Basement Stairs

When in doubt, paint. 

 

It has been proven on numerous occasions (here and here) that paint can completely transform a room, hallway or staircase in this case for barely any cost, but just a lot of patience.

For instance with our basement, we started out with this:

It looks like someone got a little angry at the risers... 

 

Regardless I got out my brush and went to town.

And after about five seven coats of paint and a TON of patience this is where we are at:

 

 

I mixed up my paints and started painting the opposite treads with it.  Naturally it ended up being the wrong color, my luck, but I'm kind of digging it.

 

 

Then after himming and hawing over this light for a few months we took all of our rebates and gift cards and brought it home and got it installed asap!

 

 

We love how much it brightens things up... 

So while our progress is slow....at least we are making some. 

 

I think we have Mae's approval.

 

Right now we are on the hunt for a runner to install.
We have a few that we are looking at but are indecisive...help!

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We also have plans to add a French door at the top of the stairs to open things up between that room and our kitchen.  We loved how it looked at our old house and how much larger it made the room look, so we figured we would do the same thing.

To finish things up the hubs' DIY'd something similar to this: (blog post and pictures to follow)

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For the dramatic change, here is what we started with:

 

And here is after a few coats of paint:

 

Next step: Buy a runner and install it.  Wish us luck!