Beautiful Painted Stair Runner

Beautiful Painted Stair Runner by Anna

I am so excited to be on Remodelaholic today, for my (drumroll
please) very first guest posting stint evaaah.
 I was honored when Cassity asked me to share, because
Remodelaholic is one of my favorite places to look for great
inspiration.

Since I'm here, I might as well stay a while -- let's get to know each
other, k? I'm Anna, from Take the Side Street.

 I started my blog last fall for a couple of reasons: First, I
like to talk a lot and writing is pretty much like talking. I'm a
fan of words, just ask my poor family. And second, we recently moved
into a home that was built in 1960 and I wanted to document all the
fun things I did (like ripping out wood paneling and carpet to the
chagrin surprise of my good natured husband).

I like to think that my blog covers some of the most important, hard
hitting topics out there: decor, design, DIY, doughnuts, and dumb
stuff. That pretty much sums it up.

Today I wanted to share my recent stairwell makeover -- I live in the
land of finished basements, so I have no grand foyer, just a wonky
little basement stairwell. I wanted to have a little fun with this
space since the only people who really ever see it are family members
(that is until we gut the basement, make it fabulous and charge
admission for tours).

Earlier this year I decided to peel away at the layers of evil, funk,
intrigue, and wallpaper that were ruining my stairwell's
potential.

I braved my fear
of heights and bad patterns. I spent many a night watching
streaming episodes of old sitcoms on my laptop while peeling and
sanding and weeping.

Here's a photo of the stairwell after I started ripping the layers of
wallpaper off...

I removed carpet and the glittery faux-tile vinyl that was hidden
below the carpet (okay, I had help with that part... scraping mastic
is hard, y'all).

I sanded 'til I wanted to install an elevator rather than finish this
silly project.

I added faux
stair skirt...

.. plus new paint and a made
over $10 lantern from my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

The last step was painting my actual stairs. I painted them white with
a yellow runner,

...then I added a dark grey pinstripe, sealed it, and threw
a party.

For reals. This girl was happy to be done.

It was so, so worth it though! I love my new yellow stairs, and when I
have to walk downstairs to get to my dungeon of a laundry room (which
is very much in progress right now) I can't help but smile.

Thanks for much to Cassity for having me on her blog today,
and also thanks to you fabulous readers for hanging in
there and learning about my project. If you'd like to read more about
my stairs, or if you want to see some other projects, hop over to Take the Side Street and
take a look around -- and if you like what you see, or if you like
decor, design, DIY, doughnuts and dumb stuff as much as I do, I'd
love to have you follow along!