Stairway To (My) Heaven

If you follow me on Pinterest- you will notice that I've been obsessing over stairs lately.  If you aren't following me on Pinterest- you are a piece of shit.  Just kidding.  Not really.

Anyway- I've had on my to-do list for quite some time now to get rid of the carpet on the stairs.  While it is comfortable under the feet, it's not the look that I want.  They are blah and boring and beige.  Something I'm totally trying to get rid of.  The stairs are the first thing you see when you open my front door.  And I'm not trying to make them a grand foyer type of thing, I'd just like them to have a little bit more of a wow factor than they currently do.

I've always imagined nice wood stairs in my house.  And what I imagine I eventually get.  Hear that, bank account?  I imagine you increasing by $20,000.  Stat.

So when I had this conversation a while back with my father, he totally put the whomp whomp in my plans.  He seems to think that the scumbag builders didn't put stair treads underneath the carpet when they finished them.  Well I intend to prove him wrong.  I mean, even if they didn't put the treads, how hard would it be to do myself, right?  (I'll remind myself of that exact sentence when I'm ripping my hair out later over stair treads- bet your ass)  The only thing is- this will cost me more if there aren't treads already.  But it's only 13 stairs.  It can't cost that much, right?  I guess I'll have to go price out some treads now.

Well I've been trying to decide what to do to the stairs IF I do take the carpet off.  First, there is nothing more classic than white stairs with a dark tread.

Side note- does the above picture not remind you of an ice cream sandwich?  Now I totally want one!

While I love the classic look, there's not much "classic" going on in my house.  I don't know how to describe my decor, but to me it doesn't scream classic.  I will say though that I am definitely going to be staining the treads (existent or non-existent) dark walnut to match the railings and spindles.  So the only thing needing a decision is the backer/kick boards.

I could do something creative with colorful wallpaper like these.  Not necessarily in these colors but the idea of it.

 

Or I could do a graphic design on them- like a chevron pattern.  Which I'm totally kind of obsessing over.  Like really obsessing over.  But I don't think I have the patience to try and figure out how to paint that pattern.  At all.

I also like the idea of a painted runner- but not sure how the paint would last on the treads from wear and tear though.

I could go glam too.  Although I picture someone opening my front door in the middle of the afternoon and getting blinded.  Not a good idea.

Then there is also the idea of all wood.

But then I saw this.  And fell in love.

And I'm not talking about the dog.  Could you imagine walking up this?  It would seriously make me smile every time.  I love the color and the gradient affect going up.  I'd have to find a teal that goes more with this color scheme downstairs- but I do have the blue mason jar lights right there and a couple of teal vases on the bombe dresser near the door.  So it could totally work.

I also came across this neat idea.  Would be awesome for my front door wreaths that are piling up in my garage.  Cuz seriously- I've got about 15 now.

Then I also thought about doing something like this.

Just kidding.  But how awesome would that be?  I'd be like the most awesome mom in the world!  And I'm not going to lie but I'd probably slide down it every morning.

So what do you think?  Chevron?  All wood?  Painted?  The slide?  HAH.

Oh and since I wanted to soooooo prove my father wrong.  I totally just copped a feel on my stairs.  They are currently hanging their heads in shame because they totally enjoyed it.  And yeah, I'm pretty sure there are no treads under the carpet.  DAMMIT.  They don't feel like they have the rounded bull-nose of a stair tread.  So maybe they just put really nice wood and it's not crappy plywood.  May the odds be ever in my favor.


All images except for the first were taken from Pinterest.  They are not mine. Although I wish they were!