I can be the world’s worst procrastinator sometimes. After spending 6 months on the renovations of my house (can you believe we were hard at it 2 years ago!!), I was seriously tired when I moved in here in October 2012 and really didn’t want to pick up a paint brush again for a long time. One of the projects that I finished in January of 2013 was installing the runners on my stairs and before I put those in, the stairs totally needed touching up with paint. They had been painted originally before we installed them, but after nailing them in place and after the move, they had to be touched up and caulked. When you install treads like this in an old house, they are never perfect. In fact, there were gaps on either side of the stairs that I had to fill with caulk and wood putty. That’s one of the big reasons I didn’t try to stain my stair treads. It would have stuck out so bad if I had caulked and then tried to stain over it. I just couldn’t see that working out, so I opted from the start to paint my stairs a dark brown with porch and floor paint and I still think I made the right decision.
But, getting the edges straight on those painted stairs was not easy, because of the caulk added, it makes for sort of an uneven surface to begin with. They will never be perfect. When I hurried in touching them up before I installed the runners, I just did a haphazard job of cutting in the edges (with a small paintbrush) with the white and dark brown paint and it was OK, but I always meant to go back and tape them off and paint them the right way. So, it only took me over a year to get back to this job.
Can you relate? I can’t be the only procastinator around here, can I? Sometimes it’s those small jobs that I just don’t want to tackle again, but this time I got out the FrogTape and it was a pretty fast job to get them touched up for a final time.
And in case you are wondering, my runners are still beautiful over a year later. They look just as good as when I put them in. I still love my stairs and how they turned out.
Of course, FrogTape® came in handy for this project.
Here’s a closer look at the edges of the stairs. They look great from a distance, but when I zoom in, you can see the waviness of the lines I painted by hand.
More wavy lines.
Even the back of the stairs against the risers were hard to get straight since that was filled with caulk too.
I used 2 small art brushes and got out my semi-gloss white (Pure White by Sherwin Williams) and the dark brown porch and floor paint (Valspar Fired Earth).
I began taping off the areas I wanted to touch up with Frogtape®. Some of them I touched up with white paint and others with the dark brown.
The tape will help my wavy lines and get them much straighter and cleaner.
Waiting for white paint.
Once I taped all the crucial areas that needed touching up, I got out each paint and went from stairs to stairs touching up all those areas. It didn’t take long and as soon as I was finished painting, I ripped off the Frogtape® which makes for a clean crisp line. I always pull off the tape before it dries to be sure it doesn’t stick and pull areas that I don’t want to come off.
Ready for white paint as well.
Here’s a good example of a wavy painted by hand line. Not great! Again, with caulk added in as a filler, it makes it doubly hard to get a nice straight line.
But the AFTER is much better! Much more crisp and clean.
More AFTER lines, looking much better.
And one more AFTER painted line with FrogTape®. Not absolutely perfect, but I can definitely live with these stairs.
Even though my pics before didn’t show up the wavy lines that much, I knew they were there and now they look SO much better.
One and 1/2 years after installing the runners, the stairs all still look fantastic. I think painted stairs and runners are a great solution to updating a staircase if you don’t want to spend a fortune on it. You can see the process of how we added these pine stair treads that were painted first and then adding runners. I blogged all of this as it happened during the renovation.
With FrogTape®, I was able to get a nice crisp line on these stairs and make them even better. From a distance they look perfect, but they will never be completely perfect. Better….I’ll take better any day!
That’s my Frogtape project this month, hope this got you inspired once again with the POWER of paint and how you can virtually change anything with paint. My fave home improvement weapon, paint does wonders for everything.
Disclosure: I am a Brand Ambassador for FrogTape® and receive compensation for completing projects for FrogTape®. All opinions, projects, and ideas are based on my own experience.
I don’ t mind doing something once; it’s coming back to re-do or fix something that I dread. It really does look better now (NOT that I noticed it before), and it’s these little details that make it look professional. Very nice.
Looks great, Rhoda. My husband & I are in the process now of pulling off old carpet & re-doing the stairs to the basement. We finished painting the twenty foot ceiling & walls & installed a hanging light. It looks good but I can’t wait until we finish the stairs. Your tutorial is what we will use. We like your ideas on how to finish stairs. We’ll be using pliantly of Frogtape.
Still lovin’ that stairway Rohda, wavys and all! I think the Frog Tape worked fabulously! I wish I could invent a guaranteed straight paint line maker – I would be a millionaire many times over, lol! One trick I have learned in to paint the light color paint over where you want it to go, let it dry, and then apply Frog Tape and then paint with the dark color. I have had pretty good results with that – although a bit tedious, lol. Jane
Your stairs a gorgeous! Even the “before” looks wonderful! But, I know how you feel – sometimes the little things that no one else may notice can really stand out to us. Will try the Frog Tape the next time I need to paint a straight line. Thanks!
Looks good. Those little details drive me nuts. Just wondering how your front yard is looking by now. Lots of rain here. If you’ve had rain, I’ll bet the new plants are growing by leaps and bounds.
Carolyn, we have had lots of rain and it’s looking super! I’ll do an update next week.
You made great choices on your paint colors and runner. It would fit in nearly any style home, classic to cottage. My home was built in the 1870’s. When restoring we kept all of the trim in the existing white, but had to caulk and paint. Between the caulk and imperfections of plaster, laying a tape line and painting “visual” straight lines and edges was the only possibility when butting-up to a color. Frog tape wasn’t on the market back then, but we learned not to let paint dry before removing the tape. We started 18 years ago and still have small things on the list. We must have advanced to PROcrastinators ; )
Which blogger friend reminds us that “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful”? I love that statement and it has been such an encouragement to me to try things I’m lacking confidence in. Your stairs are beautiful (even with the barely noticeable imperfections).
Hi, Norma Jean, that is The Nester, of of my blog friends from Nesting Place.
Looks great Rhoda. I hope one day to visit to see it all myself 🙂
Hugs sweet friend,
Kat
Thanks for the auspicious writeup. It if truth
be told used to be a entertainment account it.
Glance complex to more brought agreeable from you!
However, how can we communicate?
Hi Rhoda:
I’m wanting to put runner on stairs, but I have curved stairs and therefore 2 stairs that look like large pie pieces. Ideas? Thank you,
HI, Christine, that’s a tough one. I didn’t have that to deal with so I’m not sure how you can get a professional look with curves like that. I’d definitely look online for any pictures and ideas for that.