

I have way too many shoes!