From Oak to Two-Tone, Stairwell Reveal Part 1

Materials Required:
1 Medium width, high quality paint brush
1 staining brush
1 rag
Stain+Polyurethane
Deglosser
Heavy Duty Cleaner
White, semigloss paint
Painter’s tape

This post will be split into three parts because I have three major projects going to change the stairs into my “dream staircase” and the staircase is HUGE so each part takes a LOT of time.

The first part took us a month to do, but in reality, hours spent was more like 15ish hours with several days off in between…. and it only cost us about $60!

Step 1: We (Brandon because of the fumes) used a deglosser from Lowes to take off the polyurethane from the banister, in retrospect I wonder if it would have been smart to take it off of the spindles as well because it took three coats of paint to cover the hideous wood color that was on there- but maybe that was mostly because we were painting them white and white generally takes a lot of coats. Regardless, we only deglossed the banister. IMPORTANT: Make sure you wear protective gloves as this acts much the same as paint thinner and can literally take the skin right off your hands if you’re not careful. If properly prepped this saves you tons of time as it replaces the need to sand.

Step 2: Brandon then used a heavy duty cleaner to remove the deglosser. The cleaner gets diluted with water so it goes pretty far. We just used a rag and wiped down all the areas we had applied the deglosser.

Step 3: We stained next. We used two coats of a stain/poly mix in Deep Walnut that turned out GORGEOUS. I, however, if I did it again would paint first, tape the top of the spindles, then carefully stain. We stained first and, because of the angles, we couldn’t tape to protect under the banister from the paint so we had to/need to go back and do a decent amount of touch up with the stain after we finished painting. Its up to you which order you do it but keep that in mind.

The paint we used was an eggshell and I would do a semigloss white next time because I think it would better hide any imperfections and cover the poly on the spindles. Live and learn people.

The end product is beyond amazing and beyond worth all the time and effort. My stairs are now the focal point I was hoping for because they are so obvious and visible throughout my entire main floor, as well as second floor, and now they look SO much more updated.

What do you think of my space??
xoxo