Everywhere around you can’t help but see fabulous images of newly decorated rooms, restored furniture and freshly painted walls. As beautiful as they are, I can’t help wonder – How do these gorgeous interiors actually hold up over time?
Don’t get me wrong, I love a great before & after or a creative makeover, but some of my favourite posts in Blogland are the ones about how these gorgeous spaces and projects are holding up and what these amazing interiors look like a month/ a year/ an excessive party later.
After all, if you are thinking about painting your floors white, installing expensive book cases or purchasing a budget kitchen, don’t we all really want to know about how things are working out and holding up in everyday life?
A little over a year ago we shared the results of our epic DIY Edwardian staircase restoration with you.
We were really happy with how the stairs turned out, but after having our project featured on Apartment Therapy, we gained quite a bit of criticism, mainly saying that the staircase wouldn’t look good for long, as it would get a lot of scuffing, get very worn and need constant repainting, etc.
So, if all of you sceptics out there are considering stripping, staining and painting your wooden staircase, but are worried about how it will hold up, here’s how we are getting on with ours.
Dust
Yes – of course we have dust on the treads, but it’s really nothing major. Anyone who has hard floors in their home will know that you occasionally end up with dust bunnies in the corners of the rooms, but they really couldn’t be easier to clean away. All we occasionally do is wipe the stairs down with a Swiffer. In less than 2 minutes they’re clean again.
Scuffs, Scratches & Chips
None so far! In general don’t wear shoes in the house, so that the stair treads aren’t exposed to a lot of dirt and rough surfaces. Having said that, when we had the wall between the kitchen and dining room removed we had a lot of builders going up and down the stairs for a few days, with their big and fairly dirty shoes on. They still held up fine. Absolutely no scuffs or chips on the treads and just minimal dirt on the risers which can easily be cleaned away.
Dirty Risers
No problem at all except for when the builders were in and left a few dirty marks with their boots. Luckily it was easy enough to wipe away and for the more stubborn marks we just used a magic eraser.
White Paintwork
Still white, still no chips. All we’ve done so far is give it an occasional wipe with a damp cloth.
All in all we couldn’t be happier with the result and with how the staircase still looks a year later. We definitely have no regrets in choosing the stained and painted finish. If you followed our staircase restoration process, you’ll know that we were planning on installing a runner up the stairs. Our plans haven’t changed, it’s just taking a bit longer than expected, as we can’t have one installed until we’ve had the staircase to the loft installed.
Do you have varnished and painted stairs? If so, are you happy with them? Do you also wonder what projects look like after some real life use?
I’m in the process of refinishing my staircase. I’ve got the undercoat on risers and first bit of varnish on steps. Our stairs are shorter than yours look and I’m getting wear/scuffs on the risers. I’m hoping once the final gloss is on it won’t happen as much. May start a “no shoes up stairs” rule or may have to get a runner.
Our treads have 4 coats of varnish on them, but I think the no shoes policy is probably what keeps them looking good.
Cx
you have a beautiful home, well done to you both xx
Thank you so much Julia! Glad you like it.
J
It is wonderful that you are still happy with how your staircase turned out. People on Apartment Therapy can be extremely critical. That is one reason that I hesitate to submit anything. You have great style.
They still look amazing! I remember it was such a work of devotion! I bet it makes you smile every time you come into the house.
Aww, thanks Magali! Yep, it was definitely one of the most time-consuming projects we’ve tackled so far, but still so worth it!
I’m a little worried that you haven’t been posting as usual. I hope everything is alright at the little house on the corner.
All is good, it’s just been a bit manic around here lately! Thanks so much for your concern!
Cx
We have painted stairs too – took a bit of a shortcut in that we didn’t sand and stain the treads, but painted them dark brown. We think it’s great, I love it when I open the front door from outside, they just look smart and clean. They get dusty but so would a carpet, they get a microfibre cloth over them or even a baby wipe and they’re clean – beats lugging the Hoover up them! I was more worried about slipping on the treads – we are a no-shoes house too – but we added some anti-slip granules (bought from a yachting website of all places) to the brown paint and no accidents yet.
Great to see a post like this, love your blog for inspiration for my near identical house!
Gosh is it a year?!?
Your stairs look amazing!! Well done!
We never did get ours finished as I discovered I was pregnant then one thing led to another (as it does) and now I have a baby and a to-do list as long as a very long thing… ;-)
I think they look beautiful.
Ann
@ Our Handmade Homr
Hi Christine,
I am a super fan of everything that you are doing. My husband and I bought an edwardian house and we love spending our time doing things in our house. Our next project are the stairs. I love the brown colour you used. I read in the comments above you used Rich Mahogany. I have been B&Q and Homebase and I can not find stain in Rich Mahogany for interior. I have just found vanish in Rich Mahogany. Can you recommend me where you bought the stain that you used? thank you :-). Eli
Thank you for the compliment, Eli!
The stain we used is non-grain raising stain/dye by Fiddes. It’s really high quality (which is probably why it’s not available at DIY stores) and was really easy to apply. We ordered it online. I can’t remember where we bought it, but I had a quick google and it doesn’t seem difficult to get hold of.
Hope that helps!
Cx
Hi! Thanks for being so honest about your experience with your stairs! I searched countless blogs before refinishing our stairs and they all made it seem like no big deal! It was a huge deal! I ended up using the wrong varnish and our dog’s paws have scratched it up quite a bit. I will have to sand the varnish and re-apply. Can you recommend the varnish you used? Thanks!
Thank you, Karen! It’s amazing how easy things sometimes appear in Blogworld, reality is too often very different. We loved our staircase and it held up really well. We eventually did add a runner up the stairs (you can see it here). We think it really finishes the stairs off but I’m sure that it helped keep them looking good, too.
The varnished we used for the stairs is the same we used for all of our floors, too. It’s called Granwax Aquathane in satin (the product names seem to have changed and as far as I can tell it’s now called Granfinish). We applied four coats to make sure that the stairs were really protected.
Hope that helps!
Cx
Speaking of Apartment Therapy, yes, it can be unnecessarily critical although I notice that we are a little more polite if we think the submitter is from another country! Sometimes, I comment just to see if I can turn the conversation back toward kindness but that only works on occasion. I do often benefit from the remarks because I just don’t notice the same things other people seem to see right off, and then I can go back and study the pics again but I would hate to be a young person and submit a project that got ripped. Ouch.
Isn’t it weird how people think it’s okay to say what they want on the internet without any regard for peoples feelings? Having said that, it wasn’t too bad and we have been featured on Apartment Therapy again and everyone was absolutely lovely! (You can see the post here: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/before-and-after-renovating-a-guest-room-in-a-historic-home-248004
To be fair, the project wasn’t 100% finished (the rest of the hallway was still a mess) and I can totally understand that a lot of people would prefer a carpet on the stairs.
Cx
I love your floors. Can you tell me what kind of wood they are?
Thank you, Angie! They’re just the sanded pine floorboards that were in the house. The staircase treads are also pine that we stained with a Rich Mahogany stain.
Hope that helps but do let me know if you have any other questions!
Cx
We painted floors and stairs white using a Ronseal diamond hard floor paint in our last house. It needed a lot of maintenance for chips and scratches and dirt. Yours looks great though. I am hoping in this new house to do something like this.
Good to know how things hold up over time, especially if you have kids and pets as we do.
Thanks, Mark! It’s always annoying when projects don’t turn out like you’d expect. We absolutely loved our staircase and it held up really well. I would definitely recommend using a stain and clear varnish in high traffic areas! If the varnish chips or scratches any imperfections won’t be visible as stain below will still be there!
Cx
I just bought a house a month ago that has dark blue painted steps and while vacuuming today I noticed a bunch of scratches in the paint. Thankfully the seller left paint so I’ll have to touch up and we will need to adopt a no shoe policy.
Our steps were stained and then varnished which is always what I would recommend, Jenna. If the clear varnish chips the coloured stain underneath won’t get damaged. Obviously, your stairs are already painted so a no shoe policy will definitely help!
Cx
Ok I’ll have to get some varnish after I touch it up. Thanks for the tip!
You’re welcome!
Cx