Our staircase has finally been stripped. After pulling up the carpet, it looked like this:
I love a worn and weathered look, but this is a bit too much, no? So my plan was to sand down the treads a little bit (just enough to get the paint splatters and who-knows-what off), and just strip and paint the risers. That way the worn and weathered look would be toned down and look intentional, instead looking like they should be condemned.
So, I applied the stripper. (Hate these chemicals, but I had no choice here…Citristrip is the lease offensive I’ve found if you must use one.)
As I waited for the stripper to work it’s magic, I caught up on a few blogs. And Santa at Homestilo had just posted about raw wood, with a gorgeous picture of raw wood stairs.
Of course, mine don’t look anything like this. But now I’m wondering if I want to leave the treads worn and paint the risers or if I want to just strip the whole staircase and leave it at that.
I thought a lot about it as I finished scraping the risers. So. Much. Goop. (The wood is showing much more orange in the photo than it actually is.)
I’ve already purchased the paint for the risers (of course), it’s Martha Stewart’s Cavern in semi-gloss:
I have to clean up the excess stripper and then go back to a few stubborn spots. But what do you think? Strip the whole staircase? Or stick to my original plan and just strip and paint the risers?
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