Disclosure: “I love sharing all my projects around the house and new decor finds along the way but I also know how overwhelming it can feel to start a project and not know the tools you need or how to style something around the house. Below I have included affiliate links to tools and products I use and love, which means I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through them.”
This is what I like to call the snowball effect when it comes to updating your house. You think ‘I’m going to update my flooring upstairs and it’ll look fantastic’ but what you are really saying is ‘I’m updating my flooring upstairs, which then means I’m going to also have to update my stairs’-our stairs look disgusting. Yes, maybe that’s a little dramatic but it wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at next to our new floors. When we refinished our hardwood floors downstairs I had talked to the hardwood refinisher and asked to give me a estimate on what it would cost to add hardwoods upstairs and redo both sets of stairs and it was going to cost between 30-40k with each stairwell costing around 8-10k! Well after a kitchen renovation that was nowhere in the budget nor did either of us feel that it would be a worthy investment. Oh, and on top of that that price was before wood started to cost double or triple what we had paid.
Another consideration was also getting a custom runner made or adding carpet back to the stairs but neither of those options thrilled me and good quality carpet isn’t cheap. So, I spent a lot of time just thinking about what I would actually like on my stairs and also not cost thousands of dollars. I knew I wanted black railing and steps and when I found the rug line by Chris Loves Julia with Loloi I instantly fell in love with the Denim and Spice color and decided I would use that as a runner. I also considered a washable rug for the project but quickly realized I would never care enough to take the runner off and wash it on a regular basis so low pile runner for the win!
Here is what our stairs looked like before. I think they even look worst in these pictures but that’s what beige carpet looks like after 21 years and a lot of kids!
The first step was removing all the carpet, nails and tack strips and ,of course, filling nail holes galore. Prep is always the worst part of any project but it gives you the best finish so never skip it. After removing all the nails I filled in all the nail holes that wouldn’t be hidden by the runner rug. Yes, cutting some corners are ok!
Next I used a deglosser on all the handrails and the spindles and I’m glad I did. In doing so I found that it just loosened up all the gunk of 20 years of hands and cleaner being used on the handrail and made for a much smoother finish. One more step I added in was caulking all the seams along the tread. It’s something small but gives the steps a more finished look.
Next I taped off along the entire tread since using a foam brush is a bit harder to get a smooth line. Once everything is prepared it’s time for stain. I used a 2 inch foam brush and just did a coat on all the spindles and handrail and also did the tread but only enough that it would come in another inch or two inside where the rug would be laying on the tread. When using this stain make sure that it’s not a thick coat to avoid runoff drips. The nice part of this stain is that you don’t have to remove it after it sets for X minutes. It goes on more like a paint. It took 2 coats that I did over two days to allow enough drying time in between each coat. While I waited for the stain to dry I decided it was a good time to touch up all the white trim and paint the riser for each stair, again only painting the riser so it would be one or two inches inside where the rug would hit.
Now time for the fun part- the rug! By this time it felt like I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! First, I measured the width of my tread and then the width of my rug and subtracted rug from the tread and came up with a number and then divided that by two and that is how much space you need on each side of your runner . (width of tread-width of rug= X then divide by two ie, 33-27.5=5.5/2=2.75) Then I measured in 2.75 inches and marked the outside of that using my laser level and painters tape so I could follow along when I stapled my rug down. Now, for most of my project I used carpet tape I found on amazon and had amazing reviews and overall it holds up quite well but I found something better. When finishing up the backstairs I ran out of carpet tape and went to home depot and found this carpet tape and it has a much stronger hold than the brand I found on amazon. So, for each tread and riser I did two to three strips of carpet tape (depending on width of tape) and left the backing on and then as I went down each step and tread I would remove it. I also used this carpet tool to get the carpet to sit in tight where the tread and riser meet and smooth out the rug on the tape. As I was doing each tread I added staples every 2 inches under the bullnose, where the tread meets the riser and I added 1 on each side just above the bullnose on the tread. Now I will say working with a 12′ rug was a slight challenge but I just went slowly and made sure to stay along my tape line. When I was close to the end of the first rug I cut it so it would staple under the bullnose of one of the treads. This hides the seam and you can start your next runner right under it. Note- if you have a runner with a border you will need to cut off the border so it doesn’t look like you’re adding in a second rug. You want it to appear as if it is one rug,
Once the stairs were done it felt like such an accomplishment because I had never done something like this before and for around $300 it looks beautiful. I’m not sure how many hours were spent on it but it wasn’t enough to ever justify spending 10k on our stairs and if years down the road I want to replace the rug or change my style it’ll be easy to remove the rug and staple a new one down.
The tools that I used:
