Make your stairs a standout
Published 10:57 pm Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Your home should rise up to greet you, lifestyle experts are forever preaching. Sprucing up the stairway is a simple start.
“Stairs are architectural details that should be played up,” said Karol Nickell, editor in chief of Fresh Home magazine. “But they often get ignored because they’re passageways. People forget that they’re the transition between the public and private places in the home, which makes them important.”
Runners are one way to spruce up the stairs and to make them safer for children and dogs and other living things who run up and done the stairway all day long. Carpet companies can install stair runners of many styles and designs.
Nickell says that there are other ways to add a little springtime to our steps. Painting the risers — not the treads — a contrasting color is a smart choice.
“It would also improve safety because it’s easier to see each step as you go up,” Nickell said.
The skirting of the staircase in front entrances, often painted the same color as the molding, also could be painted a new color.
Another idea Nickell likes is using carpet tiles, which are easy for do-it-yourselfers to install.
“There are so many colors and textures, and they’re very low profile and flexible to work with,” she said. “You could almost make a colorful, modern patchwork quilt with your stairs.”
Aubrey McClintock of Old Forge, Pa., and her husband, Lee, swapped out their scuffed rubbery stair treads for zebra print Flor carpet tiles.
Even though the carpet tiles include adhesive on the backing, she and Lee opted to staple them in place since they’re also on the treads. One square can be cut to cover two stair treads. “I like that if they get really gross, it’s easy to pull them and change them out,” McClintock said. It was a fairly inexpensive change, too, about $100.
Nickell also suggests using thin, lightweight ceramic tiles on risers.
“You could go to home-improvement stores or online for vintage decorative tiles and it wouldn’t cost a lot,” she said. “You could do one or two lines per riser in a beautiful color.”
Other ways to spiff up your stairwell:
Change out art. Family photos in inexpensive matching frames can grow with the family.
Improve the lighting. Use a wall sconce or lights that mount into the risers.
Paint the walls. Fresh paint and sunny colors will warm up a dark, uninviting stairwell.
Add wainscoting. Bright white bead board or paneled wainscoting lends a classic air and keeps fingerprints and nicks at bay.
